Launch

About two weeks ago I launched a Kickstarter campaign along with my partner, Ria Patel, for our book project. Learn more about the launch here.

Outcome

Starting with all the good news –

In the first 48 hours:

We were 100% funded in 21 hours of launch
We become one of Kickstarter’s loved projects falling under their Project We Love section on their website.
We were selected to be featured in Kickstarter’s Inside Voices page, which invited projects in the times of quarantine.

⚡️Strategy:

Get inner-circle to give the project its initial punch → in front of more people on Kickstarter.
- Personal communication via email, texts
- Social media
Start building personal relationships with backers via Kickstarter: personal messages and updates

Days 2-5: Reached out to communities & press

⚡️Strategy:

Reach out to the target communities: Vitiligo groups, self-care groups, body image groups via:
- Instagram: Follow
- Facebook: Post on groups
- Email: Reach out to community blogs
Make a ready-to-use press kit and send out to bloggers and relevant online publications

—————————————————-MAJOR WORK ENDS———————-——————————

Days 5-11: Marketing: Email. Text. Social Media. Repeat

⚡️Strategy:

Keep reaching out to the target communities and press via instagram, facebook and email
Follow up with people who showed interest
Keep up social media account

Day 12-13: Created some last minute buzz

⚡️Strategy: Create posts that can be shared

Day 14, morning: 215% funded, 91 backers

⚡️Strategy: Promote widely to reach 100 backers!

Day 14, evening: Got 104 peeps to back us. Raised $1551. Got 238% funded

What worked well
- Making a sign-up page! This was so helpful to get a listed of people who were already interested in. our project and would be willing to back.
- Going all out with getting people to back us in the first 48 hours! This helped us get funded early and get noticed by other people in the Kickstarter community.
- Being proactive on Social media, and sending personal texts really made a difference in getting people to back.
- Our story!
- Bring in touch with our backers - 3 backers increased their pledges after receiving personal messages from us.
- The voice if our messaging - What you get out of it vs what we get really helped us frame our project from the community’s perspective.
If I were to do this again…
- I’d try to get more backing from the target communities and spend more time on the marketing plan and messaging.
- I’d also manage a twitter account to reach a different type of audience.
- I’d pre-plan stretch goals incase we met our first one.
- I’d plan for more behind-the-scenes and other engaging content to keep our audience hooked.
- I’d make a video to have a more personal touch to the campaign story.