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Hey all, after completing our first day on Kickstarter (and everything leading up to it) I decided to write a post about my experiences. It was a lot more work than I had expected and I think it had some rather unique benefits that I hadn't anticipated going in. I hope this is helpful!
link to blog with pictures or copy:
-- Making a Kickstarter 101: Lessons from a bootstrapped company --
Kickstarter is the best crash course in entrepreneurship I've ever enrolled in.
Today was a big deal for me, not just with an unconventional product I've been working on for months but it was the first time in two years that I've shown our community my real identity. Shirtwascash started two years ago from some 4chan and reddit posts and has grown ever since - but I stayed anonymous to stay true to that and our brand. I never wanted to be famous, and still don't, but that persona was holding me back and I'm ready for what's next.
One thing that hasn't changed is my desire to be transparent and hopefully help others through my experiences. This post is the first of a short series on how we created and marketed our first Kickstarter.
You've done over a million in revenue... Why launch on Kickstarter?
Kickstarter has evolved a lot since its inception. It is a massive platform to get your message, products, and company in front of new audiences, but the largest benefit to me was how high the bar is set on there now. Gone are the days of piecing together some pencil sketches and promises if you want to succeed on it.
As an entrepreneur, I appreciate the amount of preparation it takes to craft an amazing product page on Kickstarter. This was the first time that I can't rely on just word-of-mouth or random viral posts to generate traffic. It creates a whole new set of obstacles, marketing, and content development that I had no prior experience with - so I view it as a unique challenge to solve problems and prove I can succeed.
Psychologically, for me at least, Kickstarter put me outside of my comfort zone and is almost an unnecessary risk (since its so public). I think comfort zones develop bad habits and keep you stagnant. I try to continuously find ways to self-improve, so this was another opportunity for me to grow. Honestly, I didn't realize this when I decided to do it.
Product first, Content second, Community/Customers third
Wait... I thought you said you put customers first? I do, but creating a Kickstarter works backwards.
Product - a hands-on learning experience
SpiritFlags is the first completely original product I've ever created with my own hands. It was immensely beneficial for me to rapidly learn about new fabrics, how complicated certain stitching is, making something that won't fall part in extreme use, and how to draw/put together a unique pattern for manufacturing.
Now that we have the initial concept completed, I see that I learned more in the past couple months about product development (within my own industry, mind you) than ever before.
Within two months we:
- Sourced fabrics that I had never seen before,
- Bought new machines and implemented totally different stitching methods,
- Figured out the perfect place for a hidden pocket (that was a fun "ah-ha!" moment for me),
- Became more experienced at higher-end apparel manufacturing
- Really tested the quality, usability, and fit of something with no blueprint
Going through this experience has taught us how to develop new things better and will vastly improve all of our products moving forward. I love that!
It took me two months of planning to come up with the initial pattern, one hour to learn it was totally wrong, and about two weeks of intense work on adjustments to get it right. I still made improvements pretty much until the last minute.
Caring about the product is one of the main reasons Shirtwascash has been successful. Regardless of how the Kickstarter finishes, this is something I can be proud of and learned a lot from. Doing this groundwork is critical for any of our future developments.
Content
This is one of the things I generally had no experience with from a professional standpoint. All of our designs are initially submitted by our community, so product content is automated.
Creating good content is difficult because it involves so many people, a lot of time, and organized planning. If I could turn back time, I would have listed out our target audiences more thoroughly, considered how we need to educate viewers more, and mapped out the exact photos we needed to use (and for what).
How to take the right pictures you'll need
I had a general idea of what photography I wanted and who would wear this product, but the pictures we took don't do a good enough job at easily digesting how they can use it.
SpiritFlags seems like a really simple product, but in that simplicity is the genius of it. This garment can truly be worn in a hundred different ways and when combined with our printing method (which allows us to literally print anything on them), it results in a rather difficult thing to explain.
If I were to start over, I would do this:
- List all of the specific audiences that will likely wear it
- List all of the ways they will use it
- List the environments/events they'll buy it for
- Create product samples that have designs specifically for those groups
- List all of the unique aspects of the product that may need more explanation
If I had these lists and designs from the start, our photo content would be completely different and the photographers that put their heart into this project would have been more effective.
Product photography requires a lot more preparation than I knew two months ago. People are applying their amazing talents and giving their time, so it would be best to consider how this all works and what they need to get the best results.
Here's a rundown of things to consider:
- Orchestrating the production of samples and photographer's/model's time is a much bigger task than it seems. The more organization and clear instructions you can give, the better.
- Things can get wrinkled, sweaty, wrinkled or messy. We created a number of samples but scheduling photo shoots so close to each other requires quick trips to the laundry/store.
- Real photographers care a lot about their work and it takes time. I only want to work with people that care, but of the 1000+ photos that were taken, we only had time for ~20 to make it through their post-production. If they don't have a clear idea of the photos you need, it can result in a bunch of pictures that don't really help.
Making a video for Kickstarter
The video is arguably the most important aspect of a Kickstarter campaign. I had the chance to work with an extremely talented and caring videographer, so the video and editing itself was fairly simple. Since I had such an amazing person on our project, I likely skipped some of the largest problems that could have happened.
So - my suggestion is to make sure you recruit someone inspired and reliable. It made the whole video process a lot more fun and successful.
If I were to do it again, I would have focused on the product more. I really excel at things like community and speaking about things I care about, so I should have made the video showcase things that I can't easily make up for with my writing, updates, and voice.
I am still on the fence on whether I should cut the video in half only show the part talking about the product announcement itself.
I still have a lot to learn about product marketing. By putting myself out of my comfort zone and trying new things, I became aware of what I can do better in the future. I spent so much time making this product something special - the design can be fully customized, the print will never fade, the fabric is crazy, and it can be worn so many different ways that will fit surprisingly well into anyone's style - that I totally forgot to friggin showcase that.
That said, I still really love the video. My advice is that you identify the things you are good at, consider them a given (you'll easily be able to get that across later), and focus on the aspects that you are most likely going to overlook or not emphasize enough.
Marketing your Kickstarter - Media Outreach and Potential Customers
I could write a separate blog post on this, so I'll keep it short. Through the development of your content, you'll generally already know who your target audience is. The nice thing about prioritizing this last before launch is that you already have a ton of content with specific use/purpose for the media to use. We haven't executed any of our non-traditional marketing tests/tactics yet, so I am going to stick to the more "obvious" methods here.
Traditional Kickstarter Marketing 101
Blog writers, massive online media groups, local news/media
This one is fairly straight forward and your best chance to really get the word out. Writers are pitched stories all day, so you'll want to go out of your way to contact them and make their job easy.
What you'll need:
- Lists of blogs/media websites that fit your product/target audience
- Find which writer is most likely to write about your story and research how they write - you need to understand and care for them if you want them to write
- Pick 20 or so writers that are super important and a perfect fit
- Outside of the holy 20, your list should have hundreds of other writers on it too
- Create a Press Kit - one to three pages highlighting who you are and what you're doing. Also, links to albums/dropbox that have any picture they need
- Keep your pitch short and craft it to their writing style/audience - Boil down your message and then boil it again. You should be able to get their interest in a paragraph or two (at max). Every. word. counts.
- The more you breakdown your writer outreach lists by message or category, the better. Your email to everyone can be similar but the message should be personalized to them and what they want report on. * * Organizing these lists with detail and purpose will make your life way easier once you launch.
For me, a breakdown may look like:
Category - Music Festivals - EDM, Rave, Rock, Country, etc. Category - Sports - Soccer, Olympics, Baseball, etc. Category - Fashion - New Trends, Outdoor, Swimwear, etc.
The writers on your "top list" (I'm starting with 20) should be something you put a lot of time into. I am researching who they are, what social networks they prefer, their interests, and more. I view my relation with them as something I want to create and grow over time - so I am less direct and mostly just having fun making posts and talking. This is new for me, so it's an on-going experiment.
Conclusion
This post is quite long, so I suppose it's time for a conclusion. Leave a comment if you'd like me to go into further detail on anything and I will post at least two more of these as the Kickstarter goes on. In terms of preparation, this barely scratches the surface but I have one final piece of advice that really applies to anything in life...
Be authentic in the things you do, find out (and put time creating) what you truly care about, and don't do it alone. Building a team around you and caring about them is the single biggest thing you can do to generate results. Everyone has a story and value. Identifying their skills, setting them up for success, and creating an environment that people love will be more valuable to you than anything else you do.
Here's a link to our Kickstarter, I hope these posts will help you create the success and life you deserve. I am also open to any feedback and suggestions!
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