Perhaps you have thought about using Kickstarter to finance
your next (or first) album.
I have
released 7 albums on CD Baby, and now my new group,
The Jazz & Blues Revueis using Kickstarter as a platform to bring our album to physical reality.
We are 7 days into our 40 day campaign,
and I wanted to share with you some of the lessons I have learned and am
learning as the process unfolds.
Here are 9 tips that will help you have success.
1.
Do your
research
I spent about 6 months looking at and pledging money to
various Kickstarter campaigns to see how they work. Which ones were successful? Which ones failed, and why? What was a typical financial goal
for a music album project? Kickstarter says that the average pledge amount per
person is about $75, so do you have enough fans to help you hit the goal you
set? What makes an attractive
video (attractive enough for me to get involved with a total stranger)?
I highly recommend pledging to one or two projects, not only
to see the process that your fans will go through, but also to see how the
people you back keep in touch with you during their campaign.
2.
Put
thought into every aspect of the Kickstarter page
Your Kickstarter page is going to be the main sales tool to
get people to back your project, so every aspect of the page must be designed
for maximum effect. You have
somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes to hook a person into backing your
dream. The cover photo has to be
strong and attractive. I embedded
a music sample into the page, so people can hear what they are going to get
when they receive our completed album.
The "backer rewards" need to be fun, varied and
compelling. (Remember, people are
always more interested in what they GET, not what they GIVE. You have to stress the rewards they
will GET for their money. This is
not a charity, nor is it a traditional "return on investment".)
The first edit of our Kickstarter video was 7 minutes long. It was like "War and
Peace"! Tolstoy might have
loved it, but no one but the band members would be willing to sit through
it. After two more edits, we got
it down to a little over 5 minutes, and I made sure that all the really
IMPORTANT information happens in the first 2 minutes
3.
Start
promoting at least 30 days before the launch
I send out a monthly email newsletter to my database, and so
about 2 months before our launch, I started mentioning it in my
newsletter. If you think of your
Kickstarter campaign like a movie or CD release, you need to create interest
and awareness BEFORE you launch the project.
4.
Line
up your "First Followers" in advance
Derek Siver introduced me to the idea of first followers
(watch the "Dancing guy" video if you have never seen it:
http://sivers.org/ff ).
People are attracted to success. To get your project noticed on Kickstarter it needs to look
successful from the very start.
After all, you only have 30-60 days to make this happen. So make sure you have some "first
followers" lined up for the day of your launch. It might be family, band
members or other "super fans".
5.
Throw
parties!
What better way to get people involved than to throw a
party? We scheduled a "Kickstarter Kick-off Party" the night of our
launch date. We had a house party,
served some food and drink, and had computers and iPads set up for people to
pledge. By the end of day one we
had raised almost $3,000! We have another house party and a club gig scheduled
during the campaign, to keep interest up and get people involved. Remember, people just want to have FUN!
6.
Once
you launch, watch out for salespeople
Like anything on the internet, once you raise your hand,
people will try to grab it. The
day after our campaign launched, I started getting emails from people and
websites that promised to boost my visibility on twitter, or to pledge $1 if I
gave them $5. I have avoided all
of these, except for one, Backercamp, which seems like a righteous group. They only take payment once my project
reaches its funding goal, and they have been sending me daily ideas on how to
keep the project growing.
7.
Create
weekly action plans
I am a keeper of lists - daily, weekly and monthly to do
lists.
For the
Kickstartercampaign, I started with three lists - Before the launch, During the launch and
After the launch.
Now that I am in
the "during" unit, I have created WEEKLY action plans: starting with
what I plan to do this week, followed by activities scheduled each week the
campaign runs.
The future weekly
action plans are pretty sparse right now, but as they get closer I know they
will get filled up.
8.
Watch
your language, and say "thank you"
In setting up the campaign and in all communication now I am
very careful about my use of language.
I don’t ask for help, I ask people to "get on board". I don't want people to
"donate", I want them to "pre-order" the CD or "get
involved" with the project.
And now that we have over 50 backers after the first week, I am sending
personal "thank you" emails to each person. Our campaign will only be
successful if we got "wide" as well as "deep". I want to
reach people that have never heard of us, and I want to turn each backer into a
"raving fan" that will spread the word and introduce me to other
people that love jazz and blues.
9.
Its
not over till its over
The start of this campaign has been like a sprint. Now, with
30 days left to go, we are in a marathon.
It takes training and perseverance, and a lot of time. But what a wonderful way to spend the
next 30 days - contacting people I know, sharing my passion, and bringing a
dream to reality. There's more to
come, I am sure of it. We are on our way!
