The 5 Kickstarter Lessons I Learned from a Crowdfunding Guru

I recently attended an online marketing meetup where we had the opportunity to hear the CEO of Velocity Growth speak. This is a company that helps to take on companies through Kickstarter campaigns and make them successful. Josh Baylin, the CEO broke down the benefits of launching a crowdfunding campaign and I summarized it here.

 1. Crowdfunding Helps Prioritize Your Most Effective Revenue Generating Activities

The first lesson I learned about crowdfunding was actually not about the process of how to put on a successful campaign. It was how important going through the process of crowdfunding really is. Putting together a campaign will force your business to take the most effective steps possible on a daily basis. This includes talking to the manufacturer, developer, suppliers, and customers. This skill set allows you to go through your entire product lifecycle and not make estimations of how things will work out. As you can see, this list does not include futzing around with social media in a coffee shop, so stop doing it!

2. The most valuable part of a crowdfunding campaign is the engagement with your customers

These are unique customers because they are not just buying your product; they are INVESTING in your product. They are invested in YOU, as an owner. These customers want to see you succeed. They WANT the email updates. They believe in your vision. Since they are your first customers they will be telling you what is great/not so great about your product. They will be the faithful customers that tell you about the added features they want in the product. This information is critical to your business because of the raw feedback that you will get from your honest customers.

3. It forces your team to decide on roles to take on in the business

This will allow everyone to focus on something specific to get things done. This will create specialization among the team, which will increase productivity, and success among the team. This separation of responsibility will allow decisions to be made faster, customer service to be faster (very crucial time for this), and the business to move forward more efficiently.

4. The highest converting tool is email. Hands down.

So get your email list ready. Don’t wait to start building out your audience on social media when the campaign starts. You need to have a solid foundation and interaction with customers before you launch your kickstarter. You can’t start a crowdfunding campaign with 25 likes on fb. Get strategic with your team. Who do you have in your network that can make an impact on your campaign? Who do you NEED in your network that can jumpstart your campaign?

5. Focus on the 30%.

Your campaign is statistically more likely to be funded if you hit this number. Try to hit in the first hour, day, and week. This is when you start calling in all favors. Remember Joe who owed you for that pizza back in college? Give him a call and say forget the pizza, buy my product. You NEED to have your Family, Friends, and everyone you know ready to buy your product the second it launches. This will give it huge momentum. And with this large momentum your campaign will go to the front page for more views, which will give it a better chance of being funded.

Chandler Perog