How To Plan And Launch A Successful Kickstarter Campaign

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There is a reason why successful campaigners and Kickstarter experts recommend at least 6 to 9 months, if not more, of preparation time when launching a campaign.

This preparation time is crucial as it allows you to create a prototype, gather critical insights and understanding into your target audience, perfect your marketing strategy, and get all your ducks in a row for a Kickstarter launch.

What Makes a Kickstarter Campaign Successful?

There are several characteristics all successful campaigns have in common.

Before you go live:

Thorough research – With enough research, you’ll know how much funding you need, if there are similar products on the market, how much other campaigners are raising, what your potential backers need, and much more;
Market validation – Before spending months, or even years, and potentially thousands of dollars on building something nobody wants, we always recommend running a product-market validation campaign with tools such as Prelaunch;
Pre-launch list building – To crush day 1 of your campaign, you must set up a landing page (think single-page website) for your upcoming Kickstarter project, share essential product information for building hype around it and present a call-to-action for potential backers to be the first to know when your campaign goes live;
An appealing landing page – This is where you showcase your product and add all the details about the idea, features, and backstory. With a landing spot in place, you’ll be able to track who is viewing your website through Google Analytics and find similarities between backers which can help you target them through ads;
Email marketing campaign – An effective email marketing strategy is at the core of any successful project. The more email leads (contacts) you gather before going live, the more people will know about your upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

Once you go live:

Having a compelling story – Facts are necessary but won’t attract backers. It would be best if you shared a great story that will connect you with potential supporters on a deeper level;
Engaging video – This is what attracts attention from the start. The video needs to be of the highest quality (if not, backers may be skeptical about putting their hard-earned money in). It should explain how the product is solving a particular problem. It has to hold the attention with an exciting storyline. It also needs to be short, two to three minutes (though there are exceptions);
Stunning visuals – Aside from videos, you need to have quality images taken by professional photographers or that are shot with a good camera and bring confidence to first-time visitors;
A solid Facebook Ads campaign – Facebook is the most effective advertising platform, and we’ve seen a significant portion of our marketing budgets go towards media buying there. It’s quick, effective, and can find your ideal customers easily;
PR, Journalists, and Influencers – these serve a few core purposes – 1/ sales channel (though not the most effective), 2/ social proof and bringing credibility to the project, and 3/ potentially snowballing the campaign and making it viral (though it’s rare);
A sound reward system – No matter how much funds you’re planning on raising, you need to offer appealing rewards at the price backers are willing to pay (preferably with a discount over the regular price);
Keeping backers in the loop – People choose to back a crowdfunding project because they believe in it and want to make it happen. That’s why you should constantly keep backers up to date about your progress, milestones, and struggles and treat them as friends, not as ‘customers’ per se. They will stay enthusiastic and feel more invested in your creative project.

How To Properly Manage A Successful Kickstarter Campaign?

Managing a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter requires time, effort, and tight organization.

These are the crucial steps you should pay attention to:

Campaign Timeline

You’ll go through the following 4 Stages of any crowdfunding campaign:

Market validation – This is an essential part of planning for your campaign, as it can help you position your product better and make sure people want what you are building before you launch it.

Generally, it takes 3-4 weeks to test your product-market ‘fit’ for crowdfunding and reaffirm its positioning.

Pre-launch – This can last on average 1-2 months and includes campaign content creation (photos and videos) and continuous lead generation;
Post-launch – This is usually 30-60 days, but you should know that Kickstarter has a strict limitation of 60 days, and once you launch with a particular end date, you can’t change it anymore;
Indiegogo InDemand – This stage (or your pre-order phase) has no time limitations as it depends on your plans and activities regarding production, shipping, delivery, etc.

Planning and Prelaunch

Pre-launch marketing is a great way to get the word out about the campaign early on.

This step includes several basics:

Community building – To create a loyal, excited community before you even launch, you must gather leads and nurture them with a targeted email sequence. Collecting emails from potential backers has several purposes, from building excitement and loyalty to gathering feedback and crushing your first few days of the launch;
Create a landing page – Get started on your landing page as soon as you have some creatives or visuals of your product;
Create a Facebook VIP group (optional) – This is an effective way to engage your audience during the pre-launch stage. The goal is to get people most excited about the product in one place and turn them into initial supporters. They can also provide valuable product insights and feedback;
Create a Kickstarter campaign page – Once you sign up and complete your company profile, you’ll upload the main video, text, and images alongside your story. Backers need to have a clear visual representation of the product, get to know it, see what problem it solves, and understand what inspired you to create it.

Set a Proper Funding Goal

Kickstarter has an ‘all-or-nothing’ model, and you risk losing all raised funds if you set too big of a funding goal and can’t reach it.

That’s why you should choose the minimum amount you need to deliver your project successfully.

An attractive funding goal will entice more backers and increase the chance of hitting your funding goal faster, so set it low and work on exceeding it instead of putting it high and being unable to achieve it.

When defining a Kickstarter funding goal, don’t forget to calculate production and manufacturing costs, shipping costs, Kickstarter platform fees, commissions to marketing agencies (if any), etc.

Make Data-Driven Decisions

Analyze the performance of your landing and campaign pages and make informed decisions based on the data you’ve collected through Google Analytics.

With Google Analytics, you can track and analyze your website traffic and acquisitions and get valuable insights into your audience.

Also, to get the most accurate data, cross-reference it with your Facebook Ads Dashboard and email marketing software.

To make things easier, create a centralized reporting sheet containing all the critical numbers in one place.

Use Select Marketing Channels

The most effective marketing channels during a campaign are:

Facebook and Instagram ads
online publications (press and journalists)
niche online magazines and, blogs & newsletters
relevant influencers in your industry

Create Killer Content

People love to see what they’re paying for, and good visuals are a significant decision-making factor.

It’s not a secret that a considerable part of the campaign’s success depends on how good your visuals are.

The goal of the visuals is to attract, then raise interest and create a desire to own, use, touch, or feel your product.

Showing high-quality, explanatory, attractive photos and videos is critical.

You can also hire professional designers on Upwork to craft your campaign and landing pages with the materials you provide.

After you’ve covered all these steps and set everything up, it is time to decide when to launch your campaign.

Figuring out when to launch can be challenging as it depends on multiple factors.

So, how can you be sure when is the right time to click the ‘launch’ button?

Deciding on the Right Time to Launch A Campaign

Kickstarter funding numbers stay healthy throughout the year, except in December when campaigns and backings slow down due to the holiday season.

Nevertheless, the cycle starts again in January, and the numbers stay consistent for the rest of the year.

Unfortunately, many creators fail to realize the bigger picture beyond those 30-60 days of active campaigning.

When deciding on a Kickstarter launch date:

Launch your campaign when your backers are feeling the need for your product;
Avoid launching your campaign when potential backers are distracted by other significant events (major holidays or non-working days);
If your product’s use case is during a specific season, for instance, summer, launch it approximately when summer starts, for example, in early June or July, so you’ll have enough time to promote it right during the summer months ahead.

Timing is everything; therefore, ask yourself when your audience will think about your product or the problem it solves?

To know the right timing for your product launch, you should have a firm understanding of your market, and all that affects it.

(A good start is to check out our Plan and Prepare a Winning Campaign class, where you’ll learn everything about your market and the people who want/need/or think about getting your product).

Avoid launching a campaign when you know your backers might get distracted by other significant events, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas or the start of a new school year, or any other event that might be specific to your product and industry.

Ask yourself what your backers want and when they want it.

Why would they be compelled to back your product at this moment? What could motivate or hold them back from going through it?

Answering such questions will give you an idea of when is the right time to launch.

As soon as you choose the right season and month for launching your product, pick a date and time of a campaign launch.

We typically launch our campaigns on a Tuesday, between 10 AM and noon EST (which will be early morning on the West Coast of the US and midday in Europe).

But don’t obsess over the precise timing, as launching on a Tuesday will not guarantee success unless you do your job right.

Ideally, your campaign should end on a workday. We usually stick with Friday, at 23:59 pacific time, just so it gives the final nudge to US-based supporters, who typically make up over 50% of all backers.

Conclusion

Creating and running a successful Kickstarter campaign takes time and work.

This guide contains plenty of valuable information, but if you need in-depth knowledge on the subject, there’s no place like CreatorClub.

We provide the best industry-tested knowledge packed into easy-to-follow, step-by-step classes taught by experts with significant crowdfunding experience (and beyond).