Getting backers on Kickstarter is incredibly important for your campaign, but it can also be challenging without proper guidance.
The problem with most of the tips you’ll find online is that they aren’t realistic. Most of us don’t have the funds to invest millions in an outbound marketing strategy to get a Kickstarter backed (and if we did, we probably wouldn’t need a Kickstarter in the first place!).
So, to set the record straight, we’re going to walk you through 17 realistic, actionable tips that will work.
You can take that from us. Since our story began back in 2013, we’ve launched more successful crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo than any other agency in the world. These are the strategies that work for us. And if you follow this guide and implement these tips before you launch, they’ll work for you, too.
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Key takeaways
- Know your audience first. When you understand your customer, you can create a campaign tailored to their pain points and preferences.
- Pre-launch is the key to successful Kickstarter campaigns. Set up an email list, consider your marketing channels, and prepare your promotional materials before you launch.
- Be diverse with your marketing. Consider PR, influencer marketing, paid channels, and organic methods to maximize your reach with your target market.
- Build long-term connections. Nurture customer relationships to create a community that will back you, support you, and buy from you for the long run.
First: Who is your target audience?
Knowing your target audience is the bedrock of any great Kickstarter campaign. It determines how you position your products, the channels you’ll use to advertise, and your unique value proposition.
Ultimately, before you learn how to get backers on Kickstarter, your goal is to locate the people online who are experiencing a problem that your product will solve. If you’re proposing a smart tool for owners of urban gardens, for example, you may identify a primary audience of busy millennial professionals with limited outdoor space.
Related: What is the average age of Kickstarter backers?
In that case, you’ll need to determine how best to reach them. You’ll also want to tailor your Kickstarter campaign to lean into the time and space-saving benefits your product offers.
You can see how your target audience will act as the foundation for your campaign. Keep your ideal customer in mind as you carry on with these 17 proven tips.
How to get backers on Kickstarter with 17 proven tips
Without further ado, let’s get into the list. Here are our 17 realistic, proven tips that will show you how to get backers on Kickstarter.
1. Build a great pre-launch email list
A pre-launch email list is the strongest tool in your crowdfunding arsenal. It acts as a catalyst to build a strong reservation funnel.
Each person on your pre-launch email list has shown interest in your product. This makes it far more likely they’ll back you when you need them.
There’s no shortage of methods for building a successful pre-launch email list, but we think Facebook advertising is the best way to go. It’s more direct than blogging and will lead people straight to your landing page.
2. Ask your pre-launch email list to become VIPs
Having a pre-launch email list is great, but how do you know that each person on the list will actually back your product?
We recommend asking each new signup to make a $1 deposit to become a VIP and unlock some extra perks. Why? Because people on your email list who make an initial $1 deposit are 30 times more likely to back your product when you launch.
To convince people to put down the $1 deposit, consider offering VIPs additional perks, such as a discounted price, extra add-ons when they make their final purchase, or early access to your product after launch.
You should also look to set up exclusive communities where your VIPs can receive updates, send feedback, and communicate with your brand. Nurturing your community is the best way to keep your customers engaged with your product and ready to back you when required.
3. Develop a strong PR strategy
A great PR strategy is essential if you want to get your Kickstarter backed. Top-tier media placement means top-tier brand visibility. And, if you can secure coverage from leading news sites, your audience will see the credibility of your product.
To get started with your PR strategy, you’ll want to build a press kit containing all of the valuable information a journalist needs to know about your brand.
Then, it’s time to find media outlets to cover your story. It can be helpful to look at news stories that cover similar Kickstarters to your own. You can use this information to find relevant media outlets and journalists to contact directly.
We recommend starting with small-scale publications and ‘trading up’. Bigger media outlets are more likely to write about your product if you’re already receiving some good press online.
4. Get the best out of KickBooster
Kickbooster has a huge community of affiliates that will write about your product for a commission. Your journalist will get cash for each sale that comes from their content, and you get a well-written piece endorsing your product. It’s the perfect fast track to great PR.
We should note that Kickbooster costs $29 per month. You’ll also need to pay a commission to affiliates who boost your products. That said, it’s completely worth it. We’ve used Kickbooster for several of our campaigns and can’t recommend it enough.
5. Find influencers in your niche
Love them or loathe them, influencers can drive some serious traffic to your page. Aside from the large followings they can direct to your product, 69% of people are more likely to trust an influencer, friend, or family recommendation over information coming from a brand.
We recommend starting small and contacting influencers with around 10,000 to 50,000 followers. These people are easier to reach, have more direct engagement with their fans, and are more likely to accept your proposition.
YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are good places to start. You can often find influencers by searching for existing content relevant to your niche. Remember to target influencers related to your audience. Understanding who your market follows online will help you determine if an influencer can reach and resonate with your customers.
6. Connect with blogs, podcasts, and webinars who reach your audience
Alongside contacting influencers, we also recommend reaching out to any content creators who work within your niche. Connecting with blogs, podcasts, and webinars that have your target audience’s attention is an excellent way to get your Kickstarter backed consistently.
7. Use paid channels
Paid ads on social media channels are a brilliant tool to drive traffic to your page. Aside from building awareness, social media adverts also act as a direct link to your landing page, helping you flesh out your pre-launch email list.
We’ve all heard stories about the rise of TikTok, but here’s a little-known fact: Facebook and Instagram ads are still the kings of crowdfunding. Meta offers incredible advertising features that you can use to hone in on your target audience. It’s for that reason we suggest spending almost all of your advertising budget on these two platforms.
8. Use feedback to improve your strategy
Running a successful Kickstarter campaign demands continuous testing and improvement. To refine your strategy, you need to listen first and act second.
Look closely at social media and the online conversations happening about your product. What do people like? Where do they think you could improve? Is the general consensus positive or negative?
The closer you listen to the insights your audience provides, the more you can discover opportunities to improve your offering, optimize your value proposition, and engage your community.
9. Build an organic social media community
Aside from using paid promotions to lead your social media marketing campaign, there are also opportunities for you to build your own organic community on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
While these channels won’t bring in as many qualified leads as paid ads, this doesn’t make organic marketing redundant. Educating, informing, and communicating authentically with your audience is one of the best ways to sustain engagement for your product over the long term.
10. Cross-promote your way to success
Cross-promotion is a decision between you and another business to promote each other’s products within a campaign update. It’s essentially free marketing; all you need to invest is time.
Plus, as the other brand is posting about your business with a campaign update, each backer on Kickstarter will receive an email that promotes your product. It’s a win-win.
11. Market your product face-to-face
While online ads and PR are typically the best way to grow your campaign at scale, face-to-face events can help you engage and build more personal connections with your audience. If a customer knows you in person, they’ll feel more attached to your brand, meaning they will be more likely to join your email list and back you when the time comes.
12. Demo your products
Oftentimes, the best way to build excitement and get a backer on Kickstarter is to show your upcoming product in action.
Reserving a booth at an in-person or virtual event, meetup, or trade fair will allow you to prove your product can solve a problem your audience is experiencing. Plus, this is an excellent opportunity to collect email addresses for your pre-launch list.
13. Build a compelling campaign video
Your campaign video is a powerful way to turn an interested visitor into a loyal backer on Kickstarter—most backers will view a video before they view anything else; get this right, and you have the potential to turn visitors into loyal fans.
The goal here is to advertise your brand and tell the world exactly what makes your product so great. You’ll want to start with an exciting hook. A straightforward way to achieve this is by stating the pain point your market is experiencing. This segues nicely into the introduction of your product. You should explain how your product works, how to set it up, and why it will benefit your audience. Finish up with a great CTA.
You could choose to make your campaign video yourself. But, for a polished result, it’s a good idea to work with a professional. Our LaunchBoom Expert network features several of our favorite video agencies for you to choose from.
14. Choose great product images
Product imagery conveys your unique value to your audience in a way that few other mediums can. Along with your campaign video, you’ll want to take some time to get this part right.
We recommend opting for either high-quality photographs, photorealistic renderings, or a combination of both. These images should show off your product and its key features clearly. To get the best results, we recommend hiring a professional photographer or 3D render artist.
15. Provide enticing tiered rewards
One of the simplest ways to get more money for your Kickstarter campaign is convincing your audience to invest at a higher tier. To achieve this, you need to provide rewards that make it worth their while.
This could be as simple as a personalized thank you message or as complex as a full tour of your company premises. Many campaigns offer discounts and early access to their VIP members. Others choose to ‘value stack’, offering different add-ons on top of the primary product to sweeten the deal.
Related: What is a Kickstarter reward?
16. Share backer testimonials
Along with PR, testimonials are the bread and butter of building audience trust. They act as social proof that your product will deliver the benefits you’ve promised. Aside from this, testimonials also make for excellent social media ads. If your audience sees your product already has satisfied customers, they’ll be more likely to trust your expertise.
17. Be consistent and think long-term
It’s all too easy to think about immediate returns when designing a Kickstarter campaign. After all, you need backers, and you want them as soon as possible.
But remember. Your Kickstarter campaign is a blip in the lifecycle of your company. While raising capital now might seem like the only thing that matters, it’s crucial to think long-term about your strategy and how you build relationships with your audience.
Related: How to Keep Backers Engaged Post Campaign
Nurturing your community, providing value, and consistently showing why you’re a company that is trustworthy will definitely get you backers. But it will also build connections that set your company up for long-term success.
How to get backers on Kickstarter: Final thoughts
Getting backers on Kickstarter is no overnight task. But with an understanding of your target audience, a clear pre-launch strategy, and the right approach to marketing, it’s entirely possible to build a high-performing campaign from the ground up.
If you’d like to know about acquiring backers, check out our book: Crowdfunded – The Proven Path to Bring Your Product Idea to Life. In it, we’ll reveal everything you need to know to test, launch, and scale a high-performing Kickstarter campaign. Crowdfunded is the most comprehensive guide to crowdfunding ever made.
If you’d like support about how to get backers on Kickstarter, LaunchBoom can help. We’ve helped more clients launch successful Kickstarter campaigns than any other agency in the world. We’ll help you turn your big idea into a profitable business. Reach out and schedule a consultation to learn more.
How to get backers on Kickstarter: Frequently asked questions
Where do Kickstarter backers come from?
Kickstarter backers can come from anywhere. Think personal networks, organic search, social media, news outlets, and even Kickstarter itself. Ultimately, though, the majority of your initial backing will come from your pre-launch email list.
Do you have to pay back Kickstarter backers?
While you won’t need to pay back your Kickstarter backers, you will need to honor any rewards based on the tier they invest in. This could be early access, exclusive merch, discounts, or even a personalized thank you message.
How do I find my backer number on Kickstarter?
You can find your backer number on Kickstarter by looking at You can find your backer number on Kickstarter by looking at the pledge details in your confirmation email. People with a Kickstarter account can also find their backer number by heading to their Backed Projects page and clicking on the blue ‘+’ button for the relevant project.
Do Kickstarter backers get money back?
No, Kickstarter backers don’t receive any financial returns for their investment. Instead, brands are expected to fulfill the promises they made after the campaign ends by delivering the product as expected and honoring any tiered rewards.
How to create a Kickstarter backer survey?
To create a backer survey once your campaign ends, click the ‘reward surveys’ button on the creator menu. You can then select the tier and create custom questions to ask your backers.
