How to Launch a Product on a Crowdfunding Platform | Planningness 2014 | Jess Seilheimer | @jaeselle
Let’s Get TacticalNative Advertising: 101Planning Framework
Author: Jess Seilheimer@Jaeselle
Jess Seilheimer | @jaeselle | Planningness 2014
How to launch a Crowdfunded Product
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Hello.
Jess Seilheimer | @jaeselleChief Strategy Officer; MWWAdvisor; Birdi (former lead Strategy & Marketing)
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More than just "merchandising” a cool idea -using the community to validate or commercialize a product
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Same strategic approach to product dev, different customer mindset
Identify customer problems
Uncover an unmet need
Ideate around solving that need
Differentiate how your product meets the need (vs. competitors)
Emotionally and rationally driven
Longer consideration/buying cycle
Commercial product
Connecting with your community and audience
Emotionally driven
Being first, urgency behind a 30-day movement
PRIDE: Showing/sharing support
Crowdfunded product
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Empower people to fund
what matters to them
We all want to be part of something meaningful
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How to break through all the noise (and vaporware)?
You need a well-defined strategy and marketing/pr plan to achieve a desired level of awareness and conversion of campaign backers to financially support your product (so you can bring it to market).
How to Launch a Product on a Crowdfunding Platform | Planningness 2014 | Jess Seilheimer | @jaeselle
GREAT marketing execution will help your campaign
1. Provides real-time validation, feedback (free market research) from your target customers
2. Gain earned media for (and FROM) your target customers & increase your reach
3. Pre-sell a product
4. Attract major investors
5. Attract major retailers and distributors
Poor/no marketing will kill your campaign*
1. 60% of projects fail
2. Average raise is only 10K
*Due to no pre-launch awareness or marketing
Indiegogo Field Guide: landing.indiegogo.com/iggfieldguide/
How to Launch a Product on a Crowdfunding Platform | Planningness 2014 | Jess Seilheimer | @jaeselle 8888
CROWDFUNDING TRENDS CROWDFUNDING 101
MARKETING PLAYBOOKCASE STUDY: BIRDI
BREAKOUTS
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Crowdfunding landscape
Rewards-based Equity-based (ie: “the business case” for your social networks)
• Caps exist for companies (e.g., can only raise up to $1 million in 12 months)
• investors (e.g., majority will be limited to five percent of their income or net worth),
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TRENDS
RISE OF THE DIY ENTREPRENEUR
USING YOUR NETWORK FOR INITIAL VALIDATION
NEW PLATFORMS FOR NICHE INDUSTRIES
SYNDICATE EQUITY FUNDS
DO IT ALL: COMMERCIAL OPPS SERVICES
1
2
3
4
5
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ARTISTS FILM MAKERS TECHNOLOGISTS
Top funded industries
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Maturing point of views
Praise the utility and future of crowd
funding Expect a sea of fraud
Crowdsourcing is quickly evolving into an industry itself. In fact, crowdfunding is predicted to create at least 270,000 jobs and inject $65 billion into the economy by 2014’s end.
270,000+ jobs
65m into the economy
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Successful campaigns
MISFIT SHINEGoal: 100KRaised: $846,675
PEBBLE WATCHGoal: 100KRaised: $10,266,845
SCANADUGoal: 100KRaised: $1,662,187
VERONICA MARS MOVIEGoal: 2MRaised: $5,702,153
CANARYGoal: 100KRaised: $1,961,663
THE MICROGoal: 50KRaised: $3,401,361
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Influential people to follow
Slava Rubin@gogoslava
Founder, Indiegogo
Perry Chen@perrychen
Founder, Kickstarter
Kate Drane @Katedrane
Hardware lead, Indiegogo
Clay Hebert@clayhebert
crowdfundinghacks.com/
#Crowdfundinghttp://venturebeat.com/2014/01/22/top-30-crowdfunding-thought-leaders/
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CROWDFUNDING TRENDS CROWDFUNDING 101
MARKETING PLAYBOOKCASE STUDY: BIRDI
BREAKOUTS
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Build out your team
Campaigns with a team raise 339% more than campaigns that run solo
Indiegogo lab: http://slidesha.re/1uwj2wu
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Higher Goal ≠ More Money
People want to give to
succe$$ful projects
Indiegogo Field Guide: landing.indiegogo.com/iggfieldguide/ Indiegogo lab: http://slidesha.re/1uwj2wu
87% of campaigns that hit their goal exceed it.
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30-45 days. TOPSIndiegogo lab: http://slidesha.re/1uwj2wu
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Campaigns with a pitch video raise 370% more compared to ones without.
1:27Indiegogo lab: http://slidesha.re/1uwj2wu
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CROWDFUNDING TRENDS CROWDFUNDING 101
MARKETING PLAYBOOKCASE STUDY: BIRDI
BREAKOUTS
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Successful marketing = successful crowdfunding
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Crowdfunding playbook
STRATEGY/PLANNING customer, marketing
platform
CREATE/BUILDiterative, refine as needed
LAUNCH become discoverable,
sharable and memorable
MEASURE what’s working/ what’s not
(4-5% conversion rate)
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Research // plan
RESEARCH/PLAN customer, marketing platform
CREATE/BUILDiterative, refine as needed
LAUNCH become discoverable,
sharable and memorable
MEASURE what’s working/ what’s not
(4-5% conversion rate)
1. Start 6 months in advance of launch2. Research similar crowdfunding projects3. Who is your target audience? (customers, VCs, investors)4. Perks & pricing (discounts!)5. Hire creative team (save up!)6. Determine budget for creative assets, social media & PR7. Create a marketing mix/plan of how you will drive
awareness and conversion of your campaign efforts
Social marketing is not free! You need budget:1. build an audience2. drive engagement and sharing
through multiple types of tactics and content marketing
(I could write a book on the approach to social marketing but will spare you)
How to Launch a Product on a Crowdfunding Platform | Planningness 2014 | Jess Seilheimer | @jaeselle
Research // plan // MARKETING PRE LAUNCH
Create an inner circleFriends, family, colleagues, past supporters (plan to raise 30% of funds from this group)
**Build your social media presence**identify followers & influencers, create assets, share relevant content, create thought leadership, post teasers!
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Create // Build
RESEARCH/PLAN customer need
CREATE/BUILDiterative, refine as needed
LAUNCH become discoverable,
sharable and memorable
MEASURE what’s working/ what’s not
(4-5% conversion rate)
Creative: • Create 2 videos with 2 endings
• Problem you are solving- what product is- what it does features/benefits and why it’s important to the end user. No longer than 1:30-2 minutes.
• Craft your messaging/RTBs• Layout real estate on page• Visual is better! Infographics win• Show your product• The more you tell, the more you sellSocial: • create assets & editorial calendar
(can’t stress this enough to plan in advance)
Press/Media Kit:• Craft (flexible) press release & media
kit. Short & sweet, include video and visuals. (Yes you still l need a press release to keep your messaging tight. This is a must.
Perks: motivate funding for• Passion• Pride• Participation/sharableOn Average, campaigns with perks raise 143% more than campaigns without perks
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Create // Build // PERKS
*Must do* Do the math on perk pricing
(logistical time counts)
Know how you’ll fulfill at 10 and 10,000 units
Research international shipping
What are Perks?Good or product• A physical object• Swag• Your product
Experience• Event• Recognition• Volunteer• Participation
Digital Good• A song• Subscription to newsletter• Exclusive insight into project’s progress
In-kind• Dinner with a celebrity or influential individual• Special skill• Access to exclusive places
Make contributors feel valued• Show off participation• T-shirts• SWAG• Creative involvement
Indiegogo lab: http://slidesha.re/1uwj2wu
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Launch
RESEARCH/PLAN customer need
CREATE/BUILDiterative, refine as needed
LAUNCH become discoverable,
sharable and memorable
MEASURE what’s working/ what’s not
(4-5% conversion rate)
Marketing and PromotionEmail• Email brings in 20% more funding than any
other source
Social Media• Social marketing is paramount. Strategy:
build following and then convert• 25% of a campaign’s funds raised should
come from social media
Press/Bloggers• Identify influential journalist beats, interests and
craft personalized pitches (no mass pitches!) for relevant websites, blogs
Mid-campaign dealsOffer specials and 1-off memorable campaigns
Indiegogo Page UpdatesCampaigns with updates raise 286% more funds
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Measure
RESEARCH/PLAN customer need
CREATE/BUILDiterative, refine as needed
LAUNCH become discoverable,
sharable and memorable
MEASURE what’s working/ what’s not
(4-5% conversion rate)
Finishing Strong• Update frequently until deadline
After deadline• Thank your contributors• Follow up about fulfillment• Continue to use your campaign for
marketing• Don’t stop communicating via social
Analytics• Measure against KPIs and benchmarks
Cost per acquisition analysis• Thank your contributors• Follow up about fulfillment• Continue to use your campaign for
marketing• Don’t stop communicating via social
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Timeline
Post-launchLaunchPre-campaign
-3M -1M -2w -1w
Launch End
1w 2w 4w
1d 2w
4m
Product strategy, Messaging, Creative assets
Identify personal list of friends, family, network, press
Finalize press releases, alert journalist
Send out Embargoed press releases, remind campaign champions
Release new perk, content
Release another new perk, content
Release end of campaign special, perk
Send thanks you
Send updates Send final updates
2m
Ship product
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CROWDFUNDING TRENDS CROWDFUNDING 101
MARKETING PLAYBOOKCASE STUDY: BIRDI
BREAKOUTS
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Scheduled launch date 10-17-13
Senses air quality: smoke, CO, heat, pollutants, humidity
$0 funding/awareness
Hello
NEST Protect Launch date 10/8/13
Senses smoke, CO, heat, light and motion
80M in funding/High awareness
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You have to start (again)…
Revised launch date: December 10th
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ChallengeLaunch hardware startup, Birdi: Smart Air Monitor. Validate consumer/category interest of connected devices/IOT in the emerging smarthome vertical. Develop launch campaign via Indiegogo with a 50K goal. Drive consumer (early tech adopters/moms) and VC awareness. SolutionCreate marketing and communication strategy to launch Birdi. Positioning, value proposition, branding, creative assets, messaging and product story. Execute across owned, paid and earned media channels (website, Indiegogo, social marketing, paid social media and PR). 2 paid media campaigns; holiday and end of campaign 5 day sprint. Results144% funded on Indiegogo. Product validation & category experts positioned Birdi as a main competitor to Nest Protect, an 800M funded company recently acquired by Google by 3.2M.
- Identified by Business Insider as “Top 13 Startups to Watch in 2014”- Events: CES Keynote with AT&T (1-8-14) and NYTM demo (2-4-14)- Partnering with The San Francisco Mayor’s office and are part of their
Entrepreneur in Residence Program - Closed 700K seed round July 2014
Owned: 35% social referral to Indiegogo 27% social conversions
Paid:• Total media spend: $3867 • CAC: $8 // ROI: 18x• 37% total sales conversions• Targeted 5-day end of campaign
end sprint- 19% of total campaign funds
Earned: 759,461 social mentions, shares, engagement 59 media impressions
(ie: NYTimes, Wired, Forbes, TechCrunch, Fast Company, VentureBeat, GigaOM, CBS News, Business Insider, Digital Trends etc)
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Marketing Objective
Our marketing planAwareness 1st, conversion 2nd
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Marketing channels
OWNED PAID EARNED
PR
Live events
GetBirdi.com
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Paid media strategy
Throughout the campaign, Google Analytics showed Facebook, Twitter to be the highest refers and garnered the most engagement of all traffic to Indiegogo.
Opportunity to target people’s interest, likes and friends of Birdi Followers
Throughout the campaign, Google Analytics showed Facebook, Twitter to be the highest refers and garnered the most engagement of all traffic to Indiegogo.
Opportunity for keyword and hashtag targeting
Google organic and direct referrals were high
Opportunity to target “smartmoms” at mass scale
Opportunity to disrupt NEST and privacy search queries
Why did we pick these platforms?
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PerformanceMeasuring success
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Attribution model
% conversion
emailfacebookprtwitterwebsiteGoogle search
30%
13%
24%15%
11%7%
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Coverage: 59 original posts
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44
Final 6 days: $14,742Optimized conversion
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45
$72,198 144% funded
Holidays/New Years
Final pushFriends, family & press
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CROWDFUNDING TRENDS CROWDFUNDING 101
MARKETING PLAYBOOKCASE STUDY: BIRDI
BREAKOUTS
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Time to make stuff
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Brief groups• Groups briefed on mock product specs, launch
objectives, target audience & budget• Teams given playbook & deliverable guidance
Group Exercise Create top-line marketing/launch plan
(owned, paid, earned)
Group Presentations• Each group has 5 minutes to present their product
launch plan and budget allocation
5 mins
30 mins
30 mins
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE1. Product overview, target audience and budget2. What crowdfunding platform would you use?3. Perks- what are they4. Activation plan: channels and marketing activities
• Owned• Paid• Earned
5. Media/PR plan
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I believe in sharing what we learn with others and hope you found this insightful.
Questions? Tweet @jaeselle
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THANK YOU.
Jess [email protected]
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References
Indiegogo Field Guide: http://landing.indiegogo.com/iggfieldguide/
Indiegogo lab: http://slidesha.re/1uwj2wu
Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2014/05/27/three-crowdfunding-trends-entrepreneurs-shouldnt-ignore/
Geekwire: http://www.geekwire.com/2014/future-crowdfunding-3-important-trends-watch/
Entrepreneur: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232301
All images sourced via Getty
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