How to Launch a Product on Kickstarter

Thanks to the Kickstarter platform, artists, entrepreneurs, and designers have been given a space to not only promote their products but to drum up financial backing from investors. Creating a new product from scratch can be time-consuming as well as costly and finding the initial funds to start a campaign can be difficult. Kickstarter makes it easy to spread the word about your unique creation and invites backers and investors to participate in the launch process.

If you are interested in featuring a product using Kickstarter, there are a few guidelines that you should follow to ensure that your launch goes smoothly. With so many products available for investment, you want to make certain that your launch has a professional and informative appearance to draw in the right backers.

Product Research

When your big idea hits, it’s time to see how feasible it is for your dream to become a reality. Like with any product, the first thing you should find out is the demand in the market. To get a clearer understanding of what kind of potential your product may have you should be taking advantage of web-based tools like Google Keyword Search. This tool will allow you to enter the name and niche of your proposed product to see how often similar things are searched for online. The higher the rate of search, the more need there is likely to be for your product. Take note of all similar products and compare your design. This is a great time to make any innovative changes or improvements based on already available designs to make yours stand out.

Finding Suppliers

You will want to connect with reputable suppliers that specialize in your product niche. If you are uncertain of where to start your search you can try connecting with websites like Tridge that can help you narrow down global suppliers that would be right for you. Your aim is to create solid and functional business relationships with your suppliers. During your pitch, let them know that you intend to request large volume orders to help draw their interest. Once you have developed a good working relationship you can start to negotiate any production discounts that would allow you to put even more orders their way.

Prototyping

One of your first hands-on stages is to have your design come to life. Work with your suppliers to discuss the design particulars of your product and have them create a working prototype that can be used for testing as well as advertising. Through development, innovation, and research, your original prototype may undergo many changes, but it is vital to have a working model to help draw in investors in this first stage of development. Have a professional photographer take attractive multi-angle pictures that you can use confidently in your Kickstarter campaign. It can’t be understated that the appearance of your product along with the quality of your launch details will have a powerful impact on whether investors feel trustworthy about your product. Amateur photos and an unpolished copy can easily mean the difference between the success and failure of your campaign.

Production

Once you have a bit of money behind your product, it will be time to start putting in the orders for production. Your most important order must include getting all products to your backers and suppliers first. Take a good look at your numbers and make your first order based purely on current demand. You don’t want to over-invest in a new product with the first run, as it will still undergo many changes and updates. Through the production process, align your product testing to ensure that all updates are quickly pushed through to manufacturing.

Press & Creating a Buzz

If you really have a passion for your product then you need to be very proactive in your advertising efforts. Your first step is to create an exciting press release to be sent to select members of the press that have experience covering products in your niche. Ask if they will be willing to write a short review article on your product to be posted during your Kickstarter launch. You can also reach out to other field experts, bloggers and news agencies to announce your launch and request feedback. The more exposure that you can get online that will enable you to post link backs to your Kickstarter page, the more interest you may receive from investors. The more traffic and views that your Kickstarter page has prior to your launch the further up the search results it will appear.

Posting Your Final Product

You want to really make an impact when you are ready to unveil your product for launch. Concentrate on creating richly informational and exciting sales copy to draw in the maximum amount of attention. If you’re’ not a proficient writer, you can hire a professional freelancer to help you create the right copy for your launch. Gather your photos, product updates, and design specs and get ready to put it all out there. Make certain that all of the included information pages for your launch are well organized, contain all relevant product information and are error free. This should be considered the equivalent with any other type of product pitch and needs to be professionally handled. Include requests for further funding in your copy so that investors know what you are looking for.

Fulfillment

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, you should have the resources to bring your product to the market. Your first priority is to fulfill your commitments to your investors and backers. Invest a good amount of time during the launch process planning out your plan for getting your product out to the people. You should develop a solid logistics plan that allows you to deliver your product with the least amount of expense and in the most efficient manner. Try to cut out as many middle-men from your shipping process as possible. You should try to streamline your method from production to delivery to save costs and time as much as possible.

Conclusion

Kickstarter has proved to be a powerful tool helping a variety or artists, innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs to reach their goals and create the products of their dreams. The process for creating a successful Kickstarter campaign relies heavily on standard business practices and can be a great learning resource for anyone who is thinking about a product launch. There are endless resources on the web as well as from the Kickstarter website that can help guide you through the launch process while providing support and tips for running a successful launch.