162: Product Pre-Launch Strategies For Crowdfunding Success

With Will Ford, President of LaunchBoom

Hosted by Kevin Mako, President of MAKO Design + Invent

During the upcoming Crowdfunded Summit, a virtual event focused on the world of crowdfunding, Will Ford, the Co-Founder of LaunchBoom, the world’s largest crowdfunding platform, will be the host. I am also honored to be a keynote speaker at this event, which is set to take place in May 2023. For a limited time, Will is generously offering free tickets to listeners of this podcast. During this session, Will is going to share valuable insights on how entrepreneurs, startups, and small-scale manufacturers can use small-scale marketing and sales strategies to assess the feasibility of a crowdfunding campaign. He will also offer his expertise on other helpful tips and tricks for a successful launch, as well as how crowdfunding has evolved over the years.

Today you will hear us talk about:

• Secure funding for your crowdfunding project from day one by engaging with potential backers.
• Develop a prototype and validate its potential by seeking feedback from real users. Use the funds raised through crowdfunding to manufacture the product.
• Pre-launch planning is a critical step for any successful crowdfunding campaign.
• Consider offering exclusive benefits to early supporters before launching on popular crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo.
• Garner early support by encouraging people to make a deposit, even if it’s just one dollar. Statistically, those who make a deposit are 30 times more likely to become paying customers on the first day of your crowdfunding campaign.
• Set a realistic and achievable campaign goal to reach your target quickly.
• Crowdfunding can be a cost-effective alternative to hiring crowdfunding agencies.
• Crowdfunding can serve as a starting point for entrepreneurs looking to expand their product business post-launch.
• The popularity of crowdfunding continues to grow as a means of funding innovative projects.
• Leverage the LaunchBoom community to gain valuable insights from your crowdfunding campaign.
• Key factors to consider in planning a crowdfunding campaign include messaging, positioning, and pricing.
• Use lead funnels and reservation funnels to attract potential backers and build interest in your product.
• Optimize your advertising messaging and lead offers through A/B split testing.
• Use data analysis to evaluate and improve your offer options throughout the campaign.
• Analyze and track which offers to convert best in your crowdfunding campaign to inform future strategies.
• Ensure that you offer a high-quality product, as consumers are well-informed and cannot be easily misled.
• Consider offering a discounted price to your backers during the crowdfunding campaign compared to the retail price of your product.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• 1:55 – A crowdfunding campaign pre-launch community build
• 2:15 – Get the LaunchBoom effect, having the entire campaign funded within the first day, and when that happens, you get top ranked on Kickstarter or Indiegogo
• 2:45 – Funding on the first day is a big key to getting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of backers, or even millions of dollars of backing.
• 2:55 – You can take a good prototype, pre-sell it, then use that money to figure out manufacturing and delivery.
• 3:30 – Kickstarter and Indiegogo is the best way to validate new hardware product ideas much faster and with much less financial risk.
• 4:00 – LaunchBoom was started in the early days of crowdfunding in order to support the hardware entrepreneur with launching successfully on crowdfunding platforms.
• 5:00 – Pre-launch planning and execution is the most important success factor for achieving a big money crowdfunding campaign.
• 6:30 – Originally, pre-launch was done through advertising to potential customers and getting them to sign up to an email list.
• 7:05 – Better was to get people to actually put a small amount of money down for a reservation, even just a dollar.
• 7:15 – The reservation should get an even better deal than when released on crowdfunding
•  7:40 – People who pay a small amount in a deposit are 30 times more likely to place an order than those who just sign up for an email notification.
• 8:00 – About 33% of those who place a dollar reservation will sign up, so you can actually predict how successful your launch day will be using crowdfunding data.
• 8:20 – Even if you want to raise a million dollars on crowdfunding via Kickstarter or Indiegogo, you should still set a much lower campaign target so that you can hit it on the first day, and thus trigger the organic algorithms of those crowdfunding platforms to promote you.
• 12:00 – The agency model worked well for many years, then LaunchBoom made a major pivot to being a consulting/coaching platform in order to reduce the cost for entrepreneurs to launch on crowdfunding platforms.
• 14:55 – Crowdfunding is the tip of the iceberg to the success a hardware startup can have.  Leverage your crowdfunding campaign to then grow and scale your sales exponentially from there.
• 15:00 – After a crowdfunding campaign launch, all hardware startups then get the desire to scale up from there.
• 15:30 – Will had never made such a drastic pivot in his professional career, it was scary.
• 15:58 – Crowdfunding is still stronger than ever.
• 16:55 – One of the biggest bottlenecks for a hardware startup is getting to market, and crowdfunding the right way changes everything for them in helping more startups succeed as a business.
• 17:40 – First and foremost, you need to design and make a great product.
• 19:00 – Tools for lead funnel and reservation funnels
• 20:35 – A/B Split testing for crowdfunding campaign ads.  Whatever works out the best in the pre-campaign is the offer you put forward for the Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign.
• 22:40 – You can’t fool consumers these days, consumers are smart.
• 22:50 – High price points on good products sometime even convert more customers.
• 25:00 – Kevin Mako speaking at the 2023 Crowdfunded Summit and free tickets for listeners to the show, for a limited time.

EPISODE LINKS

Will Ford Links:
LinkedIn | Website | CrowdFunded Summit

The Product Startup Podcast Links:
https://www.ProductStartup.com/
Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube

PTC Links:
https://www.ptc.com/
OnShape | Creo

Mako Design Links:
https://www.makodesign.com/
YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

Kevin Mako Links:
Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality.

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!