How to wage a successful Kickstarter campaign in 4 key steps

Kickstarter has become a wildly popular way to advertise or provide all-or-nothing funding for creative projects, independently crafted. Millions of dollars have been raised for countless projects, all through online crowdsourcing that helps creators meet meet their funding goal. However, success is not guaranteed. Here’s how to wage a successful Kickstarter campaign in four steps.

Kickstarter campaign success tip No. 1: Have a realistic funding goal

If you’re new to the Kickstarter process and expect to make millions right out of the gate, think again. Research suggests that a more realistic number is $10,000. According to Wired, 38 percent of Kickstarter projects were able to reach their funding goal when set at that level. If you must go bigger, the scope and import of your project must be significant, as odds decrease to 7 percent success at $100,000.

Kickstarter campaign success tip No. 2: Short campaigns for short attention spans

On average, Kickstarter campaigns set for a 30-day cycle – a cycle being the length of time over which a user can solicit funds – tend to have the greatest chance of success. Thirty-day campaigns are successful 35 percent of the time, and more time makes things worse. Double the cycle to 60 days and only 29 percent of Kickstarter campaigns receive funding. Experts believe longer campaigns signify a lack of confidence on the part of the idea person in their project.

Kickstarter campaign success tip No. 3: Make a video

The right words are key to selling your Kickstarter project to the crowdsourcing world. However, a picture paints a thousand words, and moving video on the Web hurls 30 pictures per second at the potential investor. Since 89 percent of all Kickstarter projects that receive funding have a video presentation to frame the idea, perhaps there’s something to it. It’s as close to foolproof as you can get with a Kickstarter project.

“Funders are looking for a video and a well-written campaign to decipher good and bad projects,” Wharton Business School professor Ethan Mollick told Wired.

Kickstarter campaign success tip No. 4: Pull a grand on Facebook

Kickstarter is very social media friendly, which means that it works hand-in-hand with Facebook. According to Mollick, having 1,000 Facebook friends of more increases the odds of funding success by 40 percent. If a user only has 100 Facebook friends, there is reportedly an 80 percent chance of Kickstarter failure, which is quite significant. Dip under 100 and you may as well scrap the idea and spend some time being more social.

Sending updates to friends on Facebook is a great way to add that extra push during the closing days of a Kickstarter campaign. Whether friends have already pledged or not, the four-alarm-fire moments of a pledge drive can get people with resources back off the couch and into the crowdfunding game.

High-profile Kickstarter projects featured on TYT University

Sources

Hyperbot

Kickstarter

Wired