My Kickstarter was fully funded in just eleven minutes: here's how
Yes, the title is real and it's not clickbait. I really did fully fund my project in just 11 minutes. Here are five ways that I managed to do that.
1. The best time to plant a tree is 50 years ago
It's an old proverb, but it works. Get your page up and ready in pre launch as quickly as you can. The longer you wait, the more chance you have to advertise your project without actually having to start delivering it or committing people to money. You're getting their interest and also building anticipation and potentially hype.
I had to delay launching my project twice, but as a result of that I almost doubled my pre launch followers from just under 300 to over 750. This had a significant impact in my launch day and my project as a whole because there was a lot of anticipation and a lot of interest. It's very simple now for crowdfunding platforms to get your campaign set up quickly, and in pre launch mode, giving you a chance to get followers for the project whilst you work on the project itself.
2. Fit every pocket.
I read this a few years ago, either in a book or a blog, and I'd love to be able to trace back where I got it from. Essentially, the concept is this: make a product that fits every pocket size for your backers. By that, it means some of your backers will have small pockets and small amounts of money to spend. Give them something that they can buy to feel part of the campaign, even if it is something digital, or the opportunity to join the pledge manager at a later date, if funds allow.
At the other end of that scale, offer something really moonshot as a fun and ambitious target a crazy ambitious target. In my last campaign, I offered to play the game with a backer on a remote Scottish island for £500. One person backed this which was amazing!
For this campaign, which is involving making miniature book nooks, which are also escape rooms, I offered to make a bespoke book nook for someone for £1000. One went almost straight away - it was incredible!
In between the small budget item and the high ticket items, have a range of prices for this campaign, so they stage up and up according to people's budgets. Essentially, you're wanting to give everyone who is interested in your campaign, the opportunity to participate in some small or large way.
3. You're history to me
It's really important that you have a track record. It doesn't even matter if it's a track record in campaigns, but you do need to have a track record of your interests. If you are starting a project for the first time, please back other projects. There's nothing much more of a red flag to me in a crowdfunding campaign than someone who has set up their first campaign yet, hasn't hasn't supported anyone else. Please don't ask for money from a system that you're not willing to invest yourself in.
Providing a track record can be being part of the community that you are working with or creating for as much as anything. If you are really enthusiastic board gaming, get involved in the board gaming communities, participate, offer opinions, share ideas, and solutions and suggestions. Make yourself known as someone who is keen and interested. It's far better that way when you plug your project as it seems like this is someone of our community rather than some outsider cold calling us.
With regards to previous campaigns, I've been very lucky. This is my sixth campaign, and so everyone who has backed me before has had a notification about this campaign as well. I've averaged about 300 backers per campaign and while there is a lot of overlap, I now know that over 1000 different people got a notification about my campaign starting straightaway. It was amazing to see the response, especially in those first 24 hours, and it was particularly delightful to see so many familiar names appearing as backers as well. That's the power of community.
4. Look next door
Look adjacent to your core concept. By that I mean, think about your marketing strategy, not just for the exact item you have, but areas that are interested and adjacent to this. I made an awful lot of custom URLs for this project in pre launch and became part of the communities for crafting and for book nooks and for laser cuts and papercraft, tracking each of these and becoming part of their community, because this is an adjacent project. It is primarily for puzzles and people who love escape rooms, but it's also for people who are really keen on crafting and making things so make sure you remember those people as well. Adjacent projects are more powerful at times than projects that focus purely on one area.
5. Bootstrap your goal
Have your funding goal as small as financially possible. I totally appreciate that there are costs to launch your campaign, and these needs to be borne in mind of course, but it's really important to get that cost down as low as possible so that you reach your funding goal sooner.
Don't lose out money when you put down your goal, but really consider how you might get that goal as small as possible. My goal was £3,000, which is what I calculated the investment in time and items that I've put into this project so far. It probably was far more than that, but I was trying to be incredibly financially astute by making the target small.
You can of course fund with a project where your funding goal is £10. People will very quickly see that as being a little suspicious. So look at your actual costs and look at how low you can make your funding goal in order to succeed.
If you've funded quickly, share your tips! to support Escape The Book Nook, please take a look at the Kickstarter page here.
Photo by maitree rimthong: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-putting-coin-in-a-piggy-bank-1602726/