As of this morning I've dropped off the last poster tubes to my local post office. Except for a few stragglers (waiting for a few addresses) and any potential clean-up, my first successful Kickstarter, One to One Hundred, is basically complete. Just over 200 tubes shipped in about a week.
And I have to say I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
Starting with a goal of $3000, I grew at a steady pace (about 3-7% a day), with a healthy spike on the last day (the day this Fast Company article was released). I ended the 30 day campaign at over 250% of my goal.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3025899/wanted/this-graphic-designer-proves-theres-more-than-one-way-to-count-to-100
I relied quite a bit on my personal social network to get the word out. Although essential for getting attention early on and as grateful as I am to everyone who shared the links and put up with my constant reminding them to don't forget to share the links, have you shared the links today? Why aren't you sharing the links?, that was small compared to a single article on a large, popular blog.
A few facts.
- For rewards, I had given everyone the option to receive 1, 2 or all 3 posters. To my surprise, just over half went with all 3.
- Most were either 1 or all posters. Very few went with just the 2 out of 3. So few in fact, I doubt I'll include that again in my next campaign.
- I averaged about 7 new backers a day. Again, with a big spike at the end.
- I had 3 stretch goals. For each goal reached I would print and ship an additional poster to everyone. I reached the first stretch goal so everyone who pledged for at least 1 poster got the free extra one. Again, I think if the Fast Company article had come out a few days earlier or if I had a couple more days at the end I would definitely have reached at least 2 stretch goals.
- About 20% of the orders were outside the U.S. with Australia, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands being most popular of international orders.
- I got tubes from Uline. I went with 3" tubes (thinking I wanted to cut down on the posters "curl factor") but I think longer 2" tubes might have been a better choice.
- I used Stamps.com for buying and printing shipping labels. No particular reason, there are several sites that can do the same thing but they advertise on a podcast I like so... there you go.
- The difference between 13 ounces and 14 ounces on domestic package shipping can be about $2. Out of sheer dumb luck, 4 posters, a tube and packing material came in at just under 13 ounces.
- I'm super glad I had my Etsy shop set up to take post-campaign orders.
- I had about a 2% drop rate. Meaning, people that pledged, came back before the campaign ended and un-pledged. Not sure why but that doesn't sound like a terribly bad % to me.
So what does all this mean?
I think it means I chose correctly for my first poster campaign. People seemed to like the concept and it garnered a bit of attention within and outside the Kickstarter site. There is no way I could have printed 18x24 posters without crowdfunding and for that I'm thankful to everyone who supported this project.
I'll have wait and see how this translates to my next Kickstarter.
Stay Tuned!
Mark
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