4 Missteps People Make During The Pre-Launch Phase

Unknown Speaker 0:03
This is the crush crowdfunding podcast, the number one place for people who want to launch on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. My name is Nalin and I invite you to join me for tips, hacks and insights to get you launched and fully funded.

Unknown Speaker 0:20
Hey, hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to another session of the crush crowdfunding podcast. Again, I'm really excited to have you here today with me and to really talk to you about crowdfunding and how you can absolutely go out there and just crush it no matter if your campaign is on Indiegogo. Or if your campaign is on Kickstarter. I’m really thankful to have you here with me today. I'm super duper duper excited to talk to you about what I have in store today. The topic today is about mistakes. I know I know mistakes is not really a great topic to talk about. But you know I for one, think that it’s completely necessary to talk about mistakes rather than just push it under the rug. So you know, we don't make the same mistakes again and again, and again. As an entrepreneur, we see all these successful businesses, these successful entrepreneurs, these multi million dollar companies and brands and these global products, and we think, Wow, they probably didn't make any mistakes. That's, you know, that's probably why they're where they are now. However, I'll let you in on a little secret. They've all made mistakes too. Heck, I'll even let you in on a little secret about my own business. I've made a ton of mistakes. In my own business really, like for example, instead of hiring out I spent up to six hours per day creating social posts, rather than asking someone really someone who is an expert at graphics to help me out and they ended up doing a week's worth of graphics in under an hour. Think about that up to six hours per day for myself. And there was an hour under an hour for this expert to do it. Right. So when it comes to crowdfunding, you know, I started off not knowing how to write emails for a campaign, and went through so many different iterations. Before it was right. I started off not even knowing what positioning of a product is the positioning, and definitely did that wrong many, many times before I was able to figure it out for each product, know exactly how to test it and figure out the best way to put it right in front of people so that they would actually back a product. Really just mistake after mistake after mistake, even for myself, right? Like I'm gonna be completely honest. But guess what? I learned from these mistakes and now know exactly what to do and know the exact blueprint to launch. That's why I think it's so important that we talk about mistakes. And it's so important that we learn from them. So today, although mistakes is not a really, you know, not really a fun topic to talk about, we're gonna talk about mistakes. More specifically, we're going to talk about the four mistakes that people make during the pre launch period, and what you can do to prevent it. Let's get started. The first mistake I see people make is that they don't do the market research before they get started at all, started with the product, started with the marketing start with anything they just don't do the market research. So before you go all in, really I encourage you to take a look around to see what others are up to. Just being aware of your industry is so crucial for every crowdfunding campaign creator, you should look at everything from the products that are currently on sites like Amazon or eBay, or Rakuten or anything that's out there that people can buy on. Like even in retail stores, what can they buy in retail stores that's similar to your product, right? Look on crowdfunding, look on Kickstarter look on Indiegogo use your keywords to type in to these online sites to check out what is already there. Right? Because that is a type of market research you need to do here. You know, a lot of people will come back to me and say, Nolan, you know, my product is completely new. And there's literally nothing else that compares literally, but you know, I hate to break it to you, but kind of everything that's already been invented or everything that's already out there, but I hate to break it to you. But your project is probably just a newer iteration of something that already exists, or definitely similar enough to something else on the market. Right. So there's probably something else out there that someone can take their money and spend it there instead of your product. Really, awareness on this point alone is so important because someone who has that, that money to spend on your product could choose to take their money and spend it on something else that is similar. And if you don't know what is out there that’s similar, if you don't know what's out there that other people can potentially spend their money on, you're already three steps behind, for example, right? If you're thinking of creating a new phone case, right, there's a million other phone cases out there. Like you might say that, oh, my phone case is literally the best thing in the world. It has XYZ features. It has ABC benefits, but you have to know what the other phone cases are offering in order to make sure that you are able to present your features, your benefits, your value, your solution in the best way so that people actually come to you instead of going to competitors. So before you go all in for your product before you go all in on your marketing before you go all in all with crowdfunding, I urge you to do the research on those similar campaigns. And those similar products. Look at the campaigns that did well look at campaigns that had the most backers, look at campaigns that had the most funding, what are they all doing? What can you learn from those campaigns? Like, what kind of colors are they using? What kind of angles for the product images are they using? What kind of lifestyle images are they using? Are they using a certain gradient to kind of, you know, kind of overlay on the images? What is it that they're doing that you can learn from? Also, what can you learn from those campaigns that didn't do well? Right? There's probably products out there in online stores in crowdfunding that just totally flopped. Right? What did they do wrong that you will sidestep? What did they do wrong that you will also not do wrong? The more you can learn beforehand, the easier it will be for you to ensure that you're putting your best foot forward when it comes to your product when it comes to your marketing, when it comes to even just the way you're presenting and talking about your product. So that was the first mistake, insufficient market research. The second mistake I see a lot of people who come to crowdfunding make is that they don't have a well designed landing page or honestly, they might not even have a landing page at all. Okay, guys, a landing page is literally the digital storefront of your brand digital storefront of your company, digital storefront of your product. Back then when, you know, people had stores like physical stores, and they had a sign on their storefront that said, “Hey, this is what I do. Come on in if you need help.” But now since crowdfunding is online, since you're asking people from around the world to contribute online to your project to a platform like Kickstarter, like Indiegogo that is online, you need your storefront online, you need that digital storefront online, you're completely new to the market. Where else will people find information about you if you don't have that digital storefront? Right? So a lot of people who come to me actually make that mistake, they say, “Hey, I have an Instagram page,” or “Hey, I have a Facebook page. That's enough, right? That's enough to just show people exactly what to do and what my product is or my brand is right?” Well, guys, that is actually a mistake. You need to have a landing page because not only is a landing page, a digital storefront for your product, your brand and your--you as an entrepreneur and your company. It's also the one place that people can go to during your pre-launch campaign so that you can collect their information, collect their email, collect their intent to buy, collect their intent to pre order so that you can build up an audience and direct them to your crowdfunding campaign when you launch. That's why a landing page is so incredibly important and some people still come to me and say, “Hey, I don't have landing pages. That's okay. Right?” Or like, “Hey, I'm not going to make a landing page” and guys, I hate to break it to you, you have to have a landing page. So with that in mind, there's no way a store can convince people to buy without a storefront and there's no way anyone will buy your product, will pre order your product if your design is from the 1990s and honestly, okay, no offense, I'm, I'm a 90s kid so I love all things 90s but if your design is from the 90s, if your design is not modern, if your design is not mobile friendly or mobile, optimized or easy to navigate or has all the really modern, sleek features of the times people are probably not going to trust you. People aren't going to instill that credibility and trust into you to give you their email address to give you their contact information to even want to give you their credit card information to back your project, to back your product. So two things, you have to have a digital storefront, aka the landing page. And you have to make sure that it's well designed because design is one of the main factors for creating trust between you and the person on the other side of the computer of the- on the other side of the screen on the other side of the Internet. The third mistake that I see people making in the pre launch phase of their campaign is that they forget about friends and family. So, this is actually a topic that people don't really talk about a lot because most crowdfunding information out there is released by these big agencies that make money from running advertising for campaigns. They make money from running advertising to random strangers in different countries all around the globe and getting these strangers to be interested in you, your company, your brand, your product. And again, that's why they don't really talk about it. But I think it's a really important topic because crowdfunding at its core is honestly about relationships, right? It's a value exchange between you and someone who trusts you enough that they're going to give you money online for a product that doesn't exist yet. Crowdfunding is really about getting others to help kind of pull resources to make your dream a reality. So, when you think about it, when crowd-when you think about crowdfunding, and when you think about how it's about relationships, the closest relationships you have, are actually those with your friends and family. So, the number three mistake that I see a lot of people do is that they just completely forget about friends and family. And they think that, wow, with the crowdfunding I always have to go out to these random strangers in Facebook groups, I have to go out to these random strangers and forums I have to go to these random strangers and meetups or through advertising, to get people to come into my campaign and actually back the project. Really, guys, a lot of crowdfunding, especially on that first day is really about leveraging your own personal networks, your friends and family and acquaintances and the person you haven't talked to since the last day of high school, it's really about leveraging those relationships and having them come and contribute to your campaign on that first day, so that the algorithms behind Kickstarter, so that the algorithms behind Indiegogo can help push your campaign organically to millions of other people who organically come to these websites already. come to these platforms already. When you're getting ready for your crowdfunding campaign. When you're in your pre launch period. I urge you to not forget about your friends and family, they will support you, you just have to ask. There's probably someone in your friends list right now and the 3000 people in your Facebook friends list that you haven't talked to in a long time, that probably wants exactly what you're creating right now. And you just don't know it unless you reach out and talk to them and tell them and say, “Hey, this what I have, are you interested?” “Hey, this is what I have will just support me,” “Hey, can you support my campaign on the launch day,” a lot of people don't do that. And it's actually one of the strongest driving forces to that success on the first day of your launch, that will actually catapult you and catapult your campaign to so many millions of other people on the crowdfunding platform. So ,what you can do during the pre launch phase to not make the mistake that a lot of other people make is actually just go out there and get confirmation from your friends, from your family, that they will help support you by contributing to your project within the first 24 hours of the campaign. It's honestly one of the only guaranteed pulls of resources that you have at your disposal to propel you to bigger gains. And I know, I know, it's hard and awkward to talk to friends, family and acquaintances about your project and asking-and ask them for money. Like I know it's weird and awkward. But in order to succeed, you have to be uncomfortable. You have to be used to being uncomfortable. You have to put yourself out there and be brave enough to talk about your project, to talk about your product to actually make the ask because honestly you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take, right? And there's no reason to not ask because from all the years I've worked in crowdfunding and from all the different campaigns that I've seen before, and from all the projects that I've helped work on, friends and family is honestly one of the strongest contributing factors for that success on the first date, on the launch day, that will actually set you up for success in the next 30 to 60 days of your campaign. The final mistake that I want to talk to you about today during the pre launch phase of a crowdfunding campaign, is that people forget to warm up their community for the launch. They forget to warm up their people, their audience, their fan base, their raving, raving fans or audience for the launch day itself. So, launch day should actually be a spectacle for everyone involved, right, assuming that you built up a community that you know, you built up group of people who are super excited about your project, it's also really necessary to just warm up your fans for a launch. They'll need to know when it is, they'll need to know how they can preorder your product, they will actually have to know what platform your product is launching on, they'll need to know how to actually use the platform, they'll need to know how much it costs they need, they'll need to know when you can actually pre order your product especially because you'll be offering that special launch day pricing. They'll need to know exactly when they can come to your page and give you their credit card information so that they can actually get the product and support you on the launch day. Launch day is so incredibly important, as I was mentioning earlier, because hitting certain metrics will actually trigger the algorithms on Kickstarter will actually trigger the algorithms on Indiegogo and are organically drive more visitors to your page. Because Kickstarter and Indiegogo, they make money. If you make money, they take 5% of everything that you raise on their platform. So if they see that you have tons of people rush into your campaign on the launch day, they see tons of people backing your campaign on the launch day, they see you hitting 100% raise on that first few hours, they're gonna be way more likely to promote your campaign in front of millions of other people because the more funds you raise, the more revenue that they get to. On launch day, the most important thing to do is again, really make sure that everyone knows when and where and what time you are launching. A lot of people make this mistake and just don't even tell their community. They just know within the team, within the entrepreneur themselves. They're like okay, we're going to launch on Tuesday at 6am and that's it, but they don't tell their community. And so when they do launch their page, no one goes there, no one realizes that, “wow, I can actually go and back the project now.” This is really a concerted effort right through every single channel that you have. So what I recommend you do is providing an enticing launch day reward for your avid fans, in order to drive them to convert early and also having a very, very specific plan of what you're going to say, on your social channels on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, you know, and on your email, on your email is having a very specific plan of what to tell people of when you're launching where you're launching how much the first day reward is going to be so that you're able to hype up your community ,hype up those people who are super excited about your product already, hype them up for that launch day, because that will propel you to success for the rest of the campaign. So there it is everyone, the four mistakes that people make during the pre launch period. I actually wrote about nine additional mistakes that people make during the pre launch period. So be sure to check it out on the crush crowdfunding blog, which is at crush crowdfunding dot com. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I hope you enjoyed this session about the four different mistakes. And if you haven't yet, I'd love it if you would subscribe to the podcast. I'll be rolling out more content to help you crush your crowdfunding launch. And lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, I would really appreciate it if you would leave a review for the podcast because it will help others who want to learn about crowdfunding find out about the podcast. Thank you again for being with me and I will see you in the next session.

Unknown Speaker 19:52
Thanks for listening to the crush crowdfunding podcast at crush crowdfunding.com. Tune in the same time next week for more ways to crush your launch.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai