If you don't believe it, check out: http://kck.st/2e4tb2zOf course, this is not possible without the help of our return backers, vibrant online communities and the marketing tips and tricks we learnt to appeal to BOTH existing and potential backers. Now that we have successfully reached our funding goal, I would like to help other crowdfunding creators out there because I believe that if you "do good, good will come to you". I promise I will keep it short and sweet
I will divide this into 3 phases i.e. 1 week before, 2 days before till D-day and after the launch of your campaign.
1 week before launch:
Believe it or not, we didn't have concrete plans of launching a 3rd Kickstarter campaign. Our design and prototype of the product itself were not ready at all. Our designers and engineers alike have been working on Remix IO but our co-founders and PR manager are in a dilemma whether to put it up on Kickstarter or pre-sales. There are indeed pro and cons of Kickstarter, and you have to somehow "gamble" whether your launch will be a successful one, especially if you're a first-time KS creator. If it succeeds, you can fulfill your MOQ and continue with production. If it fails, it's a bad PR.
Long story short, we decided to go with Kickstarter one week before launch day because why not. We have had 2 hugely successful Kickstarter campaigns before (see: Jide.com) and so we're confident that we will succeed. It's crazy and might be a rash decision, but we believe that if we can do it, YOU can do it too (especially if you have a few months to prepare for the launch!)
This launch is more than just "gambling" for us. We are confident because of a few reasons. First, we have built and maintained a vibrant online community way before the launch. We have a large following on our Facebook page (see: Facebook.com/RemixGlobal). Facebook page is very useful because Facebook is almost universal and it's a great platform for us to disseminate new information / updates as well as for our followers to discuss, exchange tips, and reach out to us directly, It goes both ways. Most importantly, there's no point of having a Facebook page and posting great content on it if you don't engage your followers. This means that you have to set time to respond to every single comment made and to let them know that you appreciate them, no matter what. Second, we have an amazing PR team who churn out and distribute the press release and press kit to relevant, prominent journalists and bloggers before the campaign. You have to know journalists and bloggers in your niche, and have them listed down together with their contact details on a spreadsheet. Write an interesting press release that's relevant to their audience and prepare good images, videos, GIFs etc for your press kit. Compile all of these into a dropbox and send the link to the journalist and bloggers a week before your launch. Before I forget, don't forget to submit your project to Kickstarter for review and set a humble goal for your Kickstarter campaign is better than overestimating it. The more we reach beyond our goal, the more people think that our project is great and worth-backing.
2 days before till D-day
Teasers. Get people excited about your product launch and get them to share this exciting news, What we did was to drop hints a few days leading to the launch on all of our social channels and newsletter. Don't forget to ask your family and friends to support your campaign by simply sharing this exciting news to their social media's timeline or to their friends or friends. Another great way to incentivize people to share about your teasers / launch is to hold a contest e.g. Facebook contest. This way, people are more compelled to share your content and this results in more people getting to know your launch.
Tips: Open another Facebook group or event especially for this launch so you can do a countdown or flood only those who are truly interested in your campaign with information / updates leading up to the launch.
Launch, whoosh!
If you have compiled your email list before the launch, it will be very helpful to blast this exciting news. Don't put too many details in it, just let people know that you launch a campaign on Kickstarter. Also, great reward systems help a lot e.g. we offer special perks for previous backers and referral program for new backers. As mentioned earlier, community building is really crucial and it's particularly important during your Kickstarter campaigns. You need to provide consistent and valuable content to our audience, which is genuine and not overly sales-oriented. This can be done through various channels e.g. social media, XDA Developers (where most of our audience hang out at), Reddit, Quora etc. We also run Facebook Ads, which I think is a great avenue to for targetted advertising as you can test it and also modify your desired audience (based on your niche). The revenue generated from Facebook matches / exceeds the required ROI. Most important of all is to keep pushing for media coverage from top journalists and bloggers in your niche. This is where we get the most traffic from
OK guys, thank you for reading it this far and I hope that was helpful. Let me know if you have questions!
