Keys To a Successful Kickstarter Campaign

Kickstarter is the newest craze in online fundraising and people all across the world are using this platform to build a financial foundation for their projects. Art, design, film, culinary experiments, games, websites, and technology all have a home here. Virtually any category of human expression you can think of—someone is launching a Kickstarter campaign on it.

Maybe you want to build the most comfortable computer chair in the world; or maybe you’re looking to create an innovative new mobile application. No matter what your project is, abiding by a few ground rules will increase your chances of a successful campaign. Here are the keys:

Post a video or multimedia presentation outlining your project. Most successful Kickstarter pages feature a video or some form of entertaining media (perhaps a flash animation) that illustrate the salient details of the project. Whether you’re trying to fund your short film or you’re creating a social network for earthworm fanatics, moving images and sound are invaluable as attention-drawers and for marketing purposes. It also helps you to give more shape and clarity to your goals.

Clearly describe who is undertaking the project and what their experience is. You should have at least a couple paragraphs giving biographical information about the authors of the project and what their job history is. Potential funders will want to know how you are qualified to carry out your endeavor before they donate money to you and your associates. You don’t have to put your resume or CVS or anything like that, but you should be able to write a glowing review of yourself (a good skill to have in life no matter how modest you are).

Target a realistic financial number. Don’t ask for too much and don’t ask for too little. Figure out how much funding you need to complete you project and ask for that amount. Describe why you need this money. What are your production debts, your overhead costs, etc. Make a spreadsheet if you have to. The more professional your budget looks, the more likely people will want to entrust you with their money. If you appear to have put minimal work into the financial side of your endeavor, funders might suspect you’re likely to waste the money.

Advertise your Kickstarter page on Facebook and Twitter. Social media is a must. While there is a vibrant community on Kickstarter, the success of a campaign is largely dependent on how many eyeballs you get looking at your page. If you have a couple hundred Facebook friends and manage to get a few shares, that’s potentially an additional thousand people looking at your project. Twitter, used effectively, can position your project in a variety of niche communities. For example, if your project concerns gardening, a #gardening hashtag might generate dozens of retweets and another thousand views.

The fate of your Kickstarter campaign will ultimately depend on how much work you put into it. Your visual presentation, clarity of description, financial homework, and social media use will all help you to run a successful campaign and hit your target.

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