In the past, I’ve written about services that you can use to market your Indiegogo campaign and whether or not you should choose to use one. With this post, I’ll be breaking down a few of the points to consider when choosing a marketing service for your Kickstarter campaign.
1) Ignore messages on Kickstarter.
Have you ever opened your email a message like “Get to the #1 spot on google for only $5” or “Hi Company Owner. Use our web development services in India.”
Why do you think companies participate in this kind of spammy marketing? Because it works! Well, it used to. Once email became more popular and people started to become more adept at using google to research service providers, it became clear that you just have to ignore these kinds of messages.
The same logic applies to inbound messages that you get on Kickstarter, especially offers to get your campaign to the front page or to make your campaign blow up for $5.
There may be a legitimate company among many of the messages you receive, but there also may not be. If the messages reads like a template or if it makes seemingly amazing promises, it’s unlikely to be a legitimate claim.
It’s best to just ignore the messages that you get on Kickstarter and do your own research on companies in the niche that you can trust!
2) Good providers don’t work on a percentage basis.
Why? Here’s a quote that will sum it up.
“Let’s say the promoter puts in 20 hours a week promoting your campaign (like a part-time job).
20 hours per week * 4 weeks = 80 hours.
If you end up raising twice your goal overall = $1,350 payout for the promoter.
If you end up raising your goal = $450 payout to the promoter.
$1,350/80 hours = $16.875 hourly wage if they raise twice your goal. After taxes = $13/hour
$450/80 hours = $5.625 hourly wage if they raise your goal. Below minimum wage everywhere.
They meet half your goal = $112.5 payout assuming $2,500 raised (after let’s say 10% fee of Kickstarter and payment processing).
$112.5/80 hours = about $1.4 hourly wage if they meet half your goal but the campaign fails.
If the campaign fails regardless, they would receive no income.”
Basically, the only way it would make sense for an established company to work on a percentage basis promoting or marketing your campaign would be if they made this type of deal with hundreds of active campaigns and didn’t put in much effort into marketing any of them, until they saw which one would actually take off and be responsible for their paycheck.
Asking someone to work to promote your campaign on a percentage basis will attract the wrong kind of company that you likely don’t want marketing your project.
3) Nail down the clear deliverables
No company can guarantee that your campaign will be successful in the same way that no company can guarantee that a product will be a mega hit.
No company can promise a certain number of sales for the amount of traffic that you receive, not even an advertising platform like Facebook.
Be super specific about the deliverables that the company promises or guarantees and how they are able to make those promises.
4) Understand the different types of companies out there.
A marketing agency is very different from an advertising platform, which is very different from an individual contractor. A press release website (like these) is different from a PR agency.
Depending on your budget and the level of involvement that you want the firm to have with your company, you would pursue a different kind of company.
For example, if you can afford a $5,000 retainer and are looking to hire a professional PR agency, then it would make more sense to identify PR agencies with established relationship in your target niche, whether that is gaming, music, or publishing.
If you can only afford a $200 campaign, then your options are limited to companies that have a more limited involvement and offer clear deliverables.
5) Don’t be seduced by a nice website
I hate to say this, but I got an email the other day from an individual who was scammed by a “marketing company” who had a really nice website, but who just took her money, didn’t even reply to any further emails, or deliver the promised services.
Now a days, it’s easy to set up a nice-looking website. The real question is, what kind of presence does that company actually have in the niche you’re going after? Did they just set up this website yesterday? You can google their domain name and see!
