KickstarterForum.org

See full article: http://www.crowdcrux.com/ultimate-tips- ... -campaign/

It’s no secret that 56.34% of Kickstarter projects fail. Considering that most 30-60 day campaigns require months of preparation and long nights/weekends throughout the fundraising duration, it can be a terrifying thought that despite all your hard work and no matter how many pledges you are able to attract, if you don’t reach your fundraising goal before the time runs out, you will lose all those funds!

This may be a scary thought, but it is a reality. The majority of Kickstarter projects fail to raise enough money to meet their fundraising goal.

I know that sounds depressing, but don’t fret! Having interacted with thousands of creators on my blog, KickstarterForum, and CrowdfundingPR, I’ve come to view “failure” in a different light.

I believe that failure to meet your fundraising goal and the failure of your creative project are two completely different things.

I have seen many creators that have experienced failure on Kickstarer and then gone to relaunch their campaign and be wildly successful after thoughtful analysis and retooling. I have also seen creators who had to give a hard look at their project, which only received 10% of their fundraising goal, and then figure out how to go about promoting and marketing it more effectively the second time around. The creator that I had in mind then went on to meet her fundraising goal in the final few days.

The crux of it is that there is no failure, only cause and effect. If you’re not receiving the anticipated effect from your efforts, you need to go back and examine what different actions you can take over an extended period of time to get a different result.

Sometimes, you may need to abandon the roadmap you initially put together to make your dream project happen. You may even need to scrap the project you were thinking of. However, you should never quit your overall dream or desire, whether that’s to be a full-time author, an original fashion designer, or a well-known musician. You should adapt, learn from failure, and figure out how to make it happen.

That being said, check out some of the tips below for successfully relaunching a Kickstarter campaign.

Full article: http://www.crowdcrux.com/ultimate-tips- ... -campaign/

These are great tips, Sal! Some other ones to keep in mind as you're gearing up to relaunch a campaign!

1. Look at your campaign and take notes
Unlike a project launching for the first time, one major advantage you have with a re-launch is all the data you’ve now got.

This lets you know where to focus your efforts on the relaunch based on who actually contributed, not just who said they would.

What were your biggest traffic sources?
What were the most profitable traffic sources?
Which tiers were most popular and which ones weren’t?
What was the average pledge amount?
How did press talk about your campaign, if at all?
With Google Analytics, you can also answer:

Who were your backers?
What countries and languages were the most common?
What was the average time on page?
Did people watch the video?
Was the video too long?

Your project page and social media comments are also great sources of insight:

What were people talking about?
Were they unsure if your product worked or not?
Were they confused about how the product worked?
Were they unhappy with the price?
Did backers feel listened to?
Was something confusing?
Did the backers say nothing at all?

Everything that’s out there about your project tells you a story.

2. Connect with your backers
Anyone who willingly put money down on your project for the first round is someone you need to talk to in order to prepare for your relaunch.

They’re full of information you need in order to re-align your strategy.

Using campaign updates, emails, or other messaging, get in touch with your backers letting them know that you’re planning a relaunch and you’d love their thoughts on how to improve things.

Not everyone will reply, but the few who do will be invaluable because those are backers likely to help and will probably back your project again.

Here’s a list of questions to ask your previous backers, pick and choose as you like.

Maybe someone is even up for answering all of them for you.

What did we do right with the campaign?
What did we do wrong with the campaign?
What was your opinion of the funding goal and tiers?
Was shipping a concern?
What was the opinion of the video?
What would make you pledge again?
What should we change on the page?
What on the page was worrying or confusing?
Were there other projects you’ve backed or would consider backing?

Once you’ve got a big sampling of responses make sure to update your page.

You can even take things one step further by asking all your previous backers to review your relaunch campaign page (in draft mode).

Not only will this help you refine your page further, but it’ll also help ensure they’re there to back on day one again.

3. Consider product/market fit
You might have had an idea for on-ear headphones that also doubles as a remote control for your drone.

But maybe you find that people are more interested in on-ear headphones that doubles as a latte maker. This means that your original product does not have the product/market fit it needs to succeed.

Knowing this gives you a chance to go back to the drawing board and create a product that people are actually looking for.

You can take things one step further here too by including your previous backers in the re-design process.

A crowdfunding launch is finding the right balance between what you’re creating and what people want.

4. Revisit your community
a. Are you talking to the right community?
If you’re launching a board game about making wines, should you be talking to wine makers, wine enthusiasts or board game enthusiasts?

Rather than do a one-size-fits-all approach, make sure you’re talking to the most relevant community and honing in on how your product applies to them.

b. Are you talking where your community “hangs out”?
A lot of first-time Creators miss this point. They think “oh everyone has a Facebook page, Twitter handle and YouTube channel so I need to have it too”. Nope.

If your group of ebike enthusiasts are out there chatting away on an ebike forum rather than on Facebook or Twitter, join in on the conversation there.

There's a ton of campaigns that have failed the first time only to get fully funded the second time Don't give up and best of luck out there!