Maintaining Kickstarter Momentum after 100%


Sebastian Hickey asks for some Phase 2 crowdfunding advice:

"I used your Kickstarter project as a template for my effort, so apologies for stealing some of your ideas. I hit my funding goal really early, but now I don't know what to do with the project. Do I leave it there, sitting idle, or is there anything I can do to get more funders?"

Congratulations on hitting your goal! That begins Phase 2 of your campaign. Now, look at your production cost estimates and see where you can get volume discounts. Then you can start offering high tier benefits to backers of a lower tier. For those who already backed at a high tier, offer additional low-cost or no-cost benefits like PDFs and other digital goodies.

For example, when Do's campaign started, we only offered books to those who pledged $40. After we we passed ~150% funding, we started offering books to $30 backers, too. After the next milestone at ~200%, we offered books to $25 backers, too. So the $40 didn't feel like they were cheated, we offered them exclusive print editions of the first Do expansion and PDFs.

It's good to plan those milestones before the campaign starts, so newcomers aren't confused about what they're actually getting when they pledge.

Another thing you can do is start sending free product to charities once certain milestones are reached. Make sure those milestones give you enough profit to cover the loss of that free product.

For example, in Happy Birthday Robot's campaign, I sent free copies of the game to schools and libraries of backers' choice. This not only built good will with the game's target audience, but kept the urge to pledge active for the life of the campaign.

Just remember, this is one of several phases in the average Kickstarter life cycle. There may still be unexpected costs once your campaign is over. Keeping up the momentum and encouraging more pledges gives you enough cushion should anything go wrong in production or shipping.

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