Track Where your Early Backers Come From

Once your campaign goes live you will have access to the “Dashboard,” which is a place on Kickstarter to track statistics about your campaign: video views, funding totals, funding source, etc. One unique feature is the “Source of Referrer” section, which tells you from what source your backer has come from. So if a backer saw a link to your project on Facebook and clicked on it, you would know they came from Facebook. This will help you determine which sources are helping your project and which sources you need to promote to more.

Note: It doesn’t tell you directly which backer came from which source, but you can keep track of that in real time if you wish by looking to see which category changed every time you get a new backer.

Find out Who your Early Backers Are

It’s important to not only find out where your backers came from, but also who your early backers are. When you get a new backer, before you message them thanking them for their support, do a little quick research to find out who that person is. This person my run a blog about the industry your campaign is in, or they may be a working professional in the field. Find out who they are, and if they are someone with “pull,” kindly ask them if they could help promote your campaign. You can research most people in under a minute. Start by clicking on their name on Kickstarter. This will take you to their profile page which will sometimes include their personal or professional website listed or sometimes a city and state. Your search may end there, but don’t forget, when in doubt Google the person with everything you know about them. If you can’t find out anything about them, at a minimum ask every person “Can you help by sharing this campaign with a few friends?”

Create a “Give Back” Reward

When creating reward levels I would suggest a “Give Back” option: a way for backers to donate the product to someone who can use it. Our product was a camera shoulder rig, so we created an option for backers to donate a shoulder rig to a film school at a cost lower than buying one for themselves. Reasons for doing this may include helping people in need of your product who can’t afford one, or giving someone who likes your product, but has no use for it themselves, an option to back the campaign. However, I found that a great reason for including a “Give Back” option is when trying to promote the page you can tell promoters (journalists, bloggers, etc.) about this option. They tend to be more receptive when they learn they can help others by promoting it. It’s a win-win-win situation.

Think about “Engagement” What will keep people on the page?

A lot of articles will suggest you include a profile video, but here are the facts right from Kickstarter’s blog.