My product is Back Up!, a humorous card game where the object is to heal your back pain. During the campaign, I had a prototype that I could show people. (For more detail, visit www.getwellgames.biz)
Based on reactions I had received, I set my goal at $5,000 in 30 days. I set a $20 goal to get the game, thinking I could get 250 people to join up. While I did hit my goal, it was only with 50 people thanks to some generous donors. Check it out at http://amzn.to/1d2Untb
What worked
1. Facebook friends
- I sent a personal message to each of my FB friends (over 400) asking them to spread the word. This lead to the bulk of my contributions. As expected, my closer friends were much more likely to contribute, but there were some great exceptions. A high school friend that I hadn't seen since graduating over 20 years ago was my first contributor!
- Again, this involved sending a personal message to all of my contacts (close to 500). I asked them to contribute on Kickstarter, like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. I got many contributions this way, but the surprising part was how long it took. Some responded right away, but I am still getting responses almost a month later! So my advice is to start Linked In early in the process. I did not send until the second week.
- I had a party to play the game and asked people to contribute to Kickstarter instead of bringing anything. This was successful both in terms of contributions and in building some momentum and showing people what a fun game it is to play. Some of my strongest supporters are from that night. However, I had hoped to get about 50 people to attend, and it was only 20, about half of whom had already contributed. I only gave 10 days notice, so it might be better to plan ahead to do something like this halfway through your project so you can spread the word earlier.
- I initially launched with only the $20 gift, and added a $40 signed copy about halfway through. After I added it, about 50% of the contributions were for the higher amount. I probably should have had lower tiers for the game that would sell out also.
Limited effectiveness
1. Friends of friends
- I had hoped that word of the Kickstarter campaign would spread through Facebook. I did have friends re-post and about 60% of donors posted after they contributed. However, I only got one contributor from all of the activity.
- I had also hoped that there would be some positive press or recognition from being on Kickstarter, but that did not occur until the final day. I received 2 contributions from people who found me from searches on projects about to expire.
- I posted about one video per week, while these got some hits, I don't think they lead to any contributions
- Videos were initially straightforward, receiving less than 20 views
- I did a more fun one: http://bit.ly/17Q7r1a that got around 50 views and picked up by a blog
What didn't work
1. Press release
- I used PRWeb to do a press release with 4 days left in the project (http://bit.ly/GGSWTj). While I did not get a single contribution from the release, it did get picked up by another new source who did an interview and article (http://bit.ly/19Wzcb2). This was expensive, about $300.
- I ran a Twitter campaign, which yielded 50 clicks, but no actual contributions. Also no contributions from my own tweets, primarily around back pain. At least it was inexpensive, around $10. And I did get a lot of impressions, which could help in the future.
- I created an infographic that I thought would appeal to my target audience (http://bit.ly/1f6EjY3) Only 21 clicks on bit.ly, and no contributions resulted.
- I posted flyers in local area thinking that people might want to help a local business. However, no contributions resulted. I deliberately did not post them in my key demographic as I wanted to save it for the live product.
- No contributions from posting on Linked In groups from special interests I belong to. I'm not even sure who reads these posts, I don't see any of them myself.
- These groups are akin to a bunch of salespeople all trying to sell each other their products. A bunch of salespeople with limited funds! The idea behind the groups is to support each other, but most of the posts are just campaign pitches.
- I also tried in some groups around back pain, but also not successful. The groups were fairly small, so that could have played a part.
What I failed to consider was my target audience's comfort level with Kickstarter. The process was a barrier for friends and family as well as people coming to Kickstarter from other sources. I had several people that I had to walk through the process, and a few others that tried, but didn't complete it before the funding period ended. I have no way to measure how many people visited the site and didn't join, but I did get 177 clicks on the Bitly link I created, so there were many in that category.
If I were to do it over again, I would get friends and family support lined up before I started the project. I would also have video updates already prepared for some aspects of the project. I do think it may be worth spending the money on a professional video. Again, no way to measure, but I feel that the low quality of video may have turned some people off. And I would be sure to plan an event at the midway point to rally support.
Still, I did achieve my goal, and the product is now live on Amazon! Check it out at http://amzn.to/1d2Untb
For future projects, I am on the fence about whether the effort was worth the outcome. I did come out ahead, but not by a whole lot.
