pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about
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    MartinT
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    pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about

    by MartinT » Thu Aug 28, 2014 12:21 pm

    Hi,

    I'm planing a kickstarter campaign. It's about a social media platform based around an Augmented Reality App (for the moment for smartphones, but in the future for smartglasses too) that enables users to place Augmented Reality digital pinboards almost anywhere, walls, floor, floating in mid-air, etc and share them with their connections. I've been working in this project for a couple of years now (one man band). I have a prototype for the AR part, no website yet.

    I'm reading articles about how to do a kickstarter and I have a question about pre-launch promotion. Somewhere I read something along these lines: to launch the campaign with already 10% pledged from friends and family, and then make the campaign more public. I imagine this refers to have them agreed to pledge, I think there is no way to pledge before launch? On other places, I've read about collecting fans for months before the launch.

    Which one would you recommend for my project?

    I think I'll have to do the first, just because I haven't collected any fans for this project, and I want to launch it in mid-end September. I do have, though, a youtube channel with 413 subscribers, it's about an AR project I did 7 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/user/VTSProject so it's kind of the right audience. I was thinking to post my kickstater videos in this youtube channel and refer back to the kickstarter project after I have had some pledges from family and friends. Do you think this is a wise move?

    Martin


    Augmented Reality (AR) Virtual Pinboard in Kickstarter http://bit.ly/arpinboard
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    sbriggman
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    Re: pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about

    by sbriggman » Thu Aug 28, 2014 5:44 pm

    Well that's super cool.

    Yes, you are correct in needed 10-30% of friends and family pledges lined up to pledge within the first 3 days of your campaign.

    I would also begin getting an email list going of interested people for your campaign. In my experience email converts best (also should have a twitter account, fb page, etc).

    I think that's a good idea regarding youtube. If you can get any tubers to mention you or your project, that would probably also be a good marketing idea.
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    MartinT
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    Re: pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about

    by MartinT » Thu Aug 28, 2014 7:08 pm

    Thanks for the reply sbriggman.

    Nowadays, I mostly use my email for business, most of my personal connections are in fb. I just recently setup a twitter account, not many followers yet.

    Contacting my youtube subscribers seems trickier than it should. I can only see a list of subscribers who share their subscriptions publicly. I haven't count them but it doesn't look like it's all 413 subscribers. I can only message them individually. In principle when I post a new video they should be notified, I hope that works!

    So, do you think that friends and family pledges during the first 3 days should be in exclusion of a wider PR outreach during these first 3 days? Or maybe simultaneously? just make sure that family and friends pledge during the first 3 days.
    Augmented Reality (AR) Virtual Pinboard in Kickstarter http://bit.ly/arpinboard
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    Inventalator
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    Re: pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about

    by Inventalator » Mon Sep 01, 2014 4:16 pm

    I would focus on more than friends and family for the pre-launch too. The bigger base you can grow before you launch the better. If you can get them to agree to pledge before you launch, great, but if not, you'll have their contact info to keep them in the loop when you finally launch.
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    MartinT
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    Re: pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about

    by MartinT » Mon Sep 01, 2014 7:08 pm

    Thanks Inventalator.
    I guess it makes sense to gain as many interested people as possible before kickstarter launch.
    I think the rule of thumb of not making a wider outreach after I have a certain amount of pledges from friends and family had got in the middle of my logic. As the campaign hasn't launched yet, the resistance to pledge if there isn't already quite a few pledges is not relevant, and they may actually become some of the first to pledge.
    Augmented Reality (AR) Virtual Pinboard in Kickstarter http://bit.ly/arpinboard
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    thegadgetflow
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    Re: pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about

    by thegadgetflow » Fri Sep 05, 2014 5:38 am

    1) Tease the Press
    2) Tease your fans
    3) Prep a decent land page (Website) with a contact us and sign up form
    4) Find small blog and "Schedule" your post for the exact date and time your project goes live
    5) Buy Tweets from popular accounts under buysellads
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    Re: pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about

    by Inventalator » Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:00 pm

    thegadgetflow wrote:1) Tease the Press
    2) Tease your fans
    3) Prep a decent land page (Website) with a contact us and sign up form

    4) Find small blog and "Schedule" your post for the exact date and time your project goes live
    5) Buy Tweets from popular accounts under buysellads


    Tease them with mystery and don't give out too much. May them feel exclusive.
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    MartinT
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    Re: pre-launch promotion, two options I've read about

    by MartinT » Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:16 pm

    Thanks.
    I've been teasing this with video: http://youtu.be/M1X0d1XLeMQ
    And really, I found more response if I just give the name of the project and the link, than if I try to explain a bit what it is in the message, they just tell me they don't understand it. The teaser is not meant to explain it, just to tease.
    Augmented Reality (AR) Virtual Pinboard in Kickstarter http://bit.ly/arpinboard

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