Kickstarter is a great way to raise funds for your project. However, it can also be a challenge to get your campaign fully funded in the allotted time.
Tim Ferriss, founder of Soma and co-author of The Four Hour Workweek, has developed a proven system for Kickstarter success. His approach has worked well for him and other entrepreneurs alike.
Create a compelling and media friendly press kit
Whether you’re trying to land press coverage for your Kickstarter campaign or bring in clients, a good media kit can be the difference between success and failure. It can help you stand out from the competition, get your name out there, and increase your social media reach.
The goal of a media kit is to provide journalists with the materials they need to write about your project and brand in an effective, compelling way. This includes information about your product, services and team, along with photos, videos, and other assets that can help tell your story.
It’s important to make your kit visually appealing and easy for journalists to navigate. This can be done by using a variety of design tools and templates.
Include media assets, like high-resolution photos, product shots, and videos that can be used across platforms. This will ensure that your press kit is easily accessible to the right people and makes it more likely for journalists to share your story with their audiences.
Your media kit should also include a brief bio about your company and the people involved in it. This is a great opportunity to highlight your team members and their skills, experience, and passion for the project.
You’ll want to include contact information in your media kit as well. This can be an email address, phone number, or social media account. It’s best to give journalists as much information as possible so that they can contact you if they have any questions about your project.
Audience data and statistics is another key part of a media kit. It’s a good idea to provide demographics of your audience so that potential advertisers and collaborators can understand the specific group that would be most interested in working with you.
It’s also a good idea to include statistics about your website’s performance and the amount of traffic it gets. This will help to show your potential partners and clients how much traffic your site gets, how many visitors you receive, and how often they visit your site.
Validate journalist email address
It’s no secret that the best way to land a press release in the newsfeed is to pitch a journalist or editor. These savvy media folk have the power to make or break your story and they will often be the ones who decide to feature it in their own stories. Getting in their ear is a long and expensive process, so you need to get your pitch right the first time around.
A successful pitch will include a few elements: the most important is your message, which is why it’s a good idea to have a solid plan in place before you start sending your emails out. This includes a concise, clear and well-thought out pitch that’s tailored to each journalist or editor you have in mind.
This is especially important for a smaller company, where you might not have access to the big boys (aka a PR agency) to help craft your email. The biggest hurdle for small companies is finding and validating journalists’ contact information, and the most effective way to do this is by using a tool like Hunter that puts all your research into one handy-dandy list. The site is a slick and easy to use, and it only takes half a second to spit out a list of all your potential media contacts in less than two clicks.
Write a convincing media pitch
A media pitch is a way to get the attention of journalists or editors. It’s usually an email message that suggests a news story or a topic that is relevant to their audience. Ideally, a journalist will take the information in your pitch and use it to create a news story or feature.
The key to writing a successful media pitch is to make it personal. Personalized pitches show that you know the journalist, their publication and audience, and why they might be interested in your story idea.
While many PR experts have their own style when it comes to crafting a pitch, the fundamentals of writing one remain the same. Here are a few tips and examples to help you get started:
First, you’ll need to do your research on the media outlet, the specific writer who covers the topic you’re looking for, and their audience. For example, if you want to pitch your project to a journalist who writes about food and lifestyle topics, make sure to check their past work.
Once you’ve found the right journalist, your next step is to craft a well-crafted media pitch that will catch their eye and get them excited about your project. Start by identifying your story’s human interest angle.
You might be able to get creative with this by highlighting how your story can change the lives of people around the world. Perhaps you’ve developed an app that helps users save an average of 15 minutes per day, or you’re reaching out to the millions of African farmers who are eagerly waiting for a solution to their fall armyworm problem.
Including human interest angles in your pitch can help you stand out from the hundreds of other projects and campaigns that are also looking to be featured in the media. It also gives you the opportunity to highlight your expertise and credibility as an expert on the subject.
A great media pitch should include your contact information, as well as any accompanying documents you can provide. It should also mention any sources that you have available for the journalist to interview. This will help them get a better understanding of the story and give them confidence in covering it.
Follow up on your pitches
Kickstarter is a rewards-based crowdfunding platform that enables creators to present their projects to backers and ask for funds to make them a reality. In return, Kickstarter charges campaigners a small percentage of funds raised.
Kickstarter makes it easy for backers to browse through a project’s pitch page and learn more about the product or experience being funded. It provides a central hub for the project, including videos, pictures, and text. In addition, the website lets backers select from a variety of pledge options and offers the convenience of no credit card fees until after the campaign ends.
A good pitch is a combination of information and storytelling. It should include a concise introduction to the project, and explain why it is interesting and important. It should also include a timeline and a detailed explanation of what the project will entail.
There are several types of projects on the site, ranging from innovative new products that aim to change the way we interact with technology to creative works-of-art and even works-of-art that don’t quite fit into the traditional categories. Regardless of the type, it’s important to note that backers can only collect their funding when a project reaches its target goal by its deadline.
As a result, it’s crucial to have an impressive pitch to help your campaign stand out from the crowd. The following tips should help you ace your Kickstarter PR game. As always, remember to be genuine and to keep your brand in mind at all times.
Patent before you send out the press release
It is generally recommended to file a patent application before making any public disclosures, such as through a press release, about the invention. This is because public disclosures can be detrimental to the chances of obtaining a patent, as they can be used as prior art against the invention. Prior art refers to any information that was publicly available before the filing date of a patent application and can be used to demonstrate that the claimed invention was not new or non-obvious at the time of filing. By filing a patent application before making a public disclosure, you can help ensure that your invention is properly protected.
