https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cl ... classicbot
I hope it would be a fun and relatable read. There will be self-promotion, I hope you don't mind. ( We are all entrepreneur here, right, so you would understand)
So I am a toy designer from Hong Kong. My retro-themed toy line Classicbot (https://classicbot.com)has a small but loyal following. I mainly sell my toys thru my own online shops, plus some niche online retailers around the world. After 3 products and 3 years since the beginning, I wanted to take the 4th toy to a bigger arena. I thought Kickstarter was the way to go. I hope it will get my toys more exposure. But there was hesitation, I worried about what the existing fans with think. I already talked about making the toy. Will they want to support me if I suddenly shifted the project to Kickstarter? Anyway, I am glad I went ahead. I tend to overthink, not sure if any of you do. But I am glad I convinced myself to go ahead.
So I tried to search for every available info on the nets, all the tips, and guidelines of how to do a Kickstarter. I also took a course Hacking Kickstarter, by the founder of Throwboy Pillow. Classicbot and Throwboy Pillow have a very similar audience, namely fans of Apple. And the course outline seems comprehensive so I took it. It was great for me. Even though I searched and learn a lot, I am someone who is never that great at digesting all the info into an actionable plan. So this course helped me. It was a great course that started from macro theory to something very actionable, down to the detail of what apps to help you will doing the backer survey, etc. So I would recommend it to newbies or people who just need a bit hand-on guidance. It also struck the balance of informative but not overwhelming. Roberto the founder is also a great motivator, I feel pretty empowered after the course Link herehttps://shotgunceo.com/hacking-kickstarter You can use discount code "CLASSIC" to get $100 off.
Originally I planned to start the campaign in Feb. But I moved it to March because I think people may have spent their money on valentine's gift in Feb. So I set the date on March 17. It is a Tuesday which is great for online purchases and 2 days after the common payday. So I think it is a very nice day to start. Little did I know the Coronavirus started to affect the whole world in March. I had fans too me they would back one more toy if not for the virus. But in the end, it wasn't too bad fo me. The cancellation rates were around 5 %, so normal.
So I started to work on my campaign 3 months ahead. It was a lot of work. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE IT,
is my main outtake. Especially if you are a one-man company like me. Just preparing all the material that goes on the Kickstarter page was a lot of work. I had to learn to edit video because I knew that I need a lot of videos and I could not rely on my friends like I used to. And obviously I could not afford to outsource it. It is also great to have the ability to do so, I could get things done by myself fairly quickly in the end. And you need to prepare a set of PR material and most importantly a list of journalists bloggers on my niche. And I started to contact them. And of course, you need to continue to tease and promo the Kickstarter on your own social media. The first phase of the campaign was to gather emails of potential clients. So I did it with my social media, a small facebook ad campaign, a giveaway campaign with Kingsumo, with only modest success. Just a few hundreds email. But since I have existing fans, So I still manage to send out 2 thousand emails to create the initial traffic on the first day which is absolutely crucial for the successful.
Another important outtake is you need a lot of time building a relationship with the press and bloggers. Even I tried to approach many journalists and bloggers for this Kickstarter. Most of the ones that covered my Kickstarter, in the beginning, were the ones who already knew me through my old toys before. That means even I tried very hard the journalist that did not know me pretty much ignore me. ( could be a bad write up on my part, but I doubt it was the main reason) But luckily after the campaign was a success, and the initial rounds of the press coverage appeared, many new press and bloggers joining in and cover my story. And I kept sending emails to different press thru out the campaign. It paid off to be persistent.
And this also led to another observation. Kickstarter is a great way to understand my product. It is a great way to tell which press is most relevant and led to most backers. It also made me realize the limitations of my product. It was probably more niche than I believed. I end up with great press coverage. But from my non-scientific observation, many products with similar press coverage tend to do better in terms of funding. It is good to know the truth. I may develop something will more mass appeal.
So above is just a very initial thought after the campaign ended. Not sure if it is of any value to you guys. But I just feel like sharing it.
P.S. if you can start a new email address just for the campaign. You cannot imagine how many emails you get when running the campaign, from backers messages, notifications, to PR agencies that approach you. You would not want your regular email mixed with all that.
Have a great day. Stay safe and wish your campaign a great success
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