Advice for creators

[TashaTurner]

This thread is for BC members and creators to give advice to creators. We have a few threads with various topics but I thought it might be easier to find if all the info was in a single thread.

[TashaTurner]

Updates

Updates should be frequent throught campaign and post-funding.

During campaign they should include DETAILED information.

1. Additional info about product - backers excited & sharing

2. How development is progressing - belief in you and product as well as excited & sharing

3. How finding a manufacturer is progressing - belief in you & product

4. If you are wildly overfunded how it might affect production, fullfilment, and shipping - sets realistic expectations

5. Should be more updates about your campaign than promotion for others - backers excited about you & not feeling like you are advertising only - don't you have anything to say about your product? Are the products your promoting appropriate for your backers? Related in some way to your product? Something you've backed and are excited about? Cross-promotion is great when used properly but if your updates are mostly cross-promotion and not about your product I'm going to start wondering why I'm giving you money & also get annoyed at being spammed. I hate spam. I bet you hate spam. Don't be a spammer.

6. Should be more about what's going on behind the scenes than thank you - keeps people excited & sharing - we want to be along for the journey - if I wanted a finished product I'd be shopping at Amazon. One of the things I love about Kickstarter is how much I learn about different businesses and what it takes to bring a product to market. The more you make me feel like I'm part of the team the more I'm going to want to see you succeed.

7. When you ask me to share give me sample I can use. Remember for Twitter you want the character count to be under 125 so when people share its not truncated. Include 2-4 examples for FB and for Twitter. Don't be afraid to include for other social media.

8. Don't give up on your campaign too early. Wait until the last week or even last few days before you do pessimistic updates. Then make the update advice for a reboot keeping as positive an attitude as possible. Keep your pessimism off Kickstarter and whatever you do don't start blaming backers or Kickstarter if you plan to use the platform again. Talk to offline buds about your frustration. Don't poison the well or you kill your project and turn potential backers off.[/list]

Post-funding updates

1. Set a schedule, let backers know, keep to it

2. Share more frequently if you have good or bad news

3. Remember we are in this for the journey as well as our reward - we love those updates - ask for likes to let you know we've read the updates & see the love pour in - ask questions in your update if appropriate and also see the love

4. The more we are kept in the loop the more forgiving we are of delays

5. Backers can and will help troubleshoot or even add their skills to a problem so the earlier you alert us the sooner you may find a solution and possibly helping hands

6. Detailed updates are needed - vague ones combined with delays (and until you've shipped you don't know if you will be delayed) leave a bad taste and cause lack of trust - details and honesty engender trust and goodwill- less angry backers - I've seen projects delayed by a year with mostly supportive backers. I've seen projects delayed by 3 months with backers calling for blood. For the most part it's in your hands which kind of backers you have. It's really hard to share bad news early on but it is the best policy.

Summary: detailed and frequent updates are important during and post-funding. Backers want to feel involved as part of the team. We love to help troubleshoot problems. We love to be asked our opinion. The more involved you get us the more support you get. This support includes money, sharing your project, patience during delays, promoting your product once it is available for sale to the public, and future Kickstarter campaigns.

We hate vague beat-around-the-bush updates. We don't like being lied to. We dislike silence although if warned and you check in when promised we may be ok. Constant promotion of other campaigns with little useful updates on your part or where the cross-promotions aren't appropriate leads to negativity.

A couple projects that have done this stuff really well:

Geeky Sprinkles - if it could go wrong to delay delivery it has - some backers have grumbled but most have remained supportive due to her frequent updates https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ge ... geeky-baki

Writer Emergency Pack decided to ship product months early and kept us updated yet surprised us https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/backings/28449695

Litographs: Entire Books on Posters and T-shirts - this was a project that went as planned with regular updates (older project) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/li ... d-t-shirts

Litographs Tattoos: Wearable Tributes to Iconic Books (newer project) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/li ... iconic-boo

Projects doing this poorly:

BelayCords (see their comment section where a few troublemakers are causing some level of panic - although I've written to kickstarter so comments might be deleted LOL) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ma ... -iphone-an

The 10th Annual Doug Wright Awards - no updates until shipping followed by "oops most books have problems but doesn't really say what he's going to do" - ignored comments - I've contacted him with no response to get him to address a number of backer issues based on comments & sketchy/semi-useless updates https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/87 ... s-ceremony

[TashaTurner]

Creator Recommended FAQs
I've noticed a number of questions come up again and again on many projects I've backed. Creators might want to cover these questions in FAQs right from the start:

1. When do I give my shipping address/select options/colors/etc.: in surveys after Kickstarter ends (put this in your words)

2. How do I change my pledge: walk them through manage pledge & include screenshots

3. Ways you can help project succeed: share (include screenshots for social media - maybe do something extra if they share), email friends who specifically share interest (suggest they don't spam entire friends list), talk to people in person (maybe have an easy PDF backers can print & cut up that has title, quick link, short description)

4. How do I do multiple pledges: A. if they can double pledge or combine $$ to get different pledges tell them how & remind them of #1 above or B. email you with new pledge ideas or C. not available - pick 1 pledge only - don't tell backers kickstarter won't let them pledge twice as too many of us have done "double pledges" (we pick $25 pledge - up $$s to $50 & get 2 of item)

5. Anything you think might come up as a question - even if you think you spelled it out in your description (i.e. Operating systems; limited shipping; special instructions; sizes/materials)

UPDATE your FAQs as info changes - you decide to let people do "multiple pledges"; stretch goals change things, new information from manufacturer

As soon as you see people asking a question in the comments add it to your FAQS as well as answering it in the comments & ask yourself "would this make a good update" (don't make those updates backer only - think twice before making an update backer only - why don't you want potential backers to have access to this information?).

I'm sure I'm forgetting some basics. Hope this helps. Remember it's never too late to add FAQs to your project until it's funded.

[TashaTurner]

Projects that show how to do "multiple pledges" or "donation copies" & Kickstarter rules: From what I understand you can't sell more than 10 items nor let people do donations of more than 10.

Writer Emergency Pack https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/backings/28449695 and their update for upping a pledge to donate individual packs: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/91 ... ts/1056326

Spark Notebook https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/47 ... ns-and-gre

And for add-ons, combining levels check out GIR Silicone Lid Series: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pr ... lid-series

ARQ Dock 2.0 was a really simple increase your pledge up to 10x for the number of docks you want https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/95 ... id-devices

[TashaTurner]

Stretch Goals
Stretch goals don't always have to be about giving more away or delivering it at the same time. Nor does reaching them have to be based on $$ goals.

Check out the following campaigns for different ways to do things

GIR does add more product but delivery of stretch goal product is many months later
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pr ... lid-series

Lightbox does several virtual add-ons which it delivers at different times post-campaign. One it delivers before we get the product keeping backers happy even if delays happen with product (notice fantastic updates during and post-funding). The final stretch goal is a virtual newsletter - in a way an add-on to the product as it will contain more photography challenges and tips but also marketing as we will be kept up-to-date on new products or Kickstarters. You'll need to read updates to get the full picture.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pm ... aphy-cards

Finally we have Exploding Kittens currently the most backers a Kickstarter campaign has ever had. They created a game for their stretch goals - some based around the game - all using social media - my only complaint was they were not good with including complete instructions at time of goals (do better if you choose some form of this). They weren't the first to use some of the goals they included (FB likes/Twitter followers/etc.) but they took it to the next level. No reason not to borrow some ideas from them - don't imitate but get creative.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/el ... ng-kittens

Those are three campaigns that stand out in my mind. What I like:
1. Stretch goals don't delay manufacturing,fulfillment, shipping of rewards
2. Creative - out-of-the-box thinking - they got out of their own way
3. They made reaching goals fun and kept their backers involved
4. They listened to their backers & what their backers wanted but didn't let their backers talk them into goals which would prevent them from shipping rewards on time or causing them to go over budget and running out of money

[TashaTurner]

Feedback

If possible create a preview project page and get people who back projects who aren't your friends to look it over. When you ask for feedback it's important not to get defensive (also really hard to do I know). Be aware that we all have different communication styles. Someone may feel very positive towards your project but offer a lot of feedback for changes. Be careful about thanking someone too much/many times if you aren't using any of their advice as some will feel patronized/condescended to.

When asking for feedback you may want to direct us in what kind of feedback you are looking for.

Consider including additional information:
1. Stretch goals you are thinking of & will savings in manufacturing quantity make up for "giveaway"

2. Target market - who you think you are selling to - male/female, white/blue collar, white people/POC, straight/open to LGBTI, etc.

3. Expected problems if you overfund and solutions

4. Minimum you need to hit for stretch goals not to cost you money

5. How much leeway you have to play with early backer rewards - are they helping you reach goal or are you losing money on them?

6. What pre-Kickstarter promotion have you done?

7. What are your promotion, marketing, getting in the news plans?

Post your project in the appropriate category so we can have deeper discussions. Keep in mind most of us are backers and we will be coming at this from that perspective. We are getting more creators as well as some people who do project management. Take some time to think about advice. Ask for clarification, tell us where you are thinking of going based on advice to make sure you understood and others don't think its a big mistake. While we are backers we want projects to succeed and we try to give advice which we believe will help and not harm. However we are human and everyone has hidden biases they aren't aware of.

[TashaTurner]

I'm really hoping to see others posting here. To agree, disagree, expand, add things I'm forgetting, share links to projects they think other creators could learn from.

[TashaTurner]

Video - on another thread Lobster did a great job on explaining the good, the bad, the ugly:

A quality video can be very important to a campaign convincing people to pledge. It is one way that backers assess how professional a project creators is and what they often go to first for information about what the project is actually about.

It doesn't have to be fancy. What I'm looking for when the project creator talks is clear audio, a good camera angle (It helps avoid uncanny looking eye contact) and being well lit. Backers can understand that a project creator doesn't have the funds to pay for someone else to professionally record and edit a video for them. What to avoid is using the default title screens and transitions for popular video editing software like Windows Movie Maker. Some projects have bad audio mixing, meaning that I have to turn up the volume to hear someone talk then turn down the volume when a sound effect is too loud. If a person did not have much quality control over their own pitch video, then I begin to suspect they might not have much quality control over their final product.

For video game projects there is a strong recommendation against the project creator talking to the audience at the start of the pitch video. Potential backers immediately want to see gameplay and having to wait through even 30 seconds of self introduction can be too much. Many project creators need to understand that a large portion of backers won't care about the life story of the developer. They are here for the game. It is also good to have changes in the enegery of a video to keep it more interesting.

I like to use the video for Hive Jump as an example of how to make a not boring video that still conveys a lot of information through visuals and pop-ups without the need for the developer to talk on camera. The tone changes at 00:18 and again at 01:56 to keep things more interesting and suspenseful. At 2 minutes 20 seconds it is not too long. A possible complaint is that there were no human faces in the video to relate to the project. To solve that one option is to have lots of video project updates where the developer talks to the backers.

Physical products on Kickstarter are going to want to pattern their pitch to mention a benefit each time a feature is mentioned. The Coolest Cooler's pitch is the best example I know of for the infomercial style pitch on Kickstarter. There is also the pattern of show the problem first, then show the solution. The project creator only talks about himself at the end to build up trust that the campaign can delvier and what the funding will go towards achieving. It also provided a discount to backers as an incentive to support now instead of potentially later.

Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet is an example of how to do a comedic pitch video properly. Many bad comedic pitch videos focus too much on the skit and not on conveying information about what the project is. It also has a call-to-action for backers to share the project at the end.

One of the strengths of Kickstarter has over other early crowdfunding platforms was that it is able to host its own videos. I read an article that discussed how IndieGoGo has to use embedded YouTube videos. As a result search engines may bring people to the YouTube video instead of the IndieGoGo page. The conversion rate of views into backers drops as a result of adding an extra step of the person now has to go find the link to the IndieGoGo page to pledge.

[TashaTurner]

My thoughts on video

Due to hearing problems I rarely watch the video so if they don't repeat the information in text it impacts my ability to support but I suspect I'm in the minority. If I watch the video (<1/3 time) a really poorly done video is a turn off - if the creator doesn't know what to say, keeps saying "umm", and losing track of their thoughts, begging for money - that kind of thing. But then a super professional that feels too scripted/like an ad/too arrogant will also turn me off.

What's important to me is that the creator's enthusiasm comes through, they explain the basics of the project, why/how the idea came about, and they give me a sense of "we want you involved because together we can do something great" - be it a video game, a documentary, a book, a cool new piece of technology - They make me feel like they are talking to ME and inviting ME to be a part of what they are doing.

[TashaTurner]

These are things that are warning signs that your Kickstarter may fail to deliver on time or at all - don't do these:

1. Ask for too little money hoping to make it up in stretch goals unless you can break the project up into real deliverables at each level - be realistic in what you need & remember to figure in extra for Murphys Law

2. Ship dates which are too close to end of Kickstarter - figure your ship date than triple it - shipping early thrills backers - shipping late makes them angry. If you are relying on others to do part of manufacturing or your product needs certification expect delays. If your product is being made in China figure a month down time around Chinese New Year and delays could put you there. Expect stress from Kickstarter and Murphys Law will kick in at some point and something will go wrong. Again better to ship early than late.

3. Letting stretch goals get out of hand. Stretch goals have become a normal part of Kickstarter. But they can cause delays or cost you more money than you raised. Be very careful when setting up stretch goals and consider how wildly overfunding will affect your ability to deliver. Think about why you are doing stretch goals - what do you hope to gain? Can you deliver on time? If your creating new technology and add stretch goals which take it even further are you over committing? Can you deliver virtual stretch goals? Can you deliver stretch goals at a later time? Can you charge extra for stretch goals to cover cost so only those who upgrade get them? Be careful of backers demands as many newbie backers don't understand the risk of stretch goals and they will be the first to turn on you as they haven't gotten used to the inevitable Kickstarter delays of 1-3 months (which is why #2 above).

4. Lack of communication. You need to be on top of communication throughout the Kickstarter until after everyone has their reward and at least a month or so after. This means during the campaign twice a week updates, daily checking in with comments, daily responding to PMs, daily responding to emails, daily dealing with social media, updating your FAQs and story based on Updates/comments/PMs/emails/social media interactions. Post-funding updates can cut back every other week or once a month but all the rest comments/PMs/email/social media still needs to be handled at least once or twice a week or backers start believing you've absconded with their money. Replies need to be detailed and personal (not form letters).

Those are the big ones off the top of my head. I'm sure others have more to add. Running a campaign is at least a 20-hour a week job IMHO if it's to be successful.