63% of Kickstarter campaigns fail. Do this one thing, and you'll be among the 37% who succeed.
The one thing is
pre-launch
. Ask any crowdfunding creator, and they will confirm that it is the key to success.
You will learn how to prepare for your first crowdfunding campaign and do pre-launch with a minimal budget by using personal efforts and delegating some work to others.
This book is for Kickstarter newbies and first-time creators. It will teach and show you how to collect potential backers early, in advance, and how to plan a Kickstarter campaign from start to finish with the aim of ensuring that you get fully funded.
You will understand the basics of crowdfunding, the main difference between the two most popular reward-based crowdfunding platforms: Kickstarter and Indiegogo, how to turn your idea, passion or skill into a product and how to evaluate if there's a market demand for it.
The core part of this book is about preparation for the crowdfunding campaign:
How to set crowdfunding goals and why it is important to set a low goal
How to analyze similar campaigns
How to define your target audience
How to gather your crowd using free methods
How to create a landing page that turns visitors into subscribers
What are the best tools to build landing pages
How to integrate your landing page with your mailing list
How to "warm-up" leads with an automated email sequence
How to engage your audience
How to run Facebook Ads to collect leads
How to use "smoke testing" method to see if someone buys your product
What is a pre-launch funnel and what stages it has
Conversion rates that you can expect
How to do media and influencer outreach
How to submit your video to viral video publishers
You will also learn and be exposed to best practices when it comes to selecting attractive project images, how to create a title that sells, how to build engaging project video and how to brainstorm ideas for your rewards.
Finally, the book explains how to launch and manage a Kickstarter campaign, when it's live:
Why project launch timing is important
The steps you need to do during the launch day
Prepare to refuse offers
Communication with backers (project updates and direct messages)
Stretch goals
Get traffic from Kickstarter ("Projects we love," trending, popularity rankings)
Last days of your project
Wrap-up and action plan