Ep 296 - 5 Attributes Of A Great Product for Kickstarter with Co-Host John Coveyou

Funding the Dream

Host Richard Bliss and Co-Host John Coveyou discuss five attributes of a great product on Kickstarter.

1. People want to buy the product. While this seems obvious. oftentimes people want a product, but aren't willing to pay for the product. You have to find something that is valuable to your audience.
2. People want to tell others about it. Word of mouth marketing is the best means of attracting fans and backers to your project. You can pay for a crowdfunding promotional company to help you artificially spread the word by paying for placement. But when your backers are excited enough to share their support you are able to grow and attract a wider range of backers than you ever could through paid media.
3. People can't easily get it elsewhere. This may seem counter-intuitive. Table top games, which are the single largest funding category on Kickstarter, can be purchased in a store. But the opportunity to participate on Kickstarter means you will get it sooner (Usually), you will get exclusives (Sometimes) or you are part of the development process and have an emotional investment. (An experience). All of these are hard to get if you are buying the product from Target.
4. It's something tangible and shippable. Selling an emotional experience on Kickstarter can be done, but it is a very rare thing. Instead, focus on creating and shipping a product of some kind that can be held in the hands and used. Today, there is a lot of support for how to approach manufacturers and shipping specialists to get your products produced and delivered around the world.
5. The audience is on Kickstarter. While Kickstarter and crowdfunding is common for you and I, it is still something very new to a large portion of the population. If you are going to launch a product, you need to determine if your target audience uses crowdfunding and Kickstarter. If they don't, you have to educate them first about what is Crowdfunding, then you have to convince them to back your project and give you money. Something they probably aren't comfortable with.

John does a great job of highlighting these five attributes and how to build a great product for Kickstarter.