Creating a Kickstarter Campaign: 10 Tips for the Successful Execution of a Kickstarter Campaign

Crowdfunding refers to the financing of a project by the masses. Today, this form of financial support has become an important source of income for many projects, especially smaller ones. Without crowdfunding campaigns on platforms like Kickstarter, many projects would likely not have reached their current scale, would not have done so quickly, or perhaps not even made it to market at all. In return for supporting a crowdfunding project, participants receive certain extras, such as early access, a free end product, etc. One of the largest and most well-known crowdfunding platforms on the market is Kickstarter. In this article, our experts will show you ten tips to successfully implement your own Kickstarter campaign.

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1 Creating a Kickstarter Campaign: 10 Tips for the Successful Execution of a Kickstarter Campaign

Anbieter	Bewertung	Beschreibung	Link
Kickstarter		Marktführer in der Crowdfunding Szene	Kampagne Starten

Key Takeaways in Brief

• Crowdfunding refers to the financing of a project by the masses.

• One of the largest and most well-known crowdfunding providers is Kickstarter.

• On Kickstarter, primarily large projects are financed.

• Kickstarter offers extensive services and support for projects.

• Users who support a project on Kickstarter receive a reward.

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform. The provider is the market leader and pioneer in the scene and is one of the most well-known portals in the world. On Kickstarter, primarily larger projects – predominantly but not exclusively – from the technology sector are supported. The provider has strict guidelines and controls that ensure only well-prepared and realistic projects have a chance to be published on the site. In addition, Kickstarter offers a variety of resources, information, and support for the projects and their teams. In return, Kickstarter is somewhat more expensive compared to other providers. Another special feature of Kickstarter is that users who support a project receive a reward. This can be, for example, beta access, a free copy, a special title or badge, a mention in the credits, etc.

Who is Kickstarter suitable for? When is it interesting?

Kickstarter is suitable for virtually any project, provided it is a realistic endeavor that has been well planned and documented. Under normal circumstances, you should also have at least a functional prototype, an early alpha version of the software, or something comparable. Kickstarter campaigns are interesting because they make it possible to finance and thus realize projects that would otherwise not have been feasible. Many PC games, entertainment products, and gadgets have since been successfully realized through a Kickstarter campaign. Most of these would never have reached the market, or would have done so much later, without crowdfunding due to a lack of necessary funding.

10 Expert Tips for a Successful Kickstarter Campaign

10-Experten-Tipps-für-eine-erfolgreiche-Kickstarter-Kampagne

In this section, we present ten expert tips to help you launch your own successful Kickstarter campaign. You will learn useful tips and tricks and discover what you need to pay special attention to on Kickstarter.

Tip 1: Start Your Project Before Your Campaign

Kickstarter campaigns are time-limited. Many run for only one month, some even just two weeks. Very few campaigns run longer. For you, this means that your work begins before Kickstarter. Promote your project, create a website, engage in marketing, and in this context, point directly to the upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Once your campaign is live, you can use that marketing to draw attention to it and bring people on board with a link. Ideally, you will already have some interested parties who know your project or perhaps even some backers who are just waiting for the green light.

Tip 2: Go Full Steam Ahead

Once your campaign is live on Kickstarter, it is important to let people know about it. Align your marketing with Kickstarter, link to the campaign, tell people about your project, and share it with friends and family. Even though Kickstarter is the market leader and the most well-known platform in the scene, it does not replace your marketing and PR activities or your own personal promotion.

Tip 3: Know Your Target Audience

You likely have a specific target audience in mind for your project. These audiences also exist on Kickstarter. For this reason, it’s important to know in advance which audience your project is intended to reach or appeal to. Only when you are absolutely clear who is or will be interested in your project can you use the right pledges and perks to make your crowdfunding campaign appealing to that target audience.

Tip 4: Use Social Networks

Social networks play an important role in a Kickstarter campaign. Don’t be content that your campaign is running on one of the largest and most well-known platforms. Be active yourself, even outside of Kickstarter. Users on social networks are familiar with the Internet; most of them know crowdfunding and especially Kickstarter. This means that these people are more open to relevant projects and more likely to support you in your endeavor.

Informieren-Sie-die-Presse-nutzen-Sie-News-Portale

Tip 5: Inform the Press, Use News Portals

It’s important for the success of your campaign that other people learn about the project. After all, you can only support something that you know about. Write press releases to inform the key media outlets in the industry or scene about your venture. In addition, you should send personalized and targeted requests to a handful of blogs and websites that write specifically about your topic. Ask them to publish a guest article from you or to write about you. The press and online media remain the most important factors for a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Tip 6: Focus on the U.S. Market and a Partner

There is no German Kickstarter page; only regional sites for Canada, the UK, and Australia are available. However, the user base there is relatively small, as most projects worldwide (including the countries mentioned above) are typically listed on the main site. For this reason, you should choose Kickstarter.com directly rather than a subpage. To further improve your chances of a successful project launch, it also makes sense to find a U.S. partner. Together with such a collaborator from the USA, you can much more easily attack the market in that country after a successful campaign.

Tip 7: Rely on the Right Pledges

Pledges are rewards for users who support your project with a specific, predetermined amount. They include, for example, a free product after market launch, a limited edition, a mention in the credits, etc. The higher the support amount, the higher the reward. A user who supports a board game project, for example, with ten euros receives only a copy of the game, while support of fifty euros provides two copies of the game and a mention in the instruction credits, etc. Here, it is important that you choose not only the right pledges that are interesting but also those that suit the target audience. If your project is aimed at teenagers or students and the lowest pledge costs one hundred euros, then something is almost certainly wrong.

Tip 8: Thorough Project Planning

As with all projects and campaigns, it is also important for a Kickstarter campaign that you plan your project well and thoroughly, with great care. In some ways, this applies even more to a Kickstarter campaign than to other areas. After all, you have to convince complete strangers of your project and its success and furthermore get these people to financially support your campaign. Therefore, the campaign should be planned for the long term, thoroughly, and above all professionally. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of an online campaign or pressured by a tight schedule!

Tip 9: Set Realistic Goals

The goal of a Kickstarter campaign is to finance your project. However, there are some things to consider. For one, you should set your goals realistically. In some cases, it makes more sense for complex or very expensive projects to have only part of the project financed through Kickstarter. For example, have the development of a prototype, a functional alpha version, or a specific component financed. If the campaign is successful and you have successfully implemented that part of the project, you can launch another Kickstarter campaign to complete another component or the rest of the project. In this case, you benefit from the fact that you already know many users from your previous campaign and they are often happy to support you again if you have kept your promises.

Tip 10: Always Stay Optimistic

It often happens that projects receive questions or comments that at first glance appear malicious or come from trolls. You should not let yourself be unsettled by this and respond to all questions in a friendly, neutral, and fact-based manner. Remember: users, product managers, etc. are only human, too—people with their own personalities and ideas, who can also have a bad day or may have just had a bad experience with a similar project. Not everyone who writes something negative is a troll. By appearing factual and professional, you have the best chance of convincing these people—and above all, other users who visit your project—of your sincerity and credibility.

Ihre-Erfolgreiche-Kickstarter-Kampagne-–-Unser-Fazit

Your Successful Kickstarter Campaign – Our Conclusion

That brings us to the end of our article on a successful Kickstarter campaign. You now know which factors are crucial for success on Kickstarter and what you should pay attention to when choosing this provider. Fundamentally, Kickstarter offers many possibilities and the number of successful projects shows that a campaign really works. It is important that you plan everything thoroughly and, of course, do not focus solely on Kickstarter, but also on the surrounding marketing on your website, in social media, on blogs and niche portals, etc., and not neglect or forget it.