June 2012 – Page 2 – A Kickstarter's Guide to Kickstarter

Clarity is your friend

Your pitch should be short and to the point. People are busy and don’t have time to watch a long video or read a lot of text.

Burying the Lead

“In journalism, the failure to mention the most interesting or attention grabbing elements of a story in the first paragraph is sometimes called ‘burying the lead.’” – Lead paragraph, Wikipedia

This is also true for your pitch. Make sure you open with your most interesting elements. You want people to be interested in your project from the start.

Refine, Refine, Refine

In my interviews with Peter and Dan they both stressed the need to constantly refine your pitch until you get at the very core of your idea.

“Boil it down, more concise, more instant. [With] the attention span of a citizen in today’s world, if you get two minutes that’s amazing.” – Peter Dering

“We put a lot of thought into the project page and wanted it to be carefully crafted to showed that we cared… You want to make that story as crystal clear as possible.” – Dan Provost

A Kickstart’s Guide to Kickstarter TOC:

pssst…you can read all of this offline by downloading the e-book.

A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction

How Kickstarter “Kickstartered” it’s own website

How to engage an audience with a Kickstarter project: Idea & Story

Introduction: A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction; How Kickstarter “Kickstartered” it’s own website
Understanding Kickstarter: The Basics of Kickstarter; Kickstarter is an updated version of the Parton Model; Kickstarter is like girl scout cookies…without the calories!; Make sure your project has an ending; Some additional benefits to running a Kickstarter project; Perry Chan’s Six Principles on why Kickstarter projects are successful; Yancey’s thoughts on getting funded
Brainstorming Your Project: What is this damn thing about?; Simplify your project for success; Is your project a Purple Cow?; Making Lemonade And Telling A Good Story; Reward The Patrons; Naming Your Kickstarter Project
Doing Your Homework: Before you launch, do your homework; No one cares about you; Some People Care About You; Who is Your Audience?; Where is Your Audience?; Resonating With Your Audience; Crossing Chasms; What Will it Cost?; Understanding Profit Margin and Costs
Setting Your Goals: Make or Break Decisions; Running the Numbers; Focus on what you need; Reasonable funding goals; Why be Reasonable?; How long your campaign runs depends on one thing, momentum; 30 days or less; Managing Deadlines; Going for the BIG bucks; The Allure of a Large Backer; Pricing theory, thoughts about pricing your Kickstarter rewards; The Paradox of Choice
Crafting Your Pitch: Creating a compelling pitch for your Kickstarter project; Four questions people want answered when visiting your Kickstarter page.; Show some credibility to get more backers; Clarity is your friend; How to ask for Support; Kickstarter is a video-driven site; Examples of great pitch videos
Launching Your Project: Launching your project; How to track the progress of your Kickstarter campaign; The 30% Kickstarter project “Tipping Point”
Conclusion: How to engage an audience with a Kickstarter project: Idea & Story

Show some credibility to get more backers

If there is one thing people should do to make their Kickstarter projects better, it would be to demonstrate more credibility. I really think this is the missing ingredient in a lot of campaigns. The more credibility you show, the better. I don’t think you can have enough of it.

In the Kickstarter world this could mean a couple different things. If you are launching a product, then having a working prototype is very important. If you are doing a more artistic project, then show your work in the video and on the page. If you are making an album, then let us hear an example of your music.

According to the folks at Eureka Ranch, whose innovations appear in many household products, you double the odds of a sale when you communicate real “reason to believe.” The simplest way to do this, is to tell the truth and show your work.

Ideas Are Easy

At the end of a video for The Daily: Business Gary Vaynerchuk makes an excellent point about execution.

“Nobody is investing in ideas…execution is the game. I’m not interested in investing in your idea, everyone has one. Show me if you can execute it, show me a tangible product. That gets people like us excited.”

Ideas are easy. The execution is hard. People want to see that you can carry out what you say. This is why demonstrating your credibility is so important.

If you don’t have a solid working prototype or examples of your work, then maybe you aren’t ready for Kickstarter yet. That’s OK. Launching a creative project is hard. Don’t rush it because you want to do it right now. Take the idea as far as you can before you launch on Kickstarter. It will make the whole process so much easier.

A Kickstart’s Guide to Kickstarter TOC:

pssst…you can read all of this offline by downloading the e-book.

A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction

How Kickstarter “Kickstartered” it’s own website

Creating a compelling pitch for your Kickstarter project
Four questions people want answered when visiting your Kickstarter page.
Show some credibility to get more backers
Clarity is your friend
How to ask for Support
Kickstarter is a video-driven site
Examples of great pitch videos

How to engage an audience with a Kickstarter project: Idea & Story

Introduction: A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction; How Kickstarter “Kickstartered” it’s own website
Understanding Kickstarter: The Basics of Kickstarter; Kickstarter is an updated version of the Parton Model; Kickstarter is like girl scout cookies…without the calories!; Make sure your project has an ending; Some additional benefits to running a Kickstarter project; Perry Chan’s Six Principles on why Kickstarter projects are successful; Yancey’s thoughts on getting funded
Brainstorming Your Project: What is this damn thing about?; Simplify your project for success; Is your project a Purple Cow?; Making Lemonade And Telling A Good Story; Reward The Patrons; Naming Your Kickstarter Project
Doing Your Homework: Before you launch, do your homework; No one cares about you; Some People Care About You; Who is Your Audience?; Where is Your Audience?; Resonating With Your Audience; Crossing Chasms; What Will it Cost?; Understanding Profit Margin and Costs
Setting Your Goals: Make or Break Decisions; Running the Numbers; Focus on what you need; Reasonable funding goals; Why be Reasonable?; How long your campaign runs depends on one thing, momentum; 30 days or less; Managing Deadlines; Going for the BIG bucks; The Allure of a Large Backer; Pricing theory, thoughts about pricing your Kickstarter rewards; The Paradox of Choice
Crafting Your Pitch: Creating a compelling pitch for your Kickstarter project; Four questions people want answered when visiting your Kickstarter page.; Show some credibility to get more backers; Clarity is your friend; How to ask for Support; Kickstarter is a video-driven site; Examples of great pitch videos
Launching Your Project: Launching your project; How to track the progress of your Kickstarter campaign; The 30% Kickstarter project “Tipping Point”
Conclusion: How to engage an audience with a Kickstarter project: Idea & Story

Four questions people want answered when visiting your Kickstarter page.

Whenever someone is visiting your Kickstarter project page they are coming to hear about you and your project There are four basic questions that they will want answered. Your ability to answer these questions effectively and clearly will make it easier for people to back you and spread the word.

Who are you? – This can be as simple as your name. People who don’t know you will be viewing this project, so introduce yourself.

What are you doing? – Explain what your project is about and what the result is going to be. You can also talk about how you arrived at this project and the history behind it.

Why is it important? – Are you passionate about this idea? Tell us why. Explain to us why the project is so cool. Passion draws people in, even if they don’t love the subject matter as much as you.

What is the money for? – When answering this question you can be very specific or general, it’s really up to you. “I’m building a prototype” or “I’m using the money to get the book printed” are both acceptable explanations of what the money is for. Saying nothing is also an option, but probably not a good idea for larger projects.

Answer the questions with Story

As you try to answer these questions on your project page try to tell a story. Talk about how this project came into existence, and why you are trying to raise funds.

Now, you might be thinking: I don’t have a good story. Yes you do. Your project must have come from somewhere. Tell us about how you got started and why you love the idea. It doesn’t have to be complicated or in-depth, it just has to be you. The more personal and authentic the better. If your project is about bottle caps, tell us how you got started collecting and why they are so awesome. Make us love your subject matter as much as you do.

If you can tell a story and answer the questions above you will be well on your way to crafting a compelling pitch.