Team Era Zero Waste put blood, sweat and tears into their recent Kickstarter campaign, hoping to grow their community of early adopters and collect enough money to fund their first production of its self-care products that comes from nature and disappears in nature. From building a pre-campaign email list, reaching out to hundreds of journalists to continuously optimizing paid ads on Facebook, and growth hacking on LinkedIn and WhatsApp – no stone was left unturned by founder Livia Zimermann.
The team played by the books. They implemented commonly known tips and tricks to launch on Kickstarter. They had a strong team of dedicated marketers and volunteers to spread the word. They even paid an agency to guide them through the process. But in the end they were EUR 4,000 short of their funding goal.
How to run a (more) successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Rather than putting her head in the sand, Livia is using the quiet after the storm to reflect on her Kickstarter journey and formulate her learnings. Firstly, she is going back to the drawing board to reconsider her assumption about product-market fit and customer segments. That’s what founders do – they don’t give up, but accept challenges as their day-to-day.
Secondly, she is sharing her insights with other entrepreneurs. For a detailed analysis and a step by step guide, check out her article on how to avoid Kickstarter pitfalls and run successful crowdfunding campaigns.
For the lazy readers within our loyal follower base, here are our main 3 take-aways:
- Build a specific Kickstarter waitlist to test all your planned marketing strategies and materials on them.
- If you weren’t able to reach your funding goal in the first 48 hours, stop and start over.
- Don’t go solo. Hire a known crowdfunding agency to reach a Kickstarter backers database through ads.
- Kickstarter kinda sucks…
Okay, that wasn’t the most helpful summary, but that’s why you should really take the time to check out Livia’s post. Especially if you are playing with the thought of doing a crowdfunding campaign. Because she covers all the stuff others don’t really talk about.
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