Marketing for Kickstarter: Kickstarter Marketing strategies to reach your funding goal

Not every product is suitable for crowdfunding. Start by exploring successful campaigns in your category on Kickstarter to understand what works.

Success on Kickstarter requires reaching innovators and early adopters. These are the people who love being first to discover and support new products.

So you have a product you trust. What is the first step in getting the word out? Put yourself out there. Start talking to your family, friends, and neighbors. Access social media and share what you do. Do not forget that your passion is the driving force behind your campaign. You are not just selling everyday products. You took a bold step in doing something creative and gutsy. You'll find that people you know will be supportive, even if they do not need your product. Start reaching out to your network as you develop your prototype. You want to have a large network by the time you're ready to start your campaign. The earlier you start spreading the word, the more contacts you'll have in place when you need them.

Let's say you designed a new kind of snowboard binding you want to fund on Kickstarter. You will want people in the snowboard industry to know about it. This does not happen by accident or chance. It happens only if you make an active effort and reach out to influencers and press in the industry you are targeting. Lots of footwork is required here. Research social media, blogs, and forums to find the right connections that can help you create awareness. You can try to connect to some big names in that field (our Snowboard binding project would like to get Shaun White's support), but it's often smaller, more dedicated groups that provide the best offer. Using Twitter is an excellent way to reach out to bloggers and journalists. Email owners of industrial sites to pitch a guest blog.

Your marketing assets need to be on the ground before you begin, including:

A launch event is a great way to kick off your campaign with a bang. If you have an adequate local network, host an (informal) event in your area. You can also increase your audience by hosting a virtual event on Facebook. This is where your business starts to pay off by reaching out to influencers and growing your network. You can host the event for a few days and provide a special offer for early pledges.

One of the weaknesses of many Kickstarter campaigns is the use of paid media to scale their reach. Paid ads are a great way to drive traffic to your campaign but they can become complicated and expensive if you are not experienced in running paid ads. Consider working with a professional crowdfunding marketing company. Paid Media is the best way to expand your campaign opportunities based on demographics and interests. You can use retargeting ads as timely reminders for individuals who visited your content.

There is so much more to a crowdfunding platform than merely uploading some content. For generating traffic and creating a buzz, a proper plan is required, and that's where we step into the picture.