Kickstarter Campaign Timelines and Why They’re Important
Thinking about launching a Kickstarter campaign? Awesome! Kickstarter is a great place to get funding for your game’s development. But to reach your funding goals, you’ll need strong marketing. And to ensure strong marketing, you’ll need a strategy that includes a list of marketing materials and where and when to use them. Essentially, a timeline.
Over the next three weeks, I’m posting a blog series dedicated to this topic. This post covers the four marketing phases of a well planned Kickstarter campaign timeline at a high level. The following posts examine each phase in depth, providing details on specific maketing materials needed and how to use them.
4 Marketing Phases of a Successful Kickstarter Campaign Timeline
Phase 1: Build
The build phase of your Kickstarter campaign begins well before your actual Kickstarter launch. This phase should start at least three months beforehand. Your objective in the Build Phase is to promote your game and company, but more importantly, “build” an engaged fanbase that can help spread the word when you’re ready to launch your Kickstarter.
Phase 2: Tease
Three to four weeks before your launch, you can start the Tease Phase of your campaign. In this phase, you’ll announce that you’re going to launch a Kickstarter campaign and when. It’s important to not only announce this to your fanbase, but also the media and other key influencers. It can take a long time for editors, writers, bloggers, etc., to actually publish a story, so it’s important to reach out to them well in advance.
Phase 3: Launch
The Launch Phase starts as soon as your page goes live on Kickstarter and should last only 30 days (campaigns lasting 30 days have a 35% chance of success, which is higher than those lasting 60 days). At this point, your primary marketing objective must be to drive traffic to your Kickstarter page. Keep this objective in mind as you post to your social media channels, blog and forums, as well as send email and more.
Phase 4: Update
The people who give you money through Kickstarter are your lifeblood. It is important that you communicate your appreciation and keep them excited throughout development. Make sure that you reward contributors appropriately and provide them with constant progress updates. The more effort and creativity you put into these rewards and updates, the more engaged your contributors will be.
Continue reading to learn more about Phase 1: Build of your Kickstarter campaign.
7 Comments
Liz
about 12 years agoI can't say enough about this. And it's free. You're a great resource.
ReplyEmmy
about 12 years agoThanks Liz! Appreciate it.
ReplyKaty Twist-Harty
about 11 years agoAs a small women owned "mommy" business, This is short, sweet and to the point. We look forward to reading the series and getting our kickstarter campaign going. We will be sure to give you credit as a resource in our planning and I will update you when we launch!
ReplyEmmy
about 11 years agoGreat! Glad you enjoyed the post. I'm looking forward to getting updates :)
ReplySarina
about 11 years agoWhat software was used to make this timeline? I find it to be very appealing plus I have a school project where we are to create a timeline and this by far has been the most nicest timeline's I have came across. :)
ReplyEmmy
about 11 years agoHi Sarina. Glad you liked the timeline. I created this from scratch using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
ReplySarina
about 11 years agoThank you so much! :)
Reply