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I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 8:47 am
by philipks
I am very excited to share this great news. I am a newbie to crowdfunding. I am a toy designer and I just launched my new toy on Kickstarter less than 22 hours ago. I got funded under 5 hours. And I am now 191% funded. Yes the target was set low, but still I am very excited.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cl ... classicbot

I tried to gather lead 2 and a half months ago. Manage to get 300 new ones. Combined with existing customers I got around 2000 leads. Honestly not a lot. I have been trying very hard to approach press. But was not very successful. The press that agreed to write about us is those who already have a relation with us prior. But luckily within those, there are a few very important ones in our niche. And once I get funded, many press start writing about us. I spent a little on Facebook to gather leads which were not successful. But I am glad I changed to a new creative on launch day with a nice video. that seems to bring in some traffic. And I worked very hard on social media and forums.

I think overall it works for me because I have already had some fans and presence. I would suggest people who don't have an existing fanbase to start really early, like at least half a year before the launch. It takes a lot of time to get momentum and traction.

Just want to share.

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 9:17 am
by Sadashiv
Hey, that's amazing. Congratulations on your success. Hope to see a good rise by the end of the term.

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:19 am
by philipks
Sadashiv wrote: Wed Mar 18, 2020 9:17 am Hey, that's amazing. Congratulations on your success. I hope to see a good rise by the end of the term.
Thank you! I certainly hope so. I am also having a stretch goal, hopefully, it can make the mid-campaign slum not too bad.

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:14 am
by Teodora
Hi philipks, congrats on your campaign success! The iBoy looks dope!

You said you were very active on social media and forums. Do you mind sharing more details about how you did that and which SM channels yielded the best results?

Much appreciated!

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 2:35 pm
by philipks
Teodora wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:14 am Hi philipks, congrats on your campaign success! The iBoy looks dope!

You said you were very active on social media and forums. Do you mind sharing more details about how you did that and which SM channels yielded the best results?

Much appreciated!
Sure. But tbh nothing really spectacular. Since I started this toy brand 3 years ago, I have been posting constantly on Facebook and Instagram, and lately, also twitter. On average I posted 2-3 times a week. Always try different ways to portrait my toys. Some times I do video, once in a while I do very simple stop motion. A big part is to answer any questions the fans may have and engage in genuine human interaction. Some fans are also toymakers, I will follow them, comment and encourage them on their creations. Around two and a half months before I launch the Kickstarter, I pumped up the frequency of posts to 5 times a week, and I have done more stories than usual. And it is all about my Kickstarter. Sometime you may think you are spamming them, but you have to remember not all of them will see all of your posts. So they are not as bored by the subject as you may have been. But of course, I try to make every post interesting. A big part during this time is to ask them to sign up for an early bird discount email list. And In the last week before the launch, I try to make everything like a countdown to create a sense of urgency. It seems to pay off, many fans come in day 1.

And about 3 weeks before the launch, I went to all the relevant Reddit and Facebook groups, post about my toy. I did it carefully, make sure it is something allowed in the group. I post once or two in the group. I try to be as friendly and open-minded as I can. And then I also do the same to online forums and discussion groups. ( I did less than I should, but that was the plan). Now that it has launched, I will go back to each group to tell them they can back it. But these 3 days have been exhausting and I will do it tmw.

It is hard to tell whether Facebook and Instagram work better because I also bought some Facebook ads. So I can't tell if the backers from Facebook are fans or people who saw the ads. But I am sure for toys twitter is not the way to go.

I hope this helps. As someone who has a small brand with a small but steady fan base, it is relatively easy to motivate them to check out the new project. So some people suggest creators who build their online presence from scratch need at least half a year to get a decent following.

Cheers

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 7:41 pm
by John Lemay
Great job! It took me all day to get funded, but I had a really low goal. I need to work the list harder before my next launch.

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Fri May 15, 2020 12:41 am
by AltairWatches
Great story, hopefully your business takes off with the world in its current state

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 6:09 am
by Equo
Congrats! We saw a lot of people responding to a video we created too, but we definitely needed to create shorter snippets and versions for social to share. Good luck with everything!

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Thu May 28, 2020 9:36 am
by messyspace
Wow, congratulations!

Re: I got funded under 5 hours

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 4:01 am
by apzc
Great sharing!

I am going to launch my second Fashion Kickstarter campaign soon. From my first project, I believe I spent too much on marketing agencies. Then I found out that most backers are referred from the Kickstarter Recommendation.

So far I think gathering the email leads as many as possible before launching is very important. Would you like to share how to get email leads? By Facebook Ad Lead sign up or by Facebook Ad link to landing page?

Thanks!

Welcome to check out the landing page of my second project:
https://my.appliedzcience.com/k004