How to Launch a Successful Kickstarter Marketing Campaign
Ready to launch your brilliant new idea on Kickstarter? If you don't already have a solid marketing strategy and a decent list of leads, then you may not be as ready as you think.
Kickstarter is not a place to market your new product, and it's not a place to introduce your ideas to the world. Kickstarter is a venue for receiving funding from your existing leads and hopefully picking up some additional cash from casual KS browsers.
That means you need to have a marketing plan ready long before you launch your campaign.
You only have 30-60 days to become a Kickstarter legend. Here's how to market your new idea for a successful campaign.
Build a Following Before Launching on Kickstarter
Kickstarter is not a target market. And it's not a place to find your audience. You need to build a following and then herd your loyal fans to Kickstarter when you launch your campaign.
How do you do that?
Here's how to get started:
- Create a brand: Think of a name for your idea and create some images and content to explain how it will benefit people.
- Make a website: Your idea needs a home. Your website will show your potential customers exactly what your product is and how it works.
- Create social media pages: Your brand needs a social media presence to gain followers (aka leads). Stay active on all your channels to keep your followers interested. Always link your social media pages to your website.
- Tell friends and family: These are your first followers. Ask them to share your social media posts to get more leads.
From here, you can grow your following naturally in many ways. If you're making a board game, you might want to attend conventions and local board game bars to hand out cards or stickers. If you're developing sustainable camping gear, you could join outdoors groups on Facebook and become an active contributor.
Wherever your potential customers are, you should be there too.
Promote Your Campaign in Advance
Once you have enough followers, you can use your social channels and email marketing to advertise your campaign. But don't spring it on them all of a sudden. Announce your campaign months in advance and give updates often.
Tease the perks you'll be offering by releasing them one by one and offer special incentives for people who back your product on day 1.
By the time you launch, you don't just want your followers to be aware of it. You want them to be anticipating it.
Incentivize ANY Form of Backing
When your campaign launches, you want to get as many backers as possible early on, no matter which perk they choose or how much they decide to back you for. This includes the "make a pledge without a reward" option.
Kickstarter's ranking algorithm gives more weight to the number of backers you get than to how much each backer spends. So, if you want to get seen on Kickstarter, you need to get as many of your followers to back you as possible.
One way to do this is to incentivize any backing amount. You might offer a free eBook or a coupon to your followers who back the product for $1 or more. Then, even those who are unsure about spending a larger amount can still help you skyrocket in the KS rankings.
Use Bloggers and YouTubers for Reviews
People will be much more likely to back your product if they see some social proof from bloggers and reviewers saying that your product is awesome. Embedding video reviews to your campaign page is the best, but you could also add quotes from bloggers.
Send out multiple copies of your product to a number of influencers before launch. That way, you can choose the best reviews to use on your campaign page.
Build relationships with reviewers, and only send your product to people who will understand your product and care about its utility. If you're launching a board game, you want to get board game reviews from influencers your audience would trust. Just because a YouTuber or blogger has a large following doesn't mean they're the best person to review your product.
If you can't find any influencers, send your product to one of your followers and ask them to make a video reviewing it. Any video showing your product in action with a real person will help.
Launching a Kickstarter marketing campaign takes a lot of time and effort, and most of the work comes well before you launch anything on Kickstarter. To stay on track, remember this: Don't focus on how much funding you might receive. Instead, maximize the value that you offer your loyal followers.
