How to Get Noticed on Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a great platform for crowdfunding, but unfortunately, launching a campaign is never a “set it and forget it” venture. You need to plan well in advance to bring eyeballs to your page, and continue that effort throughout your project and after. Our team of Kickstarter marketing experts shares a few thoughts on how to bring more eyes to your new idea.

Joe Recomendes – Chief Operating Officer – @JRecomendes

Hands down, public relations is the best way to get traffic to your Kickstarter page. The Roost is a great example of a project that did fairly well on its own, but managed to land an article in Techcrunch three days before ending. In those three days, the Techcrunch exposure drove nearly $100,000 in pledges, doubling the amount that The Roost was able to raise. While there are no surefire tricks to getting coverage, it helps to follow some basic principles: build relationships with the journalists that you want to reach well in advance by being helpful and polite, and then when you launch your project, you can lean on this relationship to get your foot in the door at these large publications.

Jessica Chesney – Digital Marketing Coordinator – @jessJANEica

Although the actual Kickstarter page can be somewhat limiting when it comes to formatting options, there are still some tactics that can help your project stand out amongst the crowd. I recommend keeping the main Kickstarter thumbnail image fresh – rotate it on a weekly basis to catch the attention of those you may have missed with your previous image. At the end of your campaign, you can even put a small banner across the image to create a sense of urgency.

Alex Stegall – Digital Marketing Strategist – @slexategall

Turn up the anticipation. Sure, your project will get traffic just by being on Kickstarter, but successful campaigns are generally the ones that show exceptional momentum right out of the gate! With a little time and pre-planning, you can do much of the legwork before your campaign even starts to ensure launch day is a huge success. I would recommend having a website, or just a landing page where people can see information about the product and sign up to receive updates until launch. And trust me, spending a little time and money on great graphics and videos is well worth your while. With an informational pre-launch strategy, you can hook people early and get on the media’s radar. The confidence that comes from a highly successful campaign kickoff will carry your project to success.

Vincent Ammirato – Senior Strategist – @vincentammirato

To continue Alex’s theme of building momentum before a successful launch: the worst time to work on your LinkedIn profile is when you need a job. The same can be said for Kickstarter. Don’t jump on Kickstarter and immediately ask for money. Instead, get involved before you even think about launching a campaign. Use the time to research similar products to see what made them successful. Build relationship and develop a reputation for funding and promoting projects and fellow Kickstarters will return the favor when your campaign launches.

Alison Phalen – Content Marketing Specialist – @aliphalen

Social media is a great way to spread word of mouth about your Kickstarter project . With Facebook, encourage your family, friends and backers to post about the project. This will help get word out about your crowdfunding campaign to more than just your personal network and increase the number of people aware of your project. Twitter is the other social network to focus on because it really helps you expand your reach. By using relevant hashtags in your tweets and asking influential users to share your project with their followers, your campaign will be seen by a lot of users that are in your target audience. Be sure that you provide real value to all you reach out to so you don’t appear as spam.