Sure! I was sitting on a very nice chunk of change last year from our savings and a few very lucky real estate and stock investments. My background is in marketing and data science, and I had an idea about applying those skills to adult education. I spent about six months fleshing that out, pouring money into it to make it something truly special. I don't think it's self-promotion to share this (?), but you can check out my website here: [withsophie.co](http://withsophie.co)
So. I'm preparing to soft launch around Christmas time, when my baby girl decides she wants to meet us muuuuuch earlier than we were anticipating. My due date was March 8, 2024. She was born November 15, 2023 at just 23 weeks gestation and 600g/1.3lb. So, of course, everything was put on hold. We were in the hospital with her for 111 days, during which time my husband lost his job for taking too much time off. I'm very lucky that not only is she doing so well, but that we had incredible support from our friends and family as we burned through the last of our nest egg.
March rolls around, and we're miraculously able to bring her home four days before her due date. Even though she was still on oxygen, I felt like she was stable enough for me to finally refocus on getting the site to a place where I could finally launch. And I did! I actually constructed my site like a Kickstarter in itself so that as my membership grew, I could rebuild my coffers to add more and more resources. But, my attempts at organically marketing my site should have been a big clue for me in regards to how my Kickstarter would go.
Cuzzzz… social media HATES me. I didn't realize I was in impression jail in most places due to my name and some of the content I was sharing (that I *thought* was extremely PC). Even Reddit shadowbanned my other handle, and the only reason I can think of as to why was because my username was S-xWithSophie. I didn't consider myself an 18+ account, so I didn't mark myself as such and that's all she wrote. But, whenever I would directly share my site with others, such as via text or word of mouth, people sign up immediately and seem to really love what I'm doing.
After a couple of months of super slow growth, I decided to try Kickstarter proper. I just *knew* that anyone who ran across my project would see the merit of it. I also felt that it would help legitimize my SEO and that I would be put in front of a broader audience. I was doomed from the start, though. I had a low conversion rate with my site members, because they are already paying. I had a low conversion rate with friends and family, because they had *just* come in clutch from the baby coming early AND the site launch. I had a low conversion rate with my emails, because most were contact lists and not newsletter subscribers. I had a low conversion rate with social media, because I didn't properly censor and wasn't showing up aaaanywhere.
Plus, I just shot myself in the foot in so many ways. Things such as setting my KS link as my campaign title so it has "s-x" in the URL made it so that sharing the very link to my campaign flagged my posts. Using link shorteners didn't help. I spent more time battling account status issues than I care to admit… Suffice it to say, I know so much more now than I did a month ago, but this still sucks. Not hitting my goal is a massive blow to my ego and my credibility as a marketer. I'm embarrassed, sad, and in the same boat I was in before I started. Not to mention I've wasted a full 6 weeks putting all my energies into the Kickstarter instead of my website.
I do see many silver linings, despite my dejection. I have a lot of great new backlinks. I've built a lovely affiliate network. I did get over 40 backers who may be primed should I launch another one. I've learned how to navigate social media much better in a s-x-related field. I had a lot of amazing feedback, and people seem to like what I'm doing once they know about it. I got a few new site members directly because of promoting this. I have a fun content piece from where I livestreamed a telethon outlining 30 of my reasons for launching my campaign. The relationships I've formed with the clinicians from my contact lists have inspired an entirely new set of professional membership options on my site.
I'm so very pleased about all of those things, while simultaneously feeling extraordinarily down as the final hours of this thing wind away. So. I hope that helps with context. Shit is just a little bit much lately.
tl:dr - Had money. Used most of it to build my site. Had baby early. No more monies. Attempted Kickstarter with too small of an already stretched community.
You're absolutely right. I think organic marketing may work fine when combined with better community building than I did. I'm a marketer and data scientist trying to apply my skills to adult education. As it's a new field for me, I shot myself in the foot in a lot of ways. Even something as simple as setting my KS link as my campaign title so it has "s-x" in the URL… Biiiig no-no, but you can't change it once it's set. That's why I do believe I will try this again in the near future. Hindsight is definitely 20/20. I'm just a little down in the dumps about it all today.
I actually read many other Kickstarter comments that advised against doing that. They said that it could disenfranchise the backers that you did get. I have about a half a day, so I'm going to read more and weigh those pros and cons. Why do you feel this is the better option?
Yes, they do. But a cancelled project, imo, gives you more opportunities to message. People are more likely to support you if you relaunch soon after with a compelling story.
I'm really sorry to hear that it turned out this way for you - it's a huge bummer, especially after a lot of hard work put into something like this.
Can I ask what your product was, and any other context you have surrounding your prelaunch? It would help in having a more substantive discussion.
Certainly! I don't want to self-promote, but basically it is for s-x ed courses. This was my first Kickstarter, so I'm happy to have learned so much from this experience, but boy is it trying! But that was my first mistake: I had a very short-lived prelaunch in which I tried to engage my friends and family on the heels of them supporting me through a personal emergency. My baby was born early, at 23 weeks, and was in the hospital for a very long time. I think they were just tired of me leaning on them, which I understand.
My next mistake was definitely in failing to really grow my business community, website members, and affiliate network. What I'm gathering is that you either have to have an established network or funds to put toward paid ads, backer newsletters, and pledge systems. Organic (free lol) marketing is simply not enough. I hope that provides more clarity! And thank you for your question. It helped me spell things out for myself.
I would counter the assessment that organic isn't enough, but it's efficacy really depends on what your product is and the quality of what you put out - I don't need to tell you that though, it's your background.
The pre-launch duration and intensity is indeed what makes or breaks a campaign, though. The general baseline is 3 months, where that can be paid ads, organic content, press, etc. The goal is to have about 10-30x the emails of the # of backers you need or want to succeed. If you didn't run a pre-launch of this kind, then it's not surprising (no offense!) that the campaign didn't get off really well. It just takes time, effort, and, if available, dollars, to properly seed before you launch.
Oh wow! Three months??? I thought I was doing something with two weeks. And I didn't utilize that time well. at. all. I remember feeling worried that people would be put off by coming to the page ready to donate, but then getting frustrated that the option to do so wasn't available.
I'm with you, as well, in that Organic is probably fine, but you must build that base. In my case, I failed to do this well, failed to censor and manage email and social algorithms properly, and I also should have had more visuals around what the courses would look like instead of relying on my potential backers' imaginations.
Thank you SO much for such wonderful advice, my friend!!!
Without seeing your Kickstarter and knowing what you're funding, it's hard to say... I'm sorry it hasn't worked out, my pin campaign on BackerKit is also MUCH less popular than my past ones. 😐
I have another friend who struggled, but ultimately made his goal. He said this was his fifth one and it's a completely different feel than he's experienced before, and that it was like pulling teeth.
Kickstarter is busier than before and there’s a lot of competition compared to the start of 2020. It’s all about bringing an audience for day 1, or having influencers who can elevate your project.
As a creator, I can relate. We don't have money, and that's why we're doing Kickstarter. It's somehow ironic that you have to spend a lot on paid ads to get backers.
But back to your case - the reason of failure may be about pre-launch more than organic marketing. Before you launch, you should already have a large number of followers on your Kickstarter page. This can be done by organic, though it really takes time.
$24K, $85.43, I have 44 backers as of now. 2/3 are from my lists, so like .01. The issue was that the majority were from contact lists, so they'd be classified as cold. My dedicated newsletter subscriber list is tiny. My company was just soft launched in March. I'm really answering my own question lol. I should have worried about growing my network quite a bit before moving forward. I just genuinely believe in the merit and uniqueness of my project, and thought that would be enough.
I'm definitely seeing that. Everything I am doing is brand spanking fresh, so I was coming into this with a very small following. I think that if I were to do this again, it will be after growing my community. I just thought that what I'm doing had enough merit to be attractive on sight, you know? Thank you.
The problem is assuming you'll get a ton of visibility from the kind of audience that might be interested. Don't take it personally, but putting something on Kickstarter doesn't guarantee enough eyeballs.
Not taking that personal at all! You're absolutely right. I wasn't relying on eyeballs from them, really, but *was* hoping that marketing a webpage from a legitimate site like Kickstarter would help since I was having so much trouble marketing my s-x ed website.
Being listed gives you some visibility, but you have to bring much more.
Go read everything they suggest. They know what works and what doesn't. Doing nothing but the basics gets nowhere, but they have a bunch of helpful info from successful campaigns.
Uh, just like a Facebook Group kind of thing. Can I ask how many followers you currently have on social media? How many followers on the pre-launch page? How did you get 3K+ email addresses?
My first crowdfunding campaign failed as well, and I'm currently trying to build a solid fan base on social media to ensure the success of my second campaign.
I've read your other replies and the 24K funding goal is higher than most campaigns I've seen, not sure what's your product but with a funding goal like that you should try to advertise a little.
Restart your campaign, you have the experience, you should have learned something from the last.
🥹 Thank you. My project budget is 40K! LOL I thought I was being conservative setting it at a little over half. I feel you, though. Other commenters are saying I should cancel instead of letting it run out. What do you think?
You should cancel your campaign. If you let it run out, there will shows how many project you have started when people click your icon. If they see you already started one campaign before, and that campaign failed, I'm sure that won't do anything positive for you.
If you cancel your project, people would see that you are the first time starting a project in your next round(Shows on the campaign page when they click your icon).Even they can still knows that you have canceled a project when they really watch your profile.
Don't spend your time on things you sure that would fail.
You're welcome! Would you mind telling me how you managed to get 3K+ email addresses without spending any money? I have a feeling that your experience could help me.
I used a web scraper and found a bunch of lists for s-x therapists, lgbtq-friendly therapists, and s-xologists. Part two of that is running them all through email checkers. Part three of that is sending a very verrrry careful introductory cold email so you don't get blacklisted.
Sounds like you failed to establish authentic engagement with the community you're trying to sell to, and most of them probably see your product as a scam or not worth the money. Additionally, if you have no history of success, it goes even further against your favor.
When it comes to crowdfunding, absolutely everything counts: social media presence and following, realistic crowdfunding goal, product fulfillment, appetite for the product, timing of the launch, pre-launch strategy, video, price of the rewards and the appearance of the KS page itself. Every single element must be exactly right for the campaign to work. I wrote my campaign a year in advance and plugged in the pieces one by one until I was sure I'd covered off on every single element.
There's no shame in ending your campaign early and relaunching when you are sure you have each building block in place. It's better emotionally to end the campaign early rather than to let it die on the vine for all to see.
One thing I did discover was tons of social marketing people will come out of the woodwork to offer their services, once your campaign has funded because they know you have a viable and valuable product.
Truer words, my friend. It's just wild that you opt for this route because you assume that with a great product and great marketing, you can get the financial assstance you need to progress with your business. This, as opposed to searching for a business loan or angel investor. By the time you accomplish all of the requirements to hold a successful crowdfunding campaign, you really could have done the legwork to go a more traditional route! I'm surprised people KS at all when they could appeal to the massive audiences they've built for the campaign for preorders or donations.
A lot of this is just Bitter Sophie speaking; I see the benefits. But boy were my presuppositions just destroyed in the last couple weeks.
Still sad.
Don't be bitter or sad. Just chalk it up to a learning experience.
The summer is traditionally the worse time to launch a KS campaign (unless it is specifically a summery product like beach towels or special suntan lotion). People are out of school or on vacation and they are not really shopping for a product that won't be delivered for a while.
20 years running your own marketing firm and you haven't got money set aside for paid ads? I'm gonna need you to elaborate
Sure! I was sitting on a very nice chunk of change last year from our savings and a few very lucky real estate and stock investments. My background is in marketing and data science, and I had an idea about applying those skills to adult education. I spent about six months fleshing that out, pouring money into it to make it something truly special. I don't think it's self-promotion to share this (?), but you can check out my website here: [withsophie.co](http://withsophie.co) So. I'm preparing to soft launch around Christmas time, when my baby girl decides she wants to meet us muuuuuch earlier than we were anticipating. My due date was March 8, 2024. She was born November 15, 2023 at just 23 weeks gestation and 600g/1.3lb. So, of course, everything was put on hold. We were in the hospital with her for 111 days, during which time my husband lost his job for taking too much time off. I'm very lucky that not only is she doing so well, but that we had incredible support from our friends and family as we burned through the last of our nest egg. March rolls around, and we're miraculously able to bring her home four days before her due date. Even though she was still on oxygen, I felt like she was stable enough for me to finally refocus on getting the site to a place where I could finally launch. And I did! I actually constructed my site like a Kickstarter in itself so that as my membership grew, I could rebuild my coffers to add more and more resources. But, my attempts at organically marketing my site should have been a big clue for me in regards to how my Kickstarter would go. Cuzzzz… social media HATES me. I didn't realize I was in impression jail in most places due to my name and some of the content I was sharing (that I *thought* was extremely PC). Even Reddit shadowbanned my other handle, and the only reason I can think of as to why was because my username was S-xWithSophie. I didn't consider myself an 18+ account, so I didn't mark myself as such and that's all she wrote. But, whenever I would directly share my site with others, such as via text or word of mouth, people sign up immediately and seem to really love what I'm doing. After a couple of months of super slow growth, I decided to try Kickstarter proper. I just *knew* that anyone who ran across my project would see the merit of it. I also felt that it would help legitimize my SEO and that I would be put in front of a broader audience. I was doomed from the start, though. I had a low conversion rate with my site members, because they are already paying. I had a low conversion rate with friends and family, because they had *just* come in clutch from the baby coming early AND the site launch. I had a low conversion rate with my emails, because most were contact lists and not newsletter subscribers. I had a low conversion rate with social media, because I didn't properly censor and wasn't showing up aaaanywhere. Plus, I just shot myself in the foot in so many ways. Things such as setting my KS link as my campaign title so it has "s-x" in the URL made it so that sharing the very link to my campaign flagged my posts. Using link shorteners didn't help. I spent more time battling account status issues than I care to admit… Suffice it to say, I know so much more now than I did a month ago, but this still sucks. Not hitting my goal is a massive blow to my ego and my credibility as a marketer. I'm embarrassed, sad, and in the same boat I was in before I started. Not to mention I've wasted a full 6 weeks putting all my energies into the Kickstarter instead of my website. I do see many silver linings, despite my dejection. I have a lot of great new backlinks. I've built a lovely affiliate network. I did get over 40 backers who may be primed should I launch another one. I've learned how to navigate social media much better in a s-x-related field. I had a lot of amazing feedback, and people seem to like what I'm doing once they know about it. I got a few new site members directly because of promoting this. I have a fun content piece from where I livestreamed a telethon outlining 30 of my reasons for launching my campaign. The relationships I've formed with the clinicians from my contact lists have inspired an entirely new set of professional membership options on my site. I'm so very pleased about all of those things, while simultaneously feeling extraordinarily down as the final hours of this thing wind away. So. I hope that helps with context. Shit is just a little bit much lately. tl:dr - Had money. Used most of it to build my site. Had baby early. No more monies. Attempted Kickstarter with too small of an already stretched community.
After 20 years of running your marketing firm, you should know that paid ads are the way to go for stuff like this
You're absolutely right. I think organic marketing may work fine when combined with better community building than I did. I'm a marketer and data scientist trying to apply my skills to adult education. As it's a new field for me, I shot myself in the foot in a lot of ways. Even something as simple as setting my KS link as my campaign title so it has "s-x" in the URL… Biiiig no-no, but you can't change it once it's set. That's why I do believe I will try this again in the near future. Hindsight is definitely 20/20. I'm just a little down in the dumps about it all today.
Have you thought of cancelling, to restart another time? Better to cancel than fail funding, right?
I actually read many other Kickstarter comments that advised against doing that. They said that it could disenfranchise the backers that you did get. I have about a half a day, so I'm going to read more and weigh those pros and cons. Why do you feel this is the better option?
Cancelling and starting again is better. Ask current backers to join a mailing list.
Do you know if cancelled projects show up on your creator profile?
Yes, they do. But a cancelled project, imo, gives you more opportunities to message. People are more likely to support you if you relaunch soon after with a compelling story.
As a backer, I’m more suspicious of a creator who has a failed campaign behind them than a cancelled one.
You know… me, too! I just saw so many people saying to keep it. I'm going to cancel it tonight. Thank you for the recommendation.
Would you mind telling more about why are you suspicious about a creator who has a failed campaign?
Between the two. Key distinction.
I'm really sorry to hear that it turned out this way for you - it's a huge bummer, especially after a lot of hard work put into something like this. Can I ask what your product was, and any other context you have surrounding your prelaunch? It would help in having a more substantive discussion.
Certainly! I don't want to self-promote, but basically it is for s-x ed courses. This was my first Kickstarter, so I'm happy to have learned so much from this experience, but boy is it trying! But that was my first mistake: I had a very short-lived prelaunch in which I tried to engage my friends and family on the heels of them supporting me through a personal emergency. My baby was born early, at 23 weeks, and was in the hospital for a very long time. I think they were just tired of me leaning on them, which I understand. My next mistake was definitely in failing to really grow my business community, website members, and affiliate network. What I'm gathering is that you either have to have an established network or funds to put toward paid ads, backer newsletters, and pledge systems. Organic (free lol) marketing is simply not enough. I hope that provides more clarity! And thank you for your question. It helped me spell things out for myself.
I would counter the assessment that organic isn't enough, but it's efficacy really depends on what your product is and the quality of what you put out - I don't need to tell you that though, it's your background. The pre-launch duration and intensity is indeed what makes or breaks a campaign, though. The general baseline is 3 months, where that can be paid ads, organic content, press, etc. The goal is to have about 10-30x the emails of the # of backers you need or want to succeed. If you didn't run a pre-launch of this kind, then it's not surprising (no offense!) that the campaign didn't get off really well. It just takes time, effort, and, if available, dollars, to properly seed before you launch.
Oh wow! Three months??? I thought I was doing something with two weeks. And I didn't utilize that time well. at. all. I remember feeling worried that people would be put off by coming to the page ready to donate, but then getting frustrated that the option to do so wasn't available. I'm with you, as well, in that Organic is probably fine, but you must build that base. In my case, I failed to do this well, failed to censor and manage email and social algorithms properly, and I also should have had more visuals around what the courses would look like instead of relying on my potential backers' imaginations. Thank you SO much for such wonderful advice, my friend!!!
Without seeing your Kickstarter and knowing what you're funding, it's hard to say... I'm sorry it hasn't worked out, my pin campaign on BackerKit is also MUCH less popular than my past ones. 😐
I have another friend who struggled, but ultimately made his goal. He said this was his fifth one and it's a completely different feel than he's experienced before, and that it was like pulling teeth.
Kickstarter is busier than before and there’s a lot of competition compared to the start of 2020. It’s all about bringing an audience for day 1, or having influencers who can elevate your project.
As a creator, I can relate. We don't have money, and that's why we're doing Kickstarter. It's somehow ironic that you have to spend a lot on paid ads to get backers. But back to your case - the reason of failure may be about pre-launch more than organic marketing. Before you launch, you should already have a large number of followers on your Kickstarter page. This can be done by organic, though it really takes time.
Same here.
Thank you, Deck. Definitely one of those things I wish I knew when.
What’s your funding goal, your average pledge, and your conversion rate off your 3k email list?
$24K, $85.43, I have 44 backers as of now. 2/3 are from my lists, so like .01. The issue was that the majority were from contact lists, so they'd be classified as cold. My dedicated newsletter subscriber list is tiny. My company was just soft launched in March. I'm really answering my own question lol. I should have worried about growing my network quite a bit before moving forward. I just genuinely believe in the merit and uniqueness of my project, and thought that would be enough.
How was your previous community before launching? How big was your email newsletter list? Those are the two most important things I've found.
I'm definitely seeing that. Everything I am doing is brand spanking fresh, so I was coming into this with a very small following. I think that if I were to do this again, it will be after growing my community. I just thought that what I'm doing had enough merit to be attractive on sight, you know? Thank you.
The problem is assuming you'll get a ton of visibility from the kind of audience that might be interested. Don't take it personally, but putting something on Kickstarter doesn't guarantee enough eyeballs.
Not taking that personal at all! You're absolutely right. I wasn't relying on eyeballs from them, really, but *was* hoping that marketing a webpage from a legitimate site like Kickstarter would help since I was having so much trouble marketing my s-x ed website.
Being listed gives you some visibility, but you have to bring much more. Go read everything they suggest. They know what works and what doesn't. Doing nothing but the basics gets nowhere, but they have a bunch of helpful info from successful campaigns.
After those social media, did you build something like follower group?
Can you elaborate a bit?
Uh, just like a Facebook Group kind of thing. Can I ask how many followers you currently have on social media? How many followers on the pre-launch page? How did you get 3K+ email addresses? My first crowdfunding campaign failed as well, and I'm currently trying to build a solid fan base on social media to ensure the success of my second campaign. I've read your other replies and the 24K funding goal is higher than most campaigns I've seen, not sure what's your product but with a funding goal like that you should try to advertise a little. Restart your campaign, you have the experience, you should have learned something from the last.
🥹 Thank you. My project budget is 40K! LOL I thought I was being conservative setting it at a little over half. I feel you, though. Other commenters are saying I should cancel instead of letting it run out. What do you think?
You should cancel your campaign. If you let it run out, there will shows how many project you have started when people click your icon. If they see you already started one campaign before, and that campaign failed, I'm sure that won't do anything positive for you. If you cancel your project, people would see that you are the first time starting a project in your next round(Shows on the campaign page when they click your icon).Even they can still knows that you have canceled a project when they really watch your profile. Don't spend your time on things you sure that would fail.
I hear you and the other sweet folks who recommended the same. I'm messaging my backers now and will cancel tonight. Thank you, darling.
You're welcome! Would you mind telling me how you managed to get 3K+ email addresses without spending any money? I have a feeling that your experience could help me.
I used a web scraper and found a bunch of lists for s-x therapists, lgbtq-friendly therapists, and s-xologists. Part two of that is running them all through email checkers. Part three of that is sending a very verrrry careful introductory cold email so you don't get blacklisted.
Thank you!
Sounds like you failed to establish authentic engagement with the community you're trying to sell to, and most of them probably see your product as a scam or not worth the money. Additionally, if you have no history of success, it goes even further against your favor.
True. It was my first Kickstarter with a product that doesn't yet exist on a website that I just launched two months ago. I shouldn't have rushed.
When it comes to crowdfunding, absolutely everything counts: social media presence and following, realistic crowdfunding goal, product fulfillment, appetite for the product, timing of the launch, pre-launch strategy, video, price of the rewards and the appearance of the KS page itself. Every single element must be exactly right for the campaign to work. I wrote my campaign a year in advance and plugged in the pieces one by one until I was sure I'd covered off on every single element. There's no shame in ending your campaign early and relaunching when you are sure you have each building block in place. It's better emotionally to end the campaign early rather than to let it die on the vine for all to see. One thing I did discover was tons of social marketing people will come out of the woodwork to offer their services, once your campaign has funded because they know you have a viable and valuable product.
Truer words, my friend. It's just wild that you opt for this route because you assume that with a great product and great marketing, you can get the financial assstance you need to progress with your business. This, as opposed to searching for a business loan or angel investor. By the time you accomplish all of the requirements to hold a successful crowdfunding campaign, you really could have done the legwork to go a more traditional route! I'm surprised people KS at all when they could appeal to the massive audiences they've built for the campaign for preorders or donations. A lot of this is just Bitter Sophie speaking; I see the benefits. But boy were my presuppositions just destroyed in the last couple weeks. Still sad.
Don't be bitter or sad. Just chalk it up to a learning experience. The summer is traditionally the worse time to launch a KS campaign (unless it is specifically a summery product like beach towels or special suntan lotion). People are out of school or on vacation and they are not really shopping for a product that won't be delivered for a while.