Want to avoid some of the major Kickstarter mistakes I see in unsuccessful campaigns?
In today’s post, I’m going to bring forth some common missteps when running a Kickstarter campaign.
You’ll discover how to avoid these mistakes, so that you can run a wildly successful project.
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For now, let’s get into some Kickstarter mistakes to avoid at all costs.
Here we go!
Failure to Consider Audience
You have to take into account how other people are viewing your project when building your Kickstarter campaign page.
All too often, I’ll see a creator who puts together a project that asks the crowd for support, funding, or donations.
That’s the wrong way to go about launching your campaign.
Think about it: it’s all about how potential backers are perceiving your campaign. By simply asking for support, backers aren’t going to be swayed—they don’t know anything about you or your project.
Instead, you should do the following:
- Construct a meaningful title that delivers a promise
- Produce a short, emotionally evocative Kickstarter video
- Write informative campaign text, including images and gifs that draw the eye
Your campaign page must demonstrate how your product is going to fit into someone else’s life. There must be an emotional call to action to induce a person into actually backing your product.
The video is usually going to be the most important part of your campaign. Check out this video I made of a trip to the Philippines for examples on how to make your footage exciting, engaging, and persuasive.
Failure to Create a Pre-Launch Page
Before you go live on Kickstarter, you want to create a pre-launch page to ignite interest surrounding your campaign.
You have to prime the pump for the initial round of donations. You want people to be anticipating your launch, so that you get a nice dump of funds right from the start.
It’s super hard to get backers to donate with $0 pledged.
A dedicated pre-launch strategy will:
- Get people excited about your product to come
- Create a sense of eagerness and urgency surrounding your campaign
- Allow for lots of donations up front
I go way more in-depth about pre-launch in my book, The Kickstarter Launch Formula—which you should check out if you want to learn more.
Failure to Consider Costs
After launching and raising money for your Kickstarter campaign, you don’t keep all the funds.
Your backers have donated to your campaign in exchange for rewards. That means you have to deliver on those promised rewards in a timely and professional fashion.
You have to consider the following:
- Fulfillment costs
- Shipping costs
- Manufacturing costs
- Duties, tariffs, and taxes
- Postage
- Picking and packaging
- Kickstarter fees
- Credit card fees
This is, in my opinion, the most boring part of any campaign. A thorough consideration of costs requires a disciplined approach—it’s time to bust out the excel spreadsheet.
Think about these costs ahead of time. This will allow you to go forth with a more confident and dedicated strategy to pricing your rewards.
Lack of Understanding of the Funding Curve
Your funding graph is not going to be linear.
If you do proper pre-launch work, you’re likely to spike in the first 3 days to one week of launch.
From there, most campaigns tend to stagnate and lose a bit of momentum during the middle portions of the campaign duration.
And then, at the end of the campaign (about three days left), urgency requires backers to take action again. This provides a similar spike to the first three days of your launch.
A better understanding of your funding curve will allow you not to panic. There are natural cycles to every campaign—you shouldn’t start dumping more money into your campaign if things level out a bit.
Instead, you should plan ahead with your marketing strategy. Throughout your campaign, you should be utilizing:
- Media mentions such as press releases
- Influencers and social media
- Creative stretch goals and rewards
- Frequent and exciting updates to your campaign page
Doing these things can help to mitigate the effects of the Kickstarter slump period.
Over-Complicating Your Campaign
As an entrepreneur, you’re likely a creative individual.
Many Kickstarter launches make things way too complicated by including tons of SKUs, colors, and add-ons to their project.
But let me tell you, this is a dangerous game.
You want to keep order fulfillment as simple as possible. Don’t offer a bunch of different options or SKUs unless they are really easy to do.
The order fulfillment stage is already going to pose challenges for you—I guarantee it. Make this process as easy as possible for you, especially if it’s your first campaign.
You can always run another Kickstarter campaign in the future!
Conclusions
Avoiding the following Kickstarter mistakes can help you to launch a more successful campaign:
- Failure to consider audience
- Failure to create a great pre-launch page
- Failure to consider costs
- Lack of understanding of the funding curve
- Over-complicating rewards
I hope that this post has been helpful for you in giving some ideas as to how to recognize these common mistakes, and then give you some strategies as to how to combat them.
Looking to dive deeper?
Check out my FREE crowdfunding course and my book, The Kickstarter Launch Formula. These resources go way more in-depth on what it takes to launch a successful campaign.
Looking for more personalized support?
Schedule a free coaching call with me—I’d love to help you launch your dream project!
