Your original Kickstarter (or IndieGoGo) backers will always hold a special place in your heart. They’re the trailblazing early-adopters who got on board early and made your crowdfunding journey possible. But
what about everybody who found out too late, and missed the boat on your original campaign?
For years, crowdfunding project creators have been engineering their own ways of helping these people by allowing for pre-orders outside of the official Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign.
Here are three reasons offering pre-orders is a great way to garner more support for your project.
1. Save time and effort
If you don’t offer pre-orders, you’ll probably get lots of emails from people who want to support you but missed out on the initial campaign. Ever stumble across a crowdfunding campaign only to be let down by the fact that it ended a few weeks ago? It’s quite a bummer. Of course you can draw a hard line and not coordinate with these people, but there’s a good chance you’ll want to allow them to create a pre-order that you’ll both benefit from. Offering pre-orders either on your own website or through BackerKit (or both, with our handy Pre-orders Widget) allows you to make these people happy with little to no extra effort.
2. Expand your fan base
A crowdfunding campaign is an exciting event, not a store. Kickstarter has been clear about their position on this, and we think it’s a good idea to retain the sanctity of that event, too. But offering preorders doesn’t actually reduce the value or excitement of this event—it’s just a way for you to allow more people to support your project.
But just to make sure to retain the sanctity of the original campaign, you can always create a little bit of differentiation between pre-order backers and your original backers. Most pre-order backers are excited just to have the option to get in on a campaign that they missed out on, so the easiest way to differentiate is usually to offer slightly different pricing options for pre-order rewards. Rarely have we heard of a campaign’s original backers actually being upset that the creator offered pre-orders after the official end-date. In the end, you’re just allowing more people to get on board and broadening the reach of your project.
3. Keep the momentum going (on your own turf)
Crowdfunding is about doing what you love to do, while making your backers happy in the process. We like to think everyone has an equal right to support an awesome project, so long as it works out for everyone involved. Offering pre-orders allows you to keep from creating winners and losers out of your potential supporters.
Pre-orders also allow you to keep momentum going outside of Kickstarter and Indiegogo. With the added convenience brought by the new Kickstarter Spotlight feature, you can easily lead backers to your own site for pre-orders, whether it be via the BackerKit Pre-orders Widget or your personal online store. This way, you can direct the momentum you already have while making the first exciting step into the post-campaign life of your project.
Wherever your crowdfunding journey takes you, we hope you consider keeping things going by allowing for pre-orders after the official campaign’s end-date. As always, feel free to get in touch with us at greetings(at)backerkit(dot)com with any questions and lingering thoughts about Indiegogo and Kickstarter pre-orders.