Podcast: Download
Terry’s Kickstarter the Black Turtle Sleeve just launched this week. In this episode we talk about some mistakes made and what you should avoid if you’re looking to go down this path in the future too. Travis started a Meetup.com group for folks in Southern California / Los Angeles so join up if you are in the area.
Topics Discussed:
- Not doing the grunt work of building an email list
- No plan for paid advertisements to drive traffic
- Not reaching out early enough for JVs
- No pre-launch samples in people’s hands
- Not having enough folks preview the campaign link
- Conversions, traffic data, and other insights to the campaign
Mentions In The Episode:
- Reel Winder (Kickstarter by E-Commerce Mafia Member)
- Rostrum Camera Stand (by former guest Lex McColl)
- Black Turtle Sleeve
- How To Gather 100,000 Emails In One Week
Download Options:
- Direct Download: Right-click here and click “Save As” for a direct download
- iTunes: Listen and subscribe on iTunes
- Android: Listen via Stitcher Radio streaming
- Blackberry: Listen via the Blackberry Podcast App
- Zune: Listen via Zune
Comments
Hi Terry Thanks for the shout out. Running a kickstarter has be a total learning experience for me. A big lesson learned for me is, does my customer base know about kickstarter enough to actually pledge. My customers are gray haired fishermen, kickstarter is so new they’re hesitating giving an unknown website they’re credit card. I’m getting dozens of call with folks saying, they’ll give me their CC #, but don’t feel good about giving it to KS.
I probably won’t get funded, but that’s okay, just another adjustment in my plans.
Best of luck with your campaign – I’m a proud backer!
Same for me too, all the backers seem to be an older demographic when I stalk them and Kickstarter is probably just the wrong platform for this. We should do an episode once you wrap up!
Props to you Terry for sharing your mistakes for others to learn from. Not always easy. I think for press and bloggers you might not need 50 samples in hand but you should plan for 2-6 weeks lead time to talk to them and show your campaign. We had a lot of success using Greeninbox for PR lists for The Passport Protector. Last thing I’d recommend for you current campaign is reminding/bugging all your warm contacts – I texted, emailed, FB chat and called a lot of people to inform or remind them and got a lot of backing that way. Multiple and personalized touches are needed if people are busy or can’t back it first time they see it. Also agree 100% on email list being crucial.