Crowdfunding became extremely popular over the past 4 years. We did our first project back in early 2011 when Kickstarter was still rather small and the biggest projects raised around $150K at best. Now fast forward to 2015 and we are in the times of the million dollar campaigns. And it's not just a few hundred people that are willing to back in project, Alen Lee got a whooping 219.382 backers (yes thats over 200k people!!) to back his Exploding Kittens project. Wow! And then of course there is Pebble. Pebble broke all records with their first campaign in May 2012 when they raised over $10 million on Kickstarter. Their second campaign, the Pebble Time is already over $16 million at the time of writing this article.
And Indiegogo went thru a similar growth spurt. Most projects were rather small just a couple years ago, but now there are many multimillion dollar projects here as well. Most of them being in the Technology category. Over the past few years several BILLION (with a B) dollars were contributed via crowdfunding. Crazy times!
Anyways, if you are considering to do your own crowdfunding project here is our main recommendation, regardless if it will be on Kickstarter or Indiegogo:
Do your homework first before you start asking questions! Treat it like an event, so there should be 80% planning and 20% execution.
If you feel overwhelmed, you can start with reading the Kickstarter Handbook found here. You have to especially read the last part and review each post. They are extremely helpful and valuable. Written mostly by other project creators.
If you still have questions read these blog posts below. They are very good and probably better then what we could write for you. Just about all info is spot on, so what's the point of rewriting it? See here:
- http://craigmod.com/journal/kickstartup/
- http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/the-price-is-right
- http://www.therussiansusedapencil.com/post/2794775825/idea-to-market-in-5-months-making-the-glif
- http://www.remindblog.com/2010/10/14/grassroots-funding-with-kickstarter-com/
- http://99u.com/tips/7143/Kicking-Ass-Taking-Donations-9-Tips-on-Funding-Your-Kickstarter-Project
In general a project can be broken down in three phases, there is before, during and after the project. Here is what you should do:
BEFORE the project
- Review all the requirements and technical details on the Kickstarter & Indiegogo site.
- Make a list of press contacts and other people you want to contact.
- Get a bunch of "supporters" ready that commit to help promote you once your project is live. You can also use services such as ThunderClap to help.
- Plan out your PR and Social Media strategy. iE who will help, what will you write, etc.
- Buys lots of coffee and tea.
DURING the Project
- Keep Backers, Potential Backers AND the Media in the loop about whats going on. Plan your updates ahead of time, review them with at least 2 people to make sure there are no typos and it sounds good.
- Post updates whenever there is interesting news about your project. At least once a week. At most once a day.
- If you do not have a website yet, use FREE services such as launchrock.com to set one up. If you have one, create a special section that talks about your current Kickstarter or Indiegogo project.
- Once you successfully reach your initial funding goal, keep going! Add new rewards or maybe even stretchgoals (rewards that become available once you raise a specific amount) that can be unlocked.
- Buy more coffee and tea. Drink it continuously. Have fun with it :-)
AFTER the project
- Will you continue selling the "product"? If yes, launch a online shop.
- Send and updates once a month or every few months letting your initial supporters know whats going on. Convert them to brand ambassadors and your own social media force.
- Will you launch a business? If yes, if you haven't done so yet, write a business plan. If no, drink the rest of your coffee and go party.
- Need more help? Join a accelerator program.
- Get some sleep!
Pretty easy huh? Well that's it for now. Let us know if this was helpful by reaching us on facebook, twitter or instagram. And since we love you a lot, use the discount code "crowdfunding" during checkout to get 20% OFF our entire site. Cheers!
