Top 20 Kickstarter Tips and Tricks. Part 1: The Video

I recently ran a successful Kickstarter campaign, Vicki's Wish. We beat our goal, and learned a lot about what works and what doesn't, which I wanted to share here. I didn't want to leave anything out so it'll come at you in 3 separate parts, Part 1: the Video; Part 2: Social Media; Part 3: Self-Promotion.  

The video part of your Kickstarter presentation is the first and sometimes the only thing people will look at. They might not read your bio, they'll scan the page for images, but they might not read your life story in words. 

They will, however, click "Play"...

Here's my list of Top 20 Tips for your Kickstarter video presentation:

1. Get to the point with a concise video. iMovie/MovieMaker is your friend. Cut it down. Not too short (no shorter than 2min or 2:30) but not too long (10 mins is too long. I never watch KS videos that go that long. Do you?) A 15 or 30 second movie trailer can make you want to watch a movie (I'm not advocating a 30 second KS video, that won't cut it) but a 3 minute KS video should be able to communicate what you need without losing the viewer's attention.
2. Watch as many KS videos as you can. Take notes of what you like and what you don’t like about each one.  Watch KS videos outside of your genre. Watch many different videos in many different genres and figure out what it is about them that makes YOU want to give money to a project or not.  Note: Don’t just watch super-successful projects’ videos, watching a couple weaker projects’ videos can be beneficial too!
3. Show your face. Backers want to see your smiling mug.
4. Be genuine
5. Be positive! :) but not fake. You’re excited about this project, energized, pumped - communicate that to your viewers!
6. Write down what you’re going to say, but then do not read it word for word like a script. Hit the main points but keep it conversational. Don’t ramble. Don’t say "um".
7. Watch your video. Ask for feedback from others before you post it.
8. If you’re a musician, play your best music asap
9. Same for artists, show your best artwork as soon as possible. Don’t save your best stuff for the end of your video - a lot of KS videos don’t get played to completion, so get some of your favorite/best work out in the first 30 seconds!
10. The internet surfing crowd is a visual crowd.  If you’re a non-visual genre project (like music or a novel), find ways to get visual. Show yourself. Clips of live shows. Clips of music videos. Your friends wearing your band’s t-shirt. Album covers you already have out. Drafts of album covers you are thinking about putting on your next album.  Anything and everything related to you and your KS project.
11. If you have 1 million plays on Youtube or thousands of Facebook friends, show us. Include  a quick screen shots of your plays or Facebook page.  If not, then don’t. Only put up what is impressive.
12. Market yourself to strangers the way you’d describe your music to someone who’s never heard it. Why would they want to come see your show are the same reasons why would they want to give you money? Someone coming to your show has paid for a ticket to get in, it’s the same.
13. Put your best foot forward at all times. Don’t put up tracks that aren’t mixed well.  Just as an author wouldn't put up an excerpt of their novel that has grammatical errors. 
14. Put up lyrics, show off your poetry.
15. Find as many ways as possible to tap into your current fan base. If you don’t have one yet, get out there and do shows.
16. It is OK to show off! A bit. If you’re a smug d-bag, of course that won’t work either. Confidence sells. Sit up straight. Speak clearly, and tell strangers your elevator pitch for what your project is about.
17. Have an elevator pitch for your project. Best you can. As short as you can, as clearly as you can. 30 seconds.  Record yourself saying it and time yourself. Listen. Practice. Repeat.
18. Now is not the time for modesty. Why are you awesome? Tell us. This is not a job interview. This is not a first date. Your goal is to get the people that see your KS page to give you money.  And to hook them within the first 30 seconds of your video. If your video is weird or off-putting in any way in the first 30 seconds, you’ve lost many of them.
19. Even if stranger backers start at only giving $1, that is huge! The key is getting strangers ‘on your team’ ASAP.  Once they are, make sure all your backers are following you on facebook and Twitter. Include links and reminders in your backer updates. They’ll get all your updates you send out on KS and social media and they’ll feel closer to you if you write personally and THANK THEM for their contribution. 
20. There is a very good chance that if you do a good job in establishing a positive relationship with your backers there is a good chance they will RAISE their pledges. They do not have to commit to $1, they can raise it at any time to any price they want. Get them to love you and they will.

More about Social Media and your Kickstarter project in Part 2....

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"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein