Launching your first Kickstarter campaign is an exciting and nerve-racking adventure. Still, you stand to gain great success through meticulous planning and implementation.
With any extensive campaign, it’s always good to have a plan. We’ve created a Kickstarter checklist to help you hit all the marks.
Any crowdfunding checklist consists of 3 parts – the pre-launch, the launch, and the post-launch. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take you through all 3 of the processes and tell you all you need to know.
We talk about everything from market research and validation to crafting your campaign page and maintaining communication with backers. So, let’s dive right in and check off those action points.
Kickstarter pre-launch checklist
To start with the Kickstarter checklist, let’s first cover the foundation of your launch – the pre-launch stage. Here, you’ll prepare everything you’ll need for a successful launch.
Market research, idea validation, and audience identification. These are some of the action points you’ll need to cover. Don’t stress out too much if you’re new to Kickstarter. We’re here to guide you through every step.
Market research
First, on your pre-launch Kickstarter checklist, you need to learn everything there is to know about your market. What are the average prices? What are the most popular products? What do they offer, and what are they lacking?
All this will help you fill a gap in the market and ultimately find your product-market fit. Start from the basics, then work your way up.
Market research is ongoing, so don’t fear it’ll take too long. It would help if you did it to help power your brand’s success.
Pro tip:Â Research similar campaigns to understand the dynamics of crowdfunding on Kickstarter. There’s a lot you can learn from other people’s mistakes.
Competitor research
It would be best to dip your toes into it before creating a product that will blow your competition out of the water. This way, you can know who you’re against.
While competitor research might be scary at first, it is also a great source of learning. From product capabilities and pricing to marketing and positioning, there’s a lot you can grasp.
You will understand what works for your competitors and what doesn’t. This way, you can learn from their mistakes rather than make your own.
Idea validation
Once you determine your market and competition, it’ll be time to test out the market to gauge your potential customer’s reaction to your product. So, the last point in your pre-launch Kickstarter checklist will be to test and validate your idea, product, audience, and even colors.
It might sound harsh, but today’s online validation tools like Prelaunch.com have you covered. They will hold your hand through your pre-launch process.
In a nutshell, the tool helps you launch before you launch – without a risk of failure. Along the way, they will help you improve your product based on customer feedback.
Here are a couple of things you can expect to validate with Prelaunch.com.
- Your concept
- Pricing strategy
- Target audience
- Positioning
- Colors
Fun fact: The tool even lets you gather pre-orders (or reservations, as they call it) for your product!
Once you validate your product with Prelaunch, you’ll already have a community around your product and be able to confidently launch your Kickstarter campaign.
Build a prototype
As one of your top priorities to include in your Kickstarter campaign checklist, you must build a prototype for your innovative product idea. Kickstarter only allows real products to be launched on their platform, so you need something you can showcase and send people later.
You can use 3D printing or other manufacturing processes to create your MVP (minimum viable product). First, you’ll need to make sketches of your idea, then build on top of it to reach a working prototype finally.
Kickstarter launch checklist
Now, let’s talk about the more significant chunk of work you have ahead of you in your Kickstarter checklist – ensuring you can reach your campaign goal through planning.
In this section, we’ll tell you all you need to do so that you can launch on Kickstarter – from your product page and rewards to marketing and more.
Crafting a campaign page
You have to think about your primary tool for locking in backers – the campaign page. Creating buzz and bringing potential backers to your page is only one side of the coin. You need to be able to give them that last push to convert.
So, here’s a little tutorial on how to craft your Kickstarter campaign page:
- Choose your product’s category and sub-categories
- Name your project and add some basic info
- Write up some persuasive content and tell your story to potential backers
- Add beautiful and realistic product pictures and whip up a campaign video
- Set up your reward tiers
- Set your realistic funding goal
- Submit your project page for review
Creating an engaging video
As mentioned, your Kickstarter checklist should include a video showcasing your product. It is the first thing people will see when they enter your product page, so you have to make it count.
To make sure you can nail that perfect Kickstarter video, follow these simple tips:
- Keep it short but sweet
- Start with a hook
- Tell a story
- Showcase your product with closeup shots
- Talk about your features
- Make it relatable
- Include a CTA at the end, urging people to support you on Kickstarter
Determining reward tiers
Let’s discuss a fun item on your Kickstarter planning checklist – your reward tiers. In a nutshell, rewards are what you gift your backers in return for their pledge. It’s an incentive and a token of your appreciation for them.
You can use your product, a special add-on, or a customized gift as your reward.
How do you set up Kickstarter reward tiers? First, you need to choose what to offer to your backers. Remember that you won’t be allowed to provide rewards through equity, funds, or an item you purchased elsewhere.
As a rule of thumb, you should always offer a wide range of rewards – starting from $1. Some backers might not be ready to pledge a significant amount, so make sure they have options. At the same time, don’t complicate things too much by having too many reward tiers. Aim for 3-5.
Once you set up your reward tiers, start considering add-ons. They can be time-sensitive and bring a sense of urgency to the table.
Pro tip:Â Consider using automation tools to add more rewards and add-ons whenever you run out.
Setting up a realistic timeline
Planning is everything. So, make sure to add a timeline to your checklist for Kickstarter. Set up milestones, and don’t forget to celebrate them. Don’t forget to include your production timeline to ensure you don’t leave your backers hanging.
When crafting your timeline, remember to add buffer periods. Mishaps happen, and it’s essential to plan for failure as well.
Aside from your action plan, you should create a communication timeline to keep up your engagement with backers.
The marketing component
Now, let’s talk about one of the most crucial checklist items you should complete – everything about marketing. This plan will be your map to success, from generating buzz around your product before and after launch to maintaining your promotional momentum after launch.
So, let us make it a bit easier for you and tell you about the most essential points you need to cover:
Prepare your marketing materials
To prepare marketing materials, you must build a base for your upcoming marketing endeavors. From your tone of voice and product pictures to videos and promotional channels, you need to create a powerful arsenal of content.
It will set the base for your marketing strategy. Remember that marketing for a crowdfunding campaign is a bit different, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Find what works for you and go with it.
Build an email list and start email marketing
Email is a highly effective tool for crowdfunding campaigns. Since email marketing has a very high conversion rate across many industries, it also has the power to bring many backers to your page.
Start with building an email list. You can do this through a signup form on a landing page. If you use Prelaunch.com for your validation period, you’ll have this list on hand after your pre-launch.
Next, you’ll need to start contacting your potential backers. Create automations through online tools like MailerLite, and you can do it proactively.
Send them a countdown about your launch, an email announcing that you’re live on Kickstarter, an update about how much you’ve raised and how much is left, some emails about production schedules, and more.
Create a solid social media presence
Social media is the place where you can reach your audience quickly and easily. It’s where you can go viral for free (if you’re one of the lucky few).
First, pick the channels you want to use. Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest can be your top choices if you have a younger audience. If you have a product that appeals to professionals, consider LinkedIn.
Ultimately, you need to understand where your audience is and go to them.
You should share informative and CTA-related posts, but don’t forget to entertain your audience. It’s a challenging field, so you need to stand out. Hire a specialist if needed, and don’t hesitate to break the rules.
Prepare a press release and start PR outreach
Another best practice for Kickstarter projects is press outreach. To reach a six-figure goal, you’ll need media coverage. Plus, you can get tons of exposure through outreach if you have an innovative product.
We recommend contacting a crowdfunding marketing agency if you don’t know where to start. However, if you want to do it yourself, you’ll need a couple of components.
First, you need to put together a press release that will be worth publishing. Next, you’ll need to gather contacts of publishers you want to contact. It can be challenging, so don’t hesitate to use online tools.
Next, you’ll need to send them your pitch and press release. If you catch their attention, you’ll go into negotiations and land a coverage story.
Start influencer outreach and partnerships
Last but not least, let’s talk about influencer marketing. Many think it’s a nice-to-have marketing action point, but times have changed. Currently, influencer marketing is a must for success.
Whether you hire a brand ambassador or go with one-off partnerships with many influencers, it will bring good results. Nevertheless, you need to find the right influencers to partner up with.
There’s a reason why influencers are called influencers – it’s because they can truly influence the lifestyle choices and purchase decisions of their followers. So, go ahead and start reaching out to influencers.
You will either work with them on a paid basis or land a barter deal. Before launching, include them in your arsenal, but post them after the launch to ensure you can convert the people they bring to your page.
Campaign launch and monitoring
Once you have done all the preparations on your Kickstarter checklist, it’ll be time to plan the big day. So, let us tell you about the Kickstarter launch day checklist we’ve put together.
Launch announcement
On the day of your launch, you need to blow up every promotional channel you have. Everyone needs to know that you’re live, from email and social media to influencers and media.
Engagement and communication with backers
Communication with backers is among the top 5 things you must include in your Kickstarter checklist. Send them emails and post updates on your Kickstarter campaign page to keep them in the loop.
It will ensure that your backers stay in the community you build and become loyal brand lovers once you go from a startup to a business.
Campaign analytics
Once you launch, you must set up Google Analytics on your project page. This way, you’ll be able to track the success of your project through conversion rates, traffic, and more.
Through online tools, you can even record people’s encounters with your page – what buttons they click, where they decide to convert, and whether or not a majority leaves at a specific point on the page.
Tracking your stats is as important as achieving them. Analyze them, learn from them, and you’ll be able to implement changes that’ll skyrocket your growth.
Post-campaign period
Finally, your campaign is complete, the hard part is over, and you can start your business just like you dreamed. It can be scary, so we’ve compiled another Kickstarter checklist to cover the basics for your post-campaign period.
Celebrate
You should celebrate wins. After all, if you aren’t enjoying the process, is it even worth it? Plan a party, gather your friends, maybe even a couple of engaged backers, and have a day where you are proud of your achievements.
Celebrating that you’ve reached your funding goal and completed your project can also keep the scary burnout away. Trust us: your team needs the break after hard work during this stressful crowdfunding period.
Fulfillment planning
Once celebrations are out of the way, you should begin fulfillment planning. After all, your backers would love to get their rewards as soon as possible.
Of course, you can take some time for production, packaging, and logistics, but don’t forget to delight those who helped you get there.
Expressing gratitude to backers
Here’s another sentimental point in your Kickstarter checklist – a little thank you to your backers. As a part of your community, your backers will be swooned by your appreciation. After all, you all came together to achieve this goal, and you did it!
Send them an email with heartfelt content thanking them for their input in your success.
Product quality control
While it can get hectic quickly, you can never lose sight of the bigger picture. Quality is a must; your backers (plus future customers) deserve the best. Don’t compromise on quality, and keep on growing.
Post-campaign marketing plan
Last but not least, you should set forth a post-campaign marketing plan on your crowdfunding campaign checklist. Your marketing goals have changed so that you will need a different strategy.
Yes, this marketing strategy can be more mellow and time-sensitive, but it should also be well thought-out and impactful.
Closure
Your Kickstarter launch is an essential event in your project’s journey. Dare we say, it can make or break your success. However, if you plan and play it out just right, your Kickstarter checklist will bring you the million-dollar campaign you were aiming for.
Break down your checklist into three parts (pre-launch, launch, post-launch), and then go into detail about each part. This way, you can have bite-size action plans that are easier to tackle.
From research and validation to an awesome crowdfunding video and strategic reward tiers, you need to think about each step. In the meantime, don’t forget to keep it up after you launch. Your backers will appreciate it if you keep them in the loop, so don’t forget to stay in touch.
Go ahead and create a community around your product, and good luck with your Kickstarter launch!
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