You have poured your heart and soul into creating a successful Kickstarter project. You carefully crafted a pitch that was guaranteed to have people begging you to take their money. You creatively dreamt up rewards that would both be cost-effective to produce and would attract contributors to your campaign. In addition to your product, you have committed to sending them bumper stickers, T-shirts and more in the form of additional rewards.
Now comes the hard part: figuring out how to get the campaign rewards from you into the hands of your dozens, hundreds or even thousands of supporters.
Don’t break the bank
Your very first consideration is how you will ship the perks or rewards, and how much it will cost you. There are two factors behind shipping pricing: weight and size. Weight is easy, and in most cases you can determine it using your prototype even before the campaign begins. Dimensions, however, can prove a little trickier; some items need larger packaging simply to protect from breakage in transit. To keep costs down, aim for packaging that is compact, light and requires minimal filler for fragile items.
Keep the faith
Once you have decided the method and packaging for shipping your product, do not ship until you are completely ready – and never promise what you cannot deliver. It can be easy to underestimate the amount of time it takes to stuff 5,000 envelopes, for example. Make sure all of your rewards are ready, and attempt to ship everything out at the same time. Not only can this decrease your shipping costs, but it can also increase your campaign contributor satisfaction if everyone receives their rewards at the same time.
Know your supporters
Many Kickstarter campaigns give contributors a preference for the size, color or even flavor of the reward they receive. Kickstarter has a survey capability that allows you to send a survey to all backers at any time after you have launched your product. However, note that you can only send out the survey once, so you should make sure to include everything you might need to know from your backers.
Picking a partner
If all of this seems overwhelming, many outside companies can assist in the fulfillment of your crowdfunding campaign. They offer services that include everything from data collection to packaging and transportation. If you have enlisted a contract manufacturer to produce your product, it may provide drop-shipping direct to your fulfillment partner. However, they will still require all the appropriate information from your supporters.
Help is out there
Accomplishing all the tasks required to succeed in raising the capital you need through crowdfunding may seem overwhelming. Know that you are not alone. Our podcast can provide the guidance you need. Art of the Kickstart offers free resources, including tips for creating successful blog posts and interviews with crowdfunding project creators.
If you’d like more information on fulfillment, check out Art of the Kickstart. For additional tips, subscribe to our newsletter or tune in to our podcast.
