How to start a successful Kickstarter campaign

If you have an exciting low budget movie proposal then one way to get your movie production off the ground is with a Kickstarter campaign. If you cant find the right production company to make your movie…then make your own production company!

Films like Anomalisa, Boy Howdy: The Story of CREEM Magazine and The Babadook are films that came to be because of successful crowdfunding with Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website provides a platform for filmmakers to source money so they can start a film project, but how do you get funding for your film. Well in today’s article we’ll go through how you can start up your own Kickstarter project and succeed at that. So what we will actually cover?

·       What funding goal should I set?

·       How long should my Kickstarter campaign last?

·       How can you reward your project backers?

·       How should I promote my Kickstarter campaign?

·       Is there anything I can do out of Kickstarter to boost my campaign?

How do I figure out my Kickstarter funding goal?

So firstly you have to set yourself a goal for funding, the average film on Kickstarter raises around the twelve thousand dollars mark, with short films raising slightly less at just under six thousand dollars. So perhaps aim for something around that mark, but you would also need to take a look at how much you would have to spend yourself, so look for the price (if any) of the locations you want to film in, and how much you have to pay your actors as you may find that this twelve thousand dollars might not be enough, always try to raise a bit more than you actually need as it will give you a short of backup of funds that you can use should your situation change, but make sure you let your campaign backers know that any money over a certain amount will be ‘extra’ and tell them what it will be used on, such as more music licensing rights or more actors.

How long should my Kickstarter campaign last?

When starting your campaign you have to take a look at the money you need and think about how long it will take to raise, in an ideal world you would reach your funding goal straight away, which some campaigns do, but it’s very rare. The average length of a project seems to be around 14 to 35 days so a number within that range should work perfectly. A rule of thumb would be the more money you need to raise the longer your campaign should be, so let’s say you want to raise twelve thousand dollars, it would be best to make it around the 30 days mark. Another thing to consider would be that not all campaigns do well straight away, so if you set you campaign to last two weeks it might not get traction until it’s too late, so we would recommend to add a little more time than you think you’ll need to accommodate any late boost of sorts.

How can I reward my Kickstarter campaign backers?

People will not back your Kickstarter campaign unless they get something back for themselves, well that’s a lie, diehard fans will back your film just to see the film but some other people will want something back for their hard earned money, and that’s fair enough, people want to see some return on their investment. So what can you do to make people want to back your project? Well offer something back, perhaps offer backers some sort of behind the scenes content to show how you make the film, this also gives you a bit of creditability as it shows backers where their money has gone to. You can also give some big backers a chance to come on set and see the production in the flesh, or even give them a part in the film, not the lead of course but let them play an extra, this is a great way to get fans involved and improve your rapport with fans, which in turn may lead to more backers. A good example of a reward would be one from Ricky D’Ambrose who offered backers’ pages of the original script of his film Notes on an Appearance. This is another great way to reward your fans as it gives them a collectable from the film for them to keep.

How should I promote my Kickstarter campaign?

There are plenty of ways to promote your Kickstarter campaign, one way would to be for you campaign to become a ‘project we love’ which is a campaign that Kickstarter themselves like and feature on the home page, which leads to massive growth quickly, the Kickstarter website states that to become a project that they feature you have to have an engaging project. It doesn’t have to be the best but they say you should show that you’re confident in your project. Basically to sum to up, you need to show that you are passionate about your project. But what else can you do? Well, social media can play a massive part in promoting your campaign, perhaps show a short part of your films trailer on Instagram to provide an insight into the film to get more traction. If you have the money even some paid traffic onto the campaign can help, perhaps use Facebook ads to get some more likes on the films Facebook page to show it to more people, or use google ads to get more clicks on your films website, that leads us on to another you can do, try and set up your own website for the film, with this you can provide much more detail on your film within the limitations of Kickstarter, make sure you provide a call to action on your website to get people onto the Kickstarter campaign.

Is there anything I can do out of Kickstarter to boost my campaign?

This point pretty much concludes our last point, but you can use social media or a website to boost your campaign. But a slightly less orthodox way of boosting your campaign would be to go the press, obviously were not saying go for the sun or daily mail, as they probably won’t feature it but talk to people at a local paper or blog near you, as people like to help local people out, so it can provide a small platform to help your campaign grow.

So that’s it, that’s how you can start your Kickstarter campaign, following our tips will give you a good start towards reaching your goal. So good luck!