Proven Growth Hacks to Raise Capital with Kickstarter for Startups
Launching a new product or service line is never an easy task. For ages, one of the greatest challenges that’s continued to bedevil entrepreneurs is money. A certain amount (often not easily available) is always considered vital to starting up and there are chances that the idea may fail and the invested sum lost in a matter of weeks.
Today, however, there are several options that makes it easier and safer to launch new products. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGogo offer new businesses the opportunity to ‘test’ a new product before launching fully. The big thing about these platforms is that they not only help you to minimize the risk of heavy loss, they also offer you the opportunity to raise thousands or even millions of dollars to fully launch the enterprise if people like the idea. Pebble Time currently holds the title of most successful campaign on Kickstarter, having raised an amazing $20,338,986 and receiving backings from 74,471 people.
Advantages
In spite of the huge advantages inherent in the Kickstarter platforms, several businesses fail to record success with it. This is basically due to the method employed by the promoters to run the campaign. To successfully run a Kickstarter campaign and raise the kind of money you require, you must take charge from the start and ensure that you leave absolutely nothing to chance. Several individuals have successfully raised huge amounts of money and if you can dutifully replicate the tested and proven approach we offer here, you are guaranteed a place among this set of smart entrepreneurs.
At this point, it is imperative to state that Pressfarm is not offering any magic formula. We are only interested in presenting to you a strategy that has worked for others – a strategy which, if you can follow devotedly, will save you time, money and energy, as well as increase your chances of success in an awesome manner. It is a way to hack Kickstarter and get the best out of the platform. Without further ado, here are the steps:
1: Start with smart principles that ensure efficiency
The best way to go about goals in this century to stay ahead of the competition is to achieve better results using less work and resources. We will provide hacks and tactics, but ensure that you come to terms with these principles first as they will serve as the foundation to your ultimate success.
- Minimum Effective Dose (MED):
Simply put, this is the smallest input needed to produce a given result. It is the amount of work, resources and finances that is just enough to produce the required result – anything more than the MED is wastage.
- Outsource and Automate:
The digital world has made it easier for us to achieve much with less: get used to it. Setting up automated systems and delegating tasks to freelancers not only makes things happen faster, they equally save you lots of time and energy. It is very easy to find lots of suitably qualified virtual assistants, copywrites and graphic designers at reasonable costs. Using these people during the setup and running of your Kickstarter campaign guarantees efficiency, better content and graphics that will touch the right button on the target market.
- Prep and Pick Up:
So many people are yet to buy into the idea of early preparation. Truth is, this can be the only factor that’ll separate you from other startups clamouring for attention. It’s often easier to have things done ahead of time than to rush through them when deadlines approach. Prepare adequately for your campaign; have the content ready in terms of video, written text and graphics way ahead of time. In case your content needs a bit of improving, you get more time to do that if you can have the very first drafts early. You stay ahead of everyone in the campaign if you plan months ahead.
2: Establish the MED for Kickstarter traffic
You should understand that your success with Kickstarter is tied to the amount of quality traffic you drive to your project. Backers, investors, and the press need to see what you are proposing and you must find the channel that drives them to your project so that you can focus on it in order to increase efficiency and avoid wastage.
You can simply ask your virtual assistant to research on Kickstarter about projects similar to yours and generate the list of top referrers for those projects. With the result, use your discretion to determine how to focus on the sources of traffic other similar campaigns used. Chances are that Facebook will rank among the top. Other social media platforms will equally be great depending on the product, for instance, Pinterest and Instagram will be great for a niche that is photo-centric e.g. fashion and interior design. Twitter and Google Plus will be great for tech products. Generating enough buzz on these networks can help your project to be listed on Kickstarter’s popular projects in order to bring in the necessary traffic.
3: Establish and focus on the best media targets
You might be surprised to find out that the media outlets that will fetch you the most buzz may not be the most popular ones. Good news is you can actually establish the media outlet that will be most useful to your project using the following considerations:
- Relevance – will your project be relevant to the readers of the media outlet?
- Readership – do they really have enough readers?
- Relationship –is there someone you know who can make a strong introduction for you? While it can be that you do not already know someone in a media outlet, you can send an email pitch and begin to build out your relationships with the media. Some strategies for sending out a cold email pitch are here and while you do that avoid this common pitching mistakes.
- Reach –will the blog help you to reach the prospective backers?
After establishing the factors above. You can go ahead to trim your list of bloggers to reveal the best fit for your project.
4: Establish meaningful relationship with bloggers
Becoming friends with bloggers may seem like a crazy idea, but it is actually becoming one of the ideas with the biggest returns for business people. Bloggers within your circles and market can help generate a lot of interest for your Kickstarter campaign. When you first start to prepare for your Kickstarter campaign, reach out to relevant bloggers and propose a deal. It could be a free product in return for a review or some bloggers may charge a fee for sponsored posts but if they have a huge following in your market it will be worth it.
5: Get the story ready and make specific requests
No matter how good bloggers are, they’ll still need you in order to tell your story in the most compelling manner. This is another area where Kickstarter gets it absolutely right. On your Kickstarter page, you can provide all the relevant information bloggers will need to create good content that will present your project in the right manner to prospective backers. You can also include high resolution pictures and embed code for your video in order to create a complete package to drive home the point of the entire effort. Videos lead to increased backing so make sure to have one.
After providing the materials for the relevant content, it is also compulsory to request in a polite manner. That the bloggers publish the post at suitable hours during or before your campaign starts. When your post goes out at the right time when you need it to, the right impact on the Kickstarter campaign is created.
6: Segment and activate your network
You may not appreciate the power of your friends until you try to engage them in a productive manner. Once you are able to get them to understand what your project is all about. Your network of friends and acquaintances can help you greatly to achieve success. Offer them exclusive insights about the ‘big dream’, and get them properly motivated. They will not only back you but help spread the word about your project to their own network of friends.
7: Use landing pages to spark sharing
Rather than sending people directly to your Kickstarter page, you can send them to a landing page. Where they can help to share and drive traffic back to your project. The landing page design has to be top-notch and includes a link to the Kickstarter Campaign. Offer something on your landing page to get them interested in participating. Once you succeed in having lots of people sharing your link through social media platforms like Facebook. It will create the kind of PR effect that makes your project more respectable.
BOTTOM LINE
If you keenly observe the steps we’ve recommended, you’ll see that it’s focused on people. This is because no reasonable hacking in business processes happens without putting people ahead. This concept has worked for so many startups and we can help to make it work for you too.
Just bear in mind that Kickstarter gives you the opportunity to test your idea and raise some money. It’s equally an opportunity for other people to support a noble cause. With the right content and good PR, your project will certainly become a success.