Exceptional Kickstarters: The Essential Guide to Making Your Project Stand Out

“Why isn’t my Kickstarter project getting the numbers it deserves?”

It certainly takes more than just faith, trust, and a little pixie dust. There is no denying that everyone is passionate about their own projects, however, the challenge comes in getting it to resonate with your audience. In order to prevent your Kickstarter pledge level from staying stagnant, you’ll have to put in effort in preparation, giving talks, and connecting with industry experts and your audience.

Aside from that, you’ll find that it does take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to grow and manage your Kickstarter campaign. After all, being exceptional is no easy feat. Don’t let this intimidate you though — with help from growth-hacking techniques and some fine-tuning, you’ll start to see the magic happen.

Starting with no resources?

Don’t be haunted by historical campaign results in your niche. It’s been substantiated that there have been campaigns who have algorphically fooled us. Numbers, some projects have over 66% bot-pledges:

Preparation is Key

Have a launch campaign in mind? It’s highly recommended that you give yourself about three to six months notice to prepare content, develop key relationships and finetune your campaign. You could argue that diamonds are borne from high pressure, but it may not always be the case when it comes to launches. In fact, many seasoned entrepreneurs have told us that the one thing they would change is putting in more time and effort into planning and preparation. The last thing you would want is a successful launch with no proper follow-up plans after.

Research would be an integral part at this stage — for example, are there other Kickstarters similar to yours? Take a closer look at successful campaigns, and what marketing activities they have taken. This could reveal huge public relations resources that you can connect with and also help you gauge how a similar audience responds to their campaign.

So, what should you prepare? First up on the list is content. It may seem like a lot of work to churn out, but this is a powerful tool to get traffic flowing.

Content is King

Creating content goes beyond just writing blog articles. You can utilise other social media platforms to redirect traffic to your landing page too. However, this does not mean creating an account on every existing channel. With research, you’ll be able to see what platforms your audience frequents. For example, if you are launching a new tech gadget, visual platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok help with effectively demonstrating your product to viewers. Don’t forget effective call-to-actions (CTAs) in your content to help redirect your viewers to your campaign’s landing page.

Speaking of landing pages, ensure that yours is succinct and straight to the point. In a world where our attention spans are limited to the length of a TikTok video, capturing your audience’s attention quickly has become more paramount. So, communicate your product effectively through a catchy title and description, and use appealing and relevant images. Simplicity is key, the last thing you would want is to overwhelm your audience with flashy graphics and confusing designs.

Other than that, you might be wondering — how do I disseminate all of my content effectively? Spamming is definitely out of the question, even Kickstarter has established that they’re against it in their community guidelines. A content database and an editorial calendar are all you need. Being able to see a visual of all your content, the channels and the dates to post it on helps with organisation especially in the long run: including pre and post-launch. This can include your own content, collaborative content, social media content, and so on. Plus, it doesn’t have to cost a bomb. You can read our article on how to connect with the right platforms without having to spend a cent here.

That being said, you don’t have to worry about creating all the content on your own. Research has shown that consumers tend to trust their peers and opinion leaders more than brands themselves, so if you can get these channels to back your product, you’ll start to see the traffic you deserve. To start, you can craft a media release that details all of your project’s features, you can reach out to existing platforms to help your campaign. Influential platforms such as our own, Gadget User, routinely collaborates with brands through creating product featured reviews. We have a strong reach and relationship with gadget enthusiasts and brands all over the globe. This has helped spotlight many campaigns and establish their brand presence, which we absolutely love. If you’re interested in sharing your amazing tech product with the world, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Walking the Walk by Talking the Talk

Put on your public speaking pants and prepare to partake in giving talks and participating in conferences. It may sound daunting, but this is the best way to make real connections with valuable contacts and forge long-lasting relationships. It’s easy to search up your campaign’s keywords on platforms like Eventbrite to discover relevant events that have a large crowd attending. All you have to do next is to contact the event organisers and ask if you can give a talk at their event. Plus, mentioning that you’re passionate about giving more talks will open up more opportunities to talk at other events they can branch you out too. Once you land yourself a gig, ensure that your presentation slides have your social media handles, or relevant links to your campaign so that attendees can recommend them to others. Not only does this help widen your reach, but it can also help you collect more emails to contact too!

As for your presentation, one Kickstarter owner advised to include personal anecdotes and your own “secret formula” to success so as to contribute meaningful value to the audience. After all, being able to provide help to another person can help you be more memorable too! Even if they don’t remember your product, attendees will more than likely remember you and connect with that on a deeper level. You’re the face of your brand, and that would definitely grow attention to you and your campaign. If you’re worried about the costs, using Kickstarter’s packages alone will cost the same, so you’re making a worthy investment here. So prepare your business cards, because you’re bound to meet a lot of people.

Lastly, attaining feedback from attendees and other speakers at the talks can also be utilised to finetune your product. You’ll be meeting other industry experts, so it’s best to gain as much valuable insight as you can too. At the end of the day, it’s how others perceive your project that affects how you get pledges on Kickstarter.

Connect With Experts

It’s only human nature to learn by watching others, so don’t be afraid to seek out seasoned entrepreneurs for advice. We’ve learned through our own many connections with other experts in different industries that we go through similar struggles when first starting out, so this is where you can learn from others’ mistakes. It’ll definitely be an advantage to connect with someone who is in a relevant industry to yours to gain invaluable insight. Especially in an age where technologies are always advancing, some professional experience can help you gain some footing. For example, we learnt from a connection that Google analytics is more of a useful tool than we expected. Knowing where our traffic came from helped us hone our marketing decisions to better our own traffic flow. Alternatively, you can also discover email tactics and how others grew their pledges and audience through effective communication.

Finding someone who launched a similar campaign to yours can enlighten many things and assist you in maneuver Kickstarter. So don’t worry, you don’t always have to DIY your entire project — even successful entrepreneurs have admitted to seeking advice from others too!

Best practices for your post-kickstarter campaign
Understand that your Kickstarter backers aren’t charged until the campaign is over and successfully funded. Since your campaign can pace over a 60 day period, cards may expire and by the time a backer pledges, his propensity to pay at the end of the campaign may be dire. There are many factors which can cause this, like financial status and sentiment of your campaign days after buying-in to your overhyped product promotional video. To overcome this heartache, you need to consider:

• Don’t let your campaign end at the end of the month before your buyers payday comes in (people have bills to pay!).
• Post-campaign, review your backer report to analyse which pledges were dropped. Ensure you heavily message and rebump reminders to all backers with outstanding payments. Constant reminders is the most recommended approach.
• Continue to educate your buyers, and don’t rely on the Kickstarter campaign itself to provide you your golden nuggets. Use updates and emails to educate them on how the system works and alert them 1 day before campaign close to update their payment details. Get in touch with our team in building a suitable framework for your kickstarter campaign.

Conclusion

Remember, there are tons of other Kickstarters out there too! With these tips, you won’t have to wonder about how to get pledges on Kickstarter anymore. Trust that it will start picking up and your exceptional campaign will start getting attention from your audience. And who knows, your Kickstarter might even earn a “Projects We Love” badge when the Kickstarter team sees it. If there’s any last advice we have for you, it’s to take the first leap of faith and put yourself out there. We’ve all been there before, and we’ve come back with so much valuable insight that it’s helped to create our brand today. This could be yours too! We wish your venture the best, and that one day you’ll be sharing business tips with us too.