“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell
1. Research Similar Campaigns
This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be amazed the number of creators that can sometimes skip this step because they are so intensely involved in creating their campaign.
I highly recommend installing the KickTraq app for your chrome web browser so that you can see analytics for each campaign you browse on Kickstarter, like the example below.
Using KickTraq analytics as a research tool, you can see at what times during the creator’s campaign backers flooded in and at what times the growth in pledges waned. You can also view news articles that were written on their campaign and get a sense of how increases in comments or engagement corresponded with project updates.
2. Analyze Backer Psychology
It’s really important to put yourself in the shoes of potential backers and start to think early about why strangers on the internet might support your crowdfunding campaign.
Not everyone will initially share your grand vision for the project, which underscores why this product MUST be funded. It’s your job to convince them and share this vision through your video, text, images, and rewards.
Most commonly, strangers will back a project because they either want a copy of the finished product or they like the creator/endeavor and want to support it in some small way.
Put yourself in the mindset of a potential backer. Are your rewards exciting or kind of lame? How can you involve them more in the creative process? What would make them want to share this campaign with their friends?
3. Create Cover Photos and Footprints
A great way to set up some free promotion is to create customized facebook and twitter cover photos. This way, whenever someone visits your facebook page or twitter profile, they will see that you are currently running a crowdfunding campaign, which gives them the opportunity to check it out.
Another way to set up free promotion is to customize your email signature so that anytime you send an email, the recipient will see that you are running a Kickstarter a campaign. You should also be sure to customize your signature for any forums you join and include your project link so that when you post replies or join a conversation, others will have a chance to check out your new initiative.
4. Engage in the Community
It’s easy to be like many other Kickstarter campaign creators and go about promoting your campaign on forums, google+ groups, and LinkedIn groups, but one way to stand out is to really set aside some time to engage in the community.
Provide feedback on other people’s campaigns, support a few different projects on Kickstarter that you are passionate about, and reach out to creators that are successful in your category so that you can learn from their example.
You’re going through the same process as many other Kickstarter project creators and networking with creators in your niche is also a great way to form business relationships that could last beyond the crowdfunding process.
