{ PREMIER ISSUE 2018 } KHARISMA MAGAZINE
87
ING FOR A CROWDFUNDING MARKETING FOR.... BUSINESS
get to be first people to get their hands on it.
They’ re supporting start-ups, and they know that they’ re getting it for a lower price than what will be in retail in a couple of years.
Kharisma: There are two main platforms that you mentioned: Indiegogo and Kickstarter. If someone is considering doing a campaign, how do they determine which platform to use?
Khierstyn: Well, it depends how you look at it. I’ m a little biased because of the campaigns that I’ ve managed have all been on Indiegogo and the difference in the platforms is it’ s very much like an Apple versus Android. Apple is very regulated and closed source and doesn’ t let you do a lot of stuff development wise, as opposed to an Android which is open source and is like a free for all. So Indiegogo is really great for the project creator because you can do pretty much anything you want on there.
You don’ t need to apply to have your campaign put up. You could just press launch and you’ re up there. You have a lot of flexibility over customer data and you could do affiliate schemes on its own. It’ s really flexible and easy to work with. Generally, if they love your campaign and you reach out to Indiegogo, they will give you a campaign strategist to work with you to optimize your page and make sure that your campaign is ready to make money for both you and for them.
So, they’ re much easier to work with than Kickstarter. The benefit to that is, it’ s the platform people think of when you think about crowdfunding, so it’ s the go-to. Also, they have a lot more traffic than Indiegogo, maybe like three to five times. You’ d have to verify that. But frankly, I don’ t think the traffic matters because well, to be fair, there is a lot more campaigns that go on there, so where you get more traffic, you get more
competition as well. Also, Indiegogo has a generosity platform for cause-driven campaigns.
Kharisma: Finally, what would you say to someone who is considering crowdfunding to launch a product or service into the marketplace?
Khierstyn: To guide them on the successful path, the first thing is to either build an audience around their product, or they want to validate their idea. Which means that proves that somebody will buy it. You have to validate it before you even think about crowdfunding. I mean, how do you really know that someone is going to give you money for your product?
There’ s a really good book by Pat Flynn called, Will It Fly. I interviewed him on my podcast, because I kept ranting that people missed this first critical part of crowdfunding and that you have to look at it like launching a business. You have to make sure there’ s a market for it. Pat Flynn has a really great process for it, and it’ s all about talking to your customer beforehand to see what their pain points are, what they struggle with and what is the niche, the area that you’ re looking to serve. Once you’ ve validated your product and you know 100 percent that someone is going to buy it, you should keep talking to your customer because it really helps to understand what they struggle with and it is going to help you craft your marketing message.
Kharisma: Awesome! So, the critical thing is to validate, validate, validate and then validate some more. Thank you so much, Khierstyn!