The “Shut Your Mao!” Kickstarter campaign by the SALT Artists raised over 450% of it’s fundraising goal in 28 days from 260 backers around the world. Described as the “funnest most funniest fun CARD GAME you’ll ever play,” this crowdfunding project joins a growing category on Kickstarter: Tableltop games.
Annie Marie Wagner, the creator of the campaign, took a few minutes to have a conversation with me on their success and what’s next in store for the SALT Artists. Check out some of the crowdfunding advice and tips she passed on in our interview below.
You’ve raised more than 4x your fundraising goal! Did you expect this kind of response? How did you manage to reach your goal so quickly?
Interestingly enough, I DID expect to meet our funding goal very quickly. I purposefully made our funding goal much lower than what we truly wanted to raise (which is about $15,000). I did this for a few reasons:
1. To boost press at the beginning (I was hoping people would gravitate to an “overnight success” idea for stories)
2. To create a feeling that this was a cool, must-have game from the get-go. We have yet to see if this was a wise strategy.
We met our goal so quickly because we decided to reach out to our very inner circle of close family first. We asked them to jump on board within the first 24 hours. I read somewhere that if you can get the snowball rolling in that first day, you will accelerate faster because of the momentum. We were counting on about $1,000 just from family on day one. It helps that my family loves the game as much as I do.
What surprised me, is that when we launched it, we had an immediate response from the Kickstarter community. Before any of our family members had a chance to pledge, we already had about $800 in pledges from strangers. It was cool to see that other people liked our game enough to buy it.
This is two-fold. With all the social media marketing available, you would think that facebook, twitter and blogs etc… would be a huge boost, BUT, my analytics show that the highest amount of money raised is from direct email. If I send a direct email to someone with the link, they are more likely to pledge. Not only that, their pledges are generally higher. Don’t underestimate the power of a direct email. Even better: a phone call.
Blogs are great if you already have a personal relationship with the writer on some level. I wish I had developed stronger relationships with gamers before starting my campaign. In my opinion, reaching out to strangers in the blogosphere during the campaign is a waste of time.
What do you think is the biggest misconception about Kickstarter?
I think the biggest misconception among people who are looking to raise money on Kickstarter is that it is a “donation” system. I don’t like that some people are using it in that way and making it harder for the rest of us.
I like that it can be a platform to test your product on the market to see how it’s received before taking out a bank loan, or even worse: buying product that you can’t sell. I like this idea that it can be a pre-order type of business. I am not asking anyone for a donation. If you like our game, awesome! Buy it! If you don’t, fine. None of our rewards are about charity. They are purely product based.
Kickstarter is a great platform to market, test, and get critical feedback. I don’t have money to invest in market research. Kickstarter allows me to do this with relatively little risk.
What have you learned from running this campaign?
Sounds cliche… but I’m more grateful. I’m grateful for my backers who believe in me or my product. I’m grateful for the internet, and I’m grateful that Kickstarter has developed a model that allows artists and inventors to reach their potential. It’s an exciting thing.
How many of your backers are strangers vs. friends and family.
Wow. About 25% family. 75% strangers. STEP IT UP Facebook! (I’m kidding–kind of)
Any insights into percentage of people that finish your video?
We have an awesome finish rate of 90%. We kept it short (under a minute) and to the point. When editing, we kept saying on each frame “how can was say this in a more simple way?”
Do you have any idea of the amount of traffic you are driving to your campaign?
I WISH. Hahahahaha. Kickstarter gives us pretty good insight, but I have no idea. I wish I used bitly. But, but, but, sigh… I didn’t.
Anything you wish you would have done differently?
Start the networking process about 3-6 months earlier.
Give ourselves more time to design the cards (in the game.) There are some really beautiful works of art that are being put on playing cards. We just didn’t have the time this go-round. We had enough time to make it fun and playable…
Conclusion
If you’d like to get a copy of this table top game, stay tuned to the project’s updates on kickstarter and check out the SALT artists website.
