This article was written by Elena Mikhaylova, the CEO of CrowdfundProductions, a company that puts on crowdfunding events and helps entrepreneurs launch crowdfunding campaigns.
One of the most important ingredients in the recipe for success when crowdfunding is your project’s fundraising page. There is no reason to spend time, money and efforts driving traffic to your Kickstarter campaign, if your page doesn’t sell.
We took a look at the top ten most funded projects in each of Kickstarter’s fifteen categories to determine if they shared a “secret formula” that helped convert visitors into backers. Interestingly enough, there is a huge disparity among these 150 project descriptions. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most interesting numbers our research uncovered.
Five campaigns didn’t have a video at all, while four had videos over 10 minutes (the longest was more than 21min).
Additionally, eleven campaigns’ most popular perk/reward was priced at $5 or less, while twelve others received the largest number of backers for rewards priced at over $200 (the highest of any project was $1,599 perk).
The number of pictures in the storyline fluctuated from zero to a hundred and forty-four.
While 39 campaigns had under 1,000 words in the project storyline, in another 17 campaigns it exceeded 3,000 words.
Across all categories, most campaigns had 7 words in the title and 20 – 22 – in the description.
The average video length is around 3.5 minutes, except for the film/video category where it is closer to 5 minutes.
Surprisingly, the average number of perk (or reward) levels for twelve out of fifteen categories is over 15, with the top three being Comics (53 levels), Film/Video (35 levels) and Music (28 levels). Only sixteen projects offered fewer than 10 perk options. Twenty-seven out of the hundred and fifty projects researched had more than 30 reward levels. The largest, which was in the Comics category, had 227 levels.
The Design, Fashion, Crafts and Art categories didn’t have a consistently popular perk price level. Instead, they ranged all over the place from $1 to $400. The most popular reward prices for the rest of the categories are given below:
| Theater | $15, $25 | ||
| Technology | $99, $300 | ||
| Publishing | $25 | ||
| Photography | $75 | ||
| Music | $25 | ||
| Journalism | $25 | ||
| Games | $20, $100 | ||
| Food | $99 | ||
| Film | $15, $25, $50 | ||
| Dance | $25 | ||
| Comics | $30 | ||
Conclusions
As you can see from the results of this study, there is no “secret” or “one-size-fits-all” formula that converts visitors into backers on Kickstarter. Your success ultimately depends on demand for your product and the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.
We at Crowdfund Productions typically suggest our clients include the following information in their Kickstarter presentation:
– Title: short and easy to remember. Include the main keyword to ensure you show up in Kickstarter search results.
– Video: keep it 2.5 -3.5 minutes long.
– Description: what your project is about (1-2 short engaging sentences).
– Who is going to benefit from using it (3-5 sentences).
– What does it do exactly and how easy is it to set it up (features and instructions with infographics, pictures, or short videos).
– The story behind your product or idea: just a short paragraph.
– Timeline: what you’ve done already and when backers will receive their rewards.
– Explain why you need Kickstarter.
– Provide a pie chart of how much money you need to raise and how you will use it.
– Perk descriptions with images: a picture, infographic or table.
– The team behind the product. Include professional looking photos.
– Always issue a Call to Action in the video and storyline.
– Place pictures or videos in-between every one or two paragraphs.
– If you have testimonials of the first users and articles published about your project, post them to add credibility
Of course, every project and every crowdfunding category is unique. But, if you are passionate about your product and can convince your page visitors that you have the expertise and qualities necessary to deliver on your promises, you should be able to make your crowdfunding dream a reality.
Don’t be afraid to show your excitement and try to make your backers feel like part of the team: ask for their opinion about the product development and let them be proud of the results. Do your homework, learn from others before hitting the “launch” button, and best of luck on the journey!
About the Author
Elena Mikhaylova is a serial entrepreneur with twenty years of experience in diverse industries including crowdfunding, PR, and social media marketing. She is an internationally published author of hundreds of articles, several research papers and two books.
Elena has been a speaker at a number of international conventions and conferences and an instructor at Colorado Free University. She was also an organizer of one of the top ten largest crowdfunding meetups in the United States and was recognized as Top 1% on LinkedIn in 2012.
