In today’s flashback post, we’ll look at articles about spam, selling existing inventory, customer service, Kickstarter’s “spotlight” feature, and achievements.
The 5 Types of Spam That Creators Receive During Crowdfunding Campaigns…and What to Do About It (#141): Spammers have gotten really good at disguising their services. Look out for: campaign boosting services, campaign consultants, social media boosters, cross promotion from strangers, and exclusive clubs. You might find value in these types of services–that’s totally up to you.
Selling Existing Inventory (#142): Other projects sell existing inventory as part of new campaigns. But should they? When I ran Kickstarter projects, one of my primary goals was to make everything as clear as possible. When you add existing inventory to a project–especially for an old product that isn’t directly related to the new product–I felt like I was decreasing clarity and reducing focus on your new product. Also, if some of the funds you’re raising have nothing to do with manufacturing and shipping the new thing, they dilute the funding goal. However, waiting to offer that inventory during the post-project pledge manager (earmarking it so you don’t sell it in the meantime) can work well.
How Can I Make This Experience Better for You? (#143): A customer contacted me about a product they found wasn’t quite what they envisioned. Instead of following my first instinct, I wrote this response: “How can I make this experience better for you?” I didn’t try to deflect the question or make the issue seem like less of a big deal. I didn’t make excuses. I didn’t dismiss the customer. I just tried to understand them better, whether it’s for this situation or the future.
How to Maximize the New “Spotlight” Feature (#144): In 2015, Kickstarter introduced the Kickstarter Spotlight feature, allowing creators to edit parts of the page to refer post-campaign potential customers to their pledge manager or webstore. I haven’t touched ours in a long time, but we may still get referrals from them.
Achievements vs. Stretch Goals (#145): The way these achievements work is the creator presents a series of goals–many of them related to social media–and when a few of them have been met, the creator gives all backers something cool. I don’t recommend focusing too much on achievements, but having a few of them can be engaging for a subset of backers.
***
If you have any questions or thoughts about these topics, feel free to share in the comments!
If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content!
