You’re reading edition #17 of the LaunchBoom Newsletter, which is sent every Tuesday to thousands of product creators.
I really enjoyed writing today’s newsletter. I got to explore some new areas that I’m excited to share with you. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Three vital lessons from a failed Kickstarter campaign (who relaunched and found huge success).
- How Steve Jobs uses the “familiar” to explain the “new.”
- Y-Combinator’s 22 essential tips.
Enjoy.
Contents
1. Short Story
On September 10th of last year, this creator pressed the “cancel” button on her Kickstarter campaign.
Many would label her product as a “failure,” but they’d be wrong.
She relaunched and now has raised $87,421 with 23 days to go.
Here’s how she did it.
Her name is Audrey Lim and she created Kublet.
When she first launched Kublet on Kickstarter last year, she struggled the entire time to get traction. The first day, she was able to raise $7,399, but every day after that was a rollercoaster.
Over half of the days of her campaign yielded $0 or even negative revenue as some backers canceled their pledge.
Through this experience, she realized that there were dramatic improvements she could make to her marketing strategy. So she canceled her campaign and immediately joined LaunchBoom Accelerator.
Today, her campaign is at $87,421 in funding in seven days, which is 3.5x the entire funding of her last campaign.
I’m going to share the three main differences between Audrey’s failed campaign and successful one… so you can avoid these mistakes for your launch.
Difference #1: Much better positioning that focuses on benefits the customer will experience.
To illustrate this point, I’m going to show you the top graphics on the failed campaign page and the successful campaign page.
Let’s start with the failed campaign:
Which benefits are being shown here?
Besides the fact that the device can display crypto prices, not much. The words gorgeous, intuitive, simple, and small don’t speak to tangible benefits the customer cares about.
Contrast that with the messaging on the successful campaign page:
First off, Audrey now shows that Kublet can be used for much more than just showing crypto prices.
She makes that really clear visually, but also explicitly speaks to the benefits of doing so:
Watch your sales rise…
Your social clout sour…
Your assets grow.
This subtle change in positioning made a huge difference on the success of her campaign.
Difference #2: She built a Reservation Funnel.
In her failed campaign, her prelaunch efforts were very different. The most important (and detrimental) difference was that she didn’t build a Reservation Funnel.
The LaunchBoom Reservation Funnel allowed Audrey to not only collect leads, but $1 reservations. Those that put down a $1 deposit are, on average, thirty times more likely to buy than someone who only gives their email.
She used LaunchBoom’s software called LaunchKit, to build her funnel.
Here’s an overview of her Reservation Funnel:
Difference #3: She built a highly qualified email list with Facebook ads.
With her Reservation Funnel built, Audrey drove traffic using Facebook ads. By the end of her prelaunch efforts, here were her metrics:
- Ad spend: $14,422.97
- Total $1 reservations: 943
- Cost per reservation: $15.29
With this email list, she confidently pressed the launch button on her second campaign.
This launch was a lot different than before.
On day one, she raised $53,311 (that’s 7.2 times more than her previous campaign’s first day!).
With 23 days remaining, I think the campaign will end in the six-figures… all because she made these three key changes to her launch strategy:
- Changed her positioning to focus on benefits
- Created a Reservation Funnel
- Built a prelaunch email list with Facebook ads
Use these tips to avoid failure for your campaign.
UPDATE: Audrey raised $150,210 on Kickstarter! Here’s the review she left on Trustpilot.
Watch Audrey’s success story on the Masters of Crowdfunding interview podcast here:
2. Marketing Tip
How Steve Jobs uses the “familiar” to explain the “new.”
Do you remember when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone?
What about the way he described it?
Because how he described the iPhone teaches an important lesson for product creators.
Jobs said…
- An iPod
- A phone
- An Internet communicator
The world was already familiar with those three things, which is why he kept repeating those three words until he finally revealed…
The iPhone.
By associating it with the familiar, Jobs’ positioning tactic allowed the world to immediately understand what the iPhone was.
If you are struggling to explain your product, try this tactic yourself.
3. Favorite Content
Y-Combinator’s 22 essential tips.
Nearly 5% of all startups that have gone through YC since 2010 have built billion-dollar valuations. To me, that’s wild.
Here’s a pocket guide of YTC advice that just surfaced.
Learn to launch your product in 5 minutes per week.
Every Tuesday, I send a newsletter just like this one! You can expect to read about my biggest lessons and most-effective strategies to launch a successful crowdfunding campaign. Sign up using the form right below 👇
