The launch plan for a crowdfunding campaign: the 30 days before and the first 48 hours

A campaign isn’t launched on launch day: it’s launched in the month before. When the page goes live, the people who will back you first should already know it’s coming, and have a reason to act straight away. This guide is a timetable: what to do in the 30 days before, in the first 48 hours and in the weeks after.

It’s all decided at the start

At EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, researchers tried to predict the outcome of 16,042 Kickstarter campaigns using only the earliest data: three or four hours after launch the prediction was already more than 75% accurate, and after 36 hours almost 84%.^[1] A later study reached the same conclusion: interest in a project shows up immediately, and virality counts for little.^[2]

There is also a number that’s easy to remember. On Kickstarter, 79% of projects that pass 20% of their target make it to the end.^[3] Support follows a U shape: plenty in the first week, less in the middle, plenty again at the end.^[9] Indiegogo calculated that 42% of the money comes in during the first and last three days of a campaign.^[10]

On day one you’re not looking for backers: you’re calling on the ones you already have.

Who backs you first

The first money almost always comes from people who know you. A study of Sellaband, a music platform, found that friends and family pledge early and pay little attention to how much others have already given; people further away, by contrast, follow how the campaign is doing.^[5] Three researchers at the Politecnico di Milano showed, across 669 Kickstarter projects, that the link between a creator’s network and success runs precisely through the money and backers of the first few days.^[4]

In practice: your inner circle gets the campaign going, and a campaign that’s already moving wins over strangers. Kickstarter puts it this way: think of the last 50 people you sent a message or an email to; they are probably the ones who will back you on day one.^[8]

The 30 days before launch

A study of Kickstarter projects between 2009 and 2017 found that longer preparation increases the chances of success.^[7] And Kickstarter observed that 70% of successful campaigns had a preview page to collect people who wanted to be notified, compared with 50% of all campaigns; people who followed the preview backed the project 66% more often than those who discovered it later.^[6] It’s a correlation, not a guarantee: creators who prepare a preview are also more organised. But the lesson is clear.

For contacts, one simple rule: only write to people who have given you permission or genuinely know you. Messages to strangers on bought lists don’t work, and they aren’t allowed.

The day and the time

The study of Kickstarter projects mentioned above found that launching at the weekend lowers the chances of success.^[7] Kickstarter recommends Tuesday, without publishing the figures. Pick a weekday and a time when your people read their messages: early morning or the lunch break, not Friday evening.

The first 48 hours

1. The first pledge is yours, or from the person closest to you: a campaign sitting at zero convinces nobody.
2. Write to people one at a time, not all at once: a personal message works better than a group message.
3. Post your first update on day one: in Mollick’s study, not doing so in the first three days was linked to a 13% lower chance of success.^[12]
4. Thank your backers publicly: it’s also a way of showing that the campaign is moving.
5. Aim for 20-30% of the target in the first two days: past that threshold, almost every campaign makes it to the end.

On Campagna Crowdfunding every reward has its own link: you can send each person the one that suits them best, instead of the general page.

After the launch: stages

With “all or nothing”, short campaigns do better: Kickstarter writes that projects of 30 days or less have its highest success rates, and as early as 2010 it warned that this is a correlation, not a cause.^[11] With “keep it all” you can keep the campaign open for longer and use the money as it comes in. The rule that applies to everyone is a different one: always give people a date that’s close at hand.

• Split the campaign into stages of a few weeks, each with its own milestone: the first print run, the first gig, the first piece of the project.
• Each stage has its own news: a new reward, a guest, a photo, a result achieved.
• Each stage has its own key days: the opening and the close, like a small campaign.

To spread the word stage after stage, read the guide Promoting your campaign with social media and email.

Frequently asked questions