Resources
– How to Promote Your Kickstarter: Online Course.
– Episodes 11 – 16 with great interviews of successful crowdfunders.
– Fulfillrite (sponsored): Kickstarter and crowdfunding reward fulfillment service.
Key Takaways
– People engage in PR to: make more people in your niche aware of what you are doing, use the logos of publications on your campaign to improve credibility, get referral traffic from an online publication.
– Bloggers and journalists are different. Journalists tend to cover news and report to an editor or work in a larger organization. Sometimes they are told what to write about, other times they get to decide. They also have a niche or type of story that they usually cover.
– Bloggers are often the primary writer of a blog, or have a smaller publication with multiple writers. They tend to care more about engagement (comments), personal messages, and social media messages than just being pitched about a story.
– Each writer serves a particular audience that expects a certain type of story and enjoys a certain kind of content, whether thats news, human interest, or tips.
– Pay attention to the type of stories journalists/bloggers have written about in the past. If you are doing direct outreach, try to be as least generic as possible.
– When doing direct outreach, less is more. Don’t stuff too much information into an email. You can always include a press release or link to more information. Just keep to the essentials, but make sure the pitch is interesting enough to hook the recipient!
– Don’t forget the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
– The story you’re telling is the product you are selling. If you have a bad story, it’s the same thing as giving a salesman a bad product – it’s hard to sell it!
– The pitch should not be impersonal. You should include information about the person who is doing the Kickstarter (highlight notable facts) and why they were inspired to do so.
– Finally, what are the key benefits of the product or supporting the project? Why should people pay attention or what will they be interested in? What’s in it for them.
