Last day "How to Draw Adorable" on Kickstarter. What I've learned so far

[carlianne]

I just hit 600 backers so overall I'd have to say it's been successful but I've definitely had some learning curves with it being my first campaign I thought would be helpful for anyone else looking to do this.

Biggest mistakes I've learned from:

• Make sure your hero image is centered for your page, mine was offset so I'm some thumbnails it cropped the text weird and looked terrible. I think it would have stayed on the home page longer if I had done so.

-don't plan a Kickstarter to end with the last two weeks overlapping when your kids are home from school I'm dying a little bit

• I had zero marketing experience for ads. So I didn't try running any ads until after the first week and they didn't go well i should have researched this more before hand and will get help in the future. I pretty much just lit money on fire

Things I'd do differently:

• I had stopped posting regularly on Instagram And I think the algorithm punishes you for not being engaged. Took about two weeks for my engagement to be repaired. I would plan to start daily posts two weeks before the next campaign if not doing it already.

• unfortunately reels are really where it's at now. I would do more reels and videos and less images in the future

• I would have built my email list sooner. I basically didn't do it until the week before

Things I straight up didn't know:

You can make custom links to share your campaign with so that you can better track where pledges come from. I didn't realize that until after the first week it would have been useful.

Biggest successes:

I was able to reach out to other Instagram influencers and get them to share my posts, I selected only those with very similar content to mine and paid between $10 -$20 for reposts. This was the same that I tried paying for a Facebook ads and had much better return and engagement and visibility.

Most of my pledges are actually from kickstarter itself. I think the hero image really helps and also just that I had vetted the idea for this project for so long that I knew it was a desired book. I also hired a graphic designer for the book before doing the kickstarter to help ensure everything looked great (even though I designed the kickstarter page myself)

I listened to Kickstarter's advice closely. They have lots of articles on how to get featured. For example - do not have small text on your main image. And I did my best to follow that advice. I got a projects we love sticker and a newsletter feature.

But the biggest successes of all is that I actually did it!

Even though it was terrible timing, And I had friends tell me not to do it, I wasn't prepared fully, I was terrified etc etc etc... I launched anyway. Even if the project didn't fund I would have learned a ton from this experience.

I do wish I tried something small before going crazy with a 160 page book

If you want to see it:
Kickstarter link

[PenAndrew]

Great work and great experience.

[Kim Rosenlof]

@carlianne Thanks for the great Kickstarter advice. I would have not known to do a lot of these things. I totally relate with having a hard time getting things done with kids home from school. This summer hasn’t been super productive for me . That is awesome that you went for it, it seems so daunting. Super cute project. Congratulations!

[carlianne]

@Kim-Rosenlof thank you Kim!!! I'm so happy it is helpful. It was the worst time but since I wouldn't have done it otherwise it is also the best time

I propped as much as I could but if I had waited to do all of those things on my list I never would have launched. So better to do it unprepared and crazy than not at all. But now that I've had the experience I would like to do it in a more controlled way next time

[Jeremy Ross]

Hi @carlianne, thanks for sharing your lessons learned and constructive feedback with the group! Really happy for your successful Project; albeit few bumps in the road nonetheless. Well done!

[Johanna Kim]

Congratulations on funding your Kickstarter and making a super useful and beautiful product! And thank you so much for sharing your experience. This is a fantastic resource.

[Sarah VanDam]

@carlianne Thanks so much for sharing this!! Haven’t read the whole post yet, but I’m going to come back to it, and I’d love to check out your Kickstarter.

[carlianne]

@Johanna-Kim you're so welcome! I'm happy to help. I always think "gee I wish someone told me this" so I always feel compelled too share ️

@Jeremy-Ross Thank you Jeremy! I'm sure there will always be bumps no matter how prepared you are. Guess I gotta just enjoy the bumpy ride!

@Sarah-VanDam You're welcome! Only 3 days left on my campaign!

[carlianne]

Update! Okay I'm in the last 48 hours now! I've been trying a few things to up engagement through stretch goals and I got some great advice I will share.

I didn't feel like my stretch goals were creating much engagement it was mostly stuff like unlocking more prints and sticker designs. I got advice to try and give away small items that are cheap to print in bulk and are very light weight. That way it doesn't impact shipping weight/costs.

So I tried instead doing a freebie and I noticed more engagement and since e-book backers couldn't get a physical copy of the bookmark I saw some people switch their pledge and upgrade to the softcover book.

The bookmark itself is pretty genius anyway because I can put my website and social media handles on it and give one to everyone instead of a business card.

Next, I got a recommendation to have a freebie only available to certain pledge levels. So I introduced a sticker. The average pledge amount in my campaign is $28 so I made it available for pledges $35 or higher to "upsell" everyone a little bit. I again saw a few people adjust their pledges to partake in the freebie.

Anyway my take away was to make the kickstarter more special by promoting more exclusive and bonus items that you get.

Feels really obvious now

I'm at 834 backers with 41 hours to go!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@carlianne smart

[Asyas_illos]

@carlianne thanks so much for all the information and progress about your ‘campaign’, it’s good to know for those of who might consider this in the future.

[LauraA]

@carlianne Thanks for sharing all your experience here!