How to Overfund Your Kickstarter Campaign: Part 2 – Stonemaier Games

How to Overfund Your Kickstarter Campaign: Part 2

In the first part of this 2-part, pompously titled series (please take my advice with a grain of salt. I barely know what I’m talking about), I talked about the various places that people found out about my Kickstarter project. Today I’m going to talk about the three remaining datasets I have to share. See the chart below.

Location of Backers

This data isn’t all that telling. I mean, it’s amazing to me that 29% of backers were from other countries. It was great to see the localized support, but also glad that the project had supporters from all over.

I’ll revisit this data when I pay the shipping costs to distribute the games. International shipping will widely vary, and I’m sure most of it will vastly exceed the $20 international shipping add-on I requested. As long as we’re not losing money per copy of the game shipped abroad, I’ll be happy. It’s exciting to me that people around the world will be playing the game.

Future Playtesters

I’m blown away by this data. Nearly 90% of all backers will at least consider testing a future expansions? That’s astounding, and I think future expansions will greatly benefit from such a large, varied source of blind playtests.

Demographics

Okay, here we get into some of the nitty-gritty details. First, it’s very encouraging that there’s such a large intersection between wine drinkers and gamers. It’s a sign to me that there’s an even larger audience out there for Viticulture.

Second, it’s telling that only 4% of the backers are wine lovers. I think part of that is promotion: We focused more on gamers because gamers already know they like games. Among wine drinkers, there’s only a certain percentage of people who know about Euro-style board games. It’s tough to sell something to people if they don’t already want it. However, my hope is that Viticulture will be a gateway game for many people who are unfamiliar with this type of strategy game, and we’ll focus a lot of our energy on wineries, wine merchants, and wine blogs in the future.

Third, the biggest takeway here for potential Kickstarter created is the small percentage of backers who actually know Alan and me. 9%. That’s it. You can’t launch a Kickstarter campaign expecting that the bulk of your support will come from people who know you, even if you’ve already built an audience through social media or blogging.

Honestly, I think that’s a good thing. I think it pushes us to create something that people will freely pledge to because they want it, not because they feel some obligation to support you. It pushes you to make something not just good, but great. (I’m not saying that Viticulture was necessarily great, but because I launched the product knowing that its success hinged on strangers, not friends and family, I think I focused on the right things when refining the game and the campaign).

I will say, though, that friends and family are key for those first few days. Starting strong is hugely important. Spend those first few days sending individual, personalized e-mails to everyone you know who might be interested in the project. Even if it’s just a part of the project. I sent a number of e-mails telling friends that they might get a kick out of my poor acting in the video. I didn’t want to make them feel obligated to support me, so I found something of value to offer them instead. I would highly recommend that approach. Run your campaign like a business, not like a charity. (I say that with all due respect for charities–I work for one for my day job, after all!)

Is there any other data you’d like to know? I’m happy to share anything that might help you run your Kickstarter campaign.

14 Comments on “How to Overfund Your Kickstarter Campaign: Part 2

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  1. I just found this site by accident a few days ago and I’ve been poking around and reading your posts. I was particularly pleased in Part 1 of this post when you mentioned the idea of connecting with people online and how it isn’t a one-way street. I had a similar experience when I started twitch streaming recently and I think it’s probably one of the most important tips anyone getting involved in a new community could receive. I wish someone had put it that way to me years ago! Anyway, my point is I like your style and I will be reading more. Thank you!

    1. Thanks Ash! I talk a lot about relationship-driven marketing among my blog posts–I really like using social media as a platform for conversations, not just blasting info to the world. :) Good luck with your Twitch streaming!

  2. Great article – things have changed greatly over the past 4 years – how important is marketing in today’s context ?

  3. Stonemaier Games » Kickstarter Lesson #93: Overestimating and Underestimating Your Tribe says:

    […] my post-campaign data revealed that only 4% of all backers were purely wine lovers, compared to 76% gamers. Did spending […]

  4. […] face it: the majority of backers for tabletop games, video games*, and most other categories live in the USA. I also believe Americans experience […]

  5. Jamey – do you think that putting same shipping cost for all backers, regardless of their origin would encourage more international backers? I’m currently resolving a plan for eventual global shipment that could be done (with some extra work) without making high differences in costs regardless of country of reception.

    1. Hmm…I like consistency, and I think backers appreciate that, but only if they don’t feel like they could have gotten a better price if you had broken it down by region.

  6. […] have some more interesting data to share later in the week (see Part 2 here). What do you think about this data? Is it helpful for you? What conclusions do you draw from it? […]

  7. […] week or so after the Viticulture Kickstarter campaign ended, I wrote a few posts with a lot of hard data that can potentially help people with their Kickstarter campaigns. […]

    1. George–Good question. I should have pointed out that I’m based in St. Louis, as is Alan. I extracted that data because I was curious if we’d see a significant amount of local support, especially considering that I was on the local news to talk about the game and in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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