How do you actually go about maintaining momentum throughout your Kickstarter campaign? This has been the topic of discussion on KicstarterForum.org (here and here) and CrowdfundingForum.com (here).
There is no one real answer, but there are a few strategies that might be helpful when solving the common “kickstarter slump” problem, where creators see many pledges in the beginning and end of their campaign, but fewer in the middle.
1. Ask for Advice
On the Cryptozoic forum, one user asked a question along the lines of “How do you advertise your Kickstarter and maintain momentum?”
This led to a variety of tips including:
– “Share the facebook posts everyday. Tweet about it. Talk to people IRL about it. I know I texted my regular game group plus some others as we missed our normal date last week.”
– “Youtube gameplay with guys like totalbiscuit(Only one i could remeber that might like it) would be a very good start. This could spread it a bit more, give people that all important gameplay that could help sell the game even better.”
– “Force on YouTube also loves TCGs and has a lot of subscribers. He recently did a video for Infinity Wars with one of the developers. I think it would be really smart of CZE to get some YouTube personalities on board early.”
By asking for advice and feedback, you may learn about some communities, publications, or individuals that you haven’t reached out to yet.
2. Research Similar Campaigns and Problems
You can use the techniques I’ve outlined in a previous post to research similar campaigns and get a feel for what actions they took during their “slump.” In addition, a quick google search brought up a few articles of creators who have experienced the same loss of momentum issue.
In this article, one creator shares advice on how to combat slowing momentum: “Look at your production cost estimates and see where you can get volume discounts. Then you can start offering high tier benefits to backers of a lower tier. For those who already backed at a high tier, offer additional low-cost or no-cost benefits like PDFs and other digital goodies.
For example, when Do’s campaign started, we only offered books to those who pledged $40. After we we passed ~150% funding, we started offering books to $30 backers, too. After the next milestone at ~200%, we offered books to $25 backers, too. So the $40 didn’t feel like they were cheated, we offered them exclusive print editions of the first Do expansion and PDFs.”
The creator went on to explain that “another thing you can do is start sending free product to charities once certain milestones are reached. Make sure those milestones give you enough profit to cover the loss of that free product.
For example, in Happy Birthday Robot’s campaign, I sent free copies of the game to schools and libraries of backers’ choice. This not only built good will with the game’s target audience, but kept the urge to pledge active for the life of the campaign.”
We’ve also interviewed creators who have spoken on this topic. In this interview, the Maker Movement documentary explained how they were able to tap into the maker community to maintain momentum throughout the crowdfunding process.
“Because the community of Maker is very specific and passionate about the movement, we were able to receive a lot of support. Also, we wanted to maintain an intimacy with our Backers, so we created a Backer’s Map, which is a world map featuring the locations and countries where our Backers are based. We also put some effort in maintaining our Twitter, which has gained us a lot of support and coverage.”
Finally, the Forbes article, ‘Four Secrets to a Moneymaking Kickstarter campaign,’ Carlos Solorio, who raised $20k on Kickstarter weighed in on his thoughts regarding maintaing momentum.
“Every Kickstarter campaign follows a funding curve. There will be a strong tailwind at the beginning and another push as you near the end of your campaign. In between, there’s a lull that makes every campaign manager nervous. Expect this and take advantage of it.
You should reach out to your friends and family only during those two periods to boost momentum.”
3. Hold a Contest
Contests are always a fun way to involve your friends and fans in new endeavors! It could be a simple giveaway or a reward for whoever drives the most traffic to the project (could use Bitly links to track).
On the FundChange blog, one article suggests having a “share party,” where you invite a bunch of your friends over, tell them to bring their laptops, and have a prize for whoever is able to share the project in the most places or whoever gets the most retweets.
I think a contest would go really well with having people recruit users to a Thunderclap campaign, which we’ll touch on next.
4. Do a Thunderclap
I’ve explained a bit about Thunderclap in a previous post. Basically, you can ask your friends and fans to pledge their social support. Once you hit your goal in terms of number of supporters and the Thunderclap’s duration is complete, a customized message will be shared on the the social networks of all your supporters simultaneously.
You can combine Thunderclap with a contest to expand the social reach of your campaign and get some free advertising, which may help combat your loss of momentum.
5. Court Reporters
Previously, I explained a few ways I go about getting traffic for new product launches. I’ve included a snapshot of the forum conversation below.
Successful PR results in news stories and blog articles which have an audience that is different from your own. By selling reporters on the value of your news story, you can increase the chance that during the middle of your campaign, the new wave of traffic resulting from stories will continue to bump up your backer numbers.
6. Pay for Traffic
I wouldn’t recommend paying for traffic until you are certain of your conversion rates. Once you establish those numbers, paying for Facebook ads could have a good ROI, as it did for this campaign. I would approach communities that are made up of your target niche (blogs, forums) and see if they offer advertising or sponsored stories.
KickTraq also has an advertising program and we offer some social media promotional services at CrowdfundingPR.
7. Attend Networking Events
I’ve always found that new opportunities usually are attached to people. What I mean by that is you never know who knows who and what connections an individual has. By getting out of the building, attending networking events, and meeting new people, you will have the chance to sell your project idea in person and also expand your network, which could lead to introductions to industry influencers or future business partners.
8. Leverage your Professional Status
If you’re having trouble getting any traction with selling reporters on a featured story, you could use a website like Haro instead to leverage your professional status and/or career knowledge to get some free PR.
You could also consider submitting guest posts sharing what you know about your profession in exchange for a mention about your crowdfunding campaign. This also works with video interviews.
Bloggers are hungry for great information, usually tips, that they can share with their audience. If you can distill your advice or “lessons learned” from your career, you might be able to work that into a nice story for a blogger and a mention for your campaign. I talk more about guest posting here.
9. Focus on Higher Reward Tiers
Finally, if you’re really struggling to move the needle, it might make more sense to focus all your energy on identifying potential backers for your higher priced rewards and selling them on the merits of those perks. Obviously, this will vary from campaign to campaign, but the demographics that might find a higher priced reward appealing are different than the other tiers. If you’re stuck in a rut, getting one or two upper-tier pledges might help re-invigorate your efforts.
How have you maintained momentum throughout your campaign?
Leave a comment below! I’d like to hear.
