KickstarterForum.org

"We had a failed Kickstarter campaign where we received pledges of about $13K on a $25K goal.

In retrospect there are many things we could have done better, but regarding emails.

1. Personalized emails had a return of between 5:1 or 10:1. I sent hundreds of personalized emails to those LinkedIn connections I had some personal connection with. I always included one to three sentences that show them I had sent that specific email just to them, even though I'm sure they could tell the bulk of the email was copy/paste.

2. Blast emails to my partners' LinkedIn connections (not personalized) resulted in a much lower return of 30:1 or even 50:1 depending on the size of their network. They did not have time to send personalized emails.

If you have a connection with the person no mater how remote, the body of the email is probably more important than the audience. Asking people to help you reach your dream, achieve your success, or pay it forward is much more effective than asking them to pre-order a product that doesn't exist yet and they may not need. Put heavy emphasis on letting them be part of a start up success, not getting a product to market. Most people resonate more with helping someone succeed (especially if they know them). How the email is worded likely has way more impact than the volume of emails sent.

Save the product focused messages for people you don't have a connection with (Facebook ads, forums, bloggers).

Finally, write all your personalized emails in the month prior to launch, put them in your drafts folder and send them all on day 1. Don't start writing them on Day 1 of the campaign. You need traction in the first week, and it will take you weeks to write hundreds of personalized emails.

I blogged our Kickstarter experience here.
The Success of a Failed Kickstarter.
Scott K Davis, CEO QONQR
http://blog.qonqr.com/post/31924886940/ ... ickstarter
"

sbriggman wrote:I blogged our Kickstarter experience here.
The Success of a Failed Kickstarter.
Scott K Davis, CEO QONQR
http://blog.qonqr.com/post/31924886940/ ... ickstarter
"

Great post Sal,

@woodenwriter - Forgot to add: Is there a reason you would want non-successful projects to have their own section?

I think you answered your question to Paul (Woodenwriter) quite well with this post.

Everyone should be sure to continue by Clicking Scott's Link as well.

http://blog.qonqr.com/post/31924886940/ ... ickstarter