Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

Pledge Manager

• Improved flow when adding state-based shipping: Backers from countries and projects with state-based shipping will now be required to enter their state on the welcome page. This ensures they get the most accurate shipping estimates right away!

• Give backers a tax breakdown: It’s now easier for backers to see how payments are allocated. The taxes for shipping and taxes for line items will now be split up when presented to backers.
• More control over admin access: Creators can now have certain admins listed as “limited,” which only gives them access to Backer Profiles. This feature works great if you have people on your team focused on backer support.

• Multiple Shopify stores, one solution: You can now add a nickname to your integration. When you have multiple Shopify stores, that nickname will show up on the index page and on the shipments page, along with a link to the integration instead of just the Shopify name.

• Charge shipping for the whole order: BackerKit has released its previously beta feature, Whole Order weight-based shipping is now open to all creators. If you chose to not charge shipping during your campaign, you can now charge shipping based on the weight of all of the items in a backer’s order, including pledge level rewards. This makes setting up shipping tables quick and easy!
• Try to win back canceled backers: Creators using our BackerKit Marketing can now choose if they would like to message backers who canceled their pledge to see if they would like to repledge before the campaign ends. This is a great time to let backers know about things like unlocked stretch goals before it’s too late!
• Add your taxes quickly: You can now choose to autofill your tax rules from the most recent information BackerKit has on tax rates. 
• Improved VAT support: Creators can now choose where they would like to charge taxes on shipping, which helps in adhering to VAT policies. 
• Charge shipping closer to fulfillment: Not sure what to charge for shipping yet? No problem! BackerKit’s new beta feature allows creators to send surveys and charge for add-ons, upgrades, and taxes upfront, and charge for shipping closer to fulfillment when they have a better idea on price. Reach out to our team to try it out!

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Launch

• Get a quick overview of your Launch performance: When you log into your BackerKit account, you’ll immediately be able to see your email sent count, pledge count, and funds raised on the product offerings page.

Marketing (Ads & Newsletter)

• Your Marketing performance, at a glance: We’ve combined the Newsletter and Ads modules on the product offerings page into one BackerKit Marketing module, with the funds raised by each displayed.

Pledge Manager

• State-based shipping: It’s easier than ever to charge for shipping. Creators can now set up different shipping rates by state in addition to countries. 
• Bug fixes:
  • Price will always be a required field when creating an add-on.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed you to save pre-order shipping entries that had no data filled out.

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Marketing (Ads & Newsletter)

• Invoices now provide more detail: Invoices to creators now show newsletter and ad commissions separately.

Pledge Manager

• New tax options: Add-ons can now be marked as taxable or non-taxable and taxes can be applied to shipping. These two updates will allow for more flexibility when using BackerKit’s tax features and make it easier to collect VAT. 

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Global

• Improved onboarding: Having problems importing a draft project into BackerKit? It may be because the project is missing a title. We’ve added a notification reminding creators to review their project details in Kickstarter before adding it to BackerKit. 
  
• Help is always there when you need it: We made improvements to our public site, our help center, and backer profiles to ensure both creators and backers get the help they need, when they need it. 

Pledge Manager

• New pricing plan: BackerKit works for projects of all shapes and sizes. Now our pricing structure is just as inclusive. We’ve updated our Pledge Management pricing to make this important tool more affordable for projects big and small. 
• Making it easier for backers to fill out surveys: We’ve added a tooltip for backers without postal codes to help them complete their surveys.

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Launch

• Improved data management: Creators can now delete bulk imports and their members in Launch.
• Easily switch between accounts: Have multiple Launch accounts associated with a project? Creators can now use the dropdown on the product offerings page to select accounts. 

Pledge Manager

• Improved Kickstarter add-on support: BackerKit now immediately pulls your Kickstarter add-ons into BackerKit, and puts them directly into backers’ carts. 
• Everything you need to manage Kickstarter add-ons in one place: The new Kickstarter add-ons page includes a table of the Kickstarter add-ons and their details and the number of backers who ordered the add-on.

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

BackerKit supports Kickstarter Add-ons

BackerKit announces full support for add-ons offered on Kickstarter!

Are you offering add-ons directly on Kickstarter?

When your project is over, BackerKit looks at all of the add-ons purchased by Backers and creates those add-ons inside of BackerKit at the same price. It then places those add-ons into backers’ carts.

Do I still need BackerKit if I’m offering add-ons on Kickstarter? YES! Here are a few reasons why:

• Sell more: Creators raise more, 16% on average, when offering ad-ons on BackerKit even after already offering them on Kickstarter. 
• Easier to understand shipping fees for backers: On Kickstarter, you can only charge a flat fee per add-on per country. If you choose to charge shipping after the campaign, you can set up more accurate shipping based on weight or quantity in BackerKit.
• Support for handling variants and more complex add-ons
• Reduce fulfillment complexity – BackerKit already has integrations and exports that work with various fulfillment companies and groups together add-ons ordered in Kickstarter and in BackerKit.

Launch

• See how many unique responses your project receives: When multiple email campaigns are sent pre-launch, the Launch self-submission page will now reflect the total number of distinct people who’ve responded to your project.
• Encourage more click-throughs with social proof: The landing page that you share with your audience via your Launch email campaigns, will now display the total number of members who’ve committed to backing your project when that number exceeds 10. 

Marketing (Ads & Newsletter)

• Double-check your links: You can now add or edit your preview link and asset folder link on the Marketing Edit page.

Pledge Manager

• Charging error notification: Creators will receive an email if there is an error when they charge cards, letting them know charging is disabled until they resolve the issue and reach out to success.
• Improved “payment processed” email: We’ve updated the language in the payment confirmation email to ensure that your backers understand exactly when they’ve been charged. 

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Global

• Streamlined Indiegogo InDemand setup: The InDemand setup page now better explains how to integrate with BackerKit.
• BackerKit Postage offer has ended: Our limited-time promo concluded on December 31, 2020. The 10% BackerKit service fee on shipping labels has been reinstated. 
• Platform connection page: It’s easier than ever to fix authentication issues when connecting your Kickstarter or Indiegogo project to BackerKit. Now there is a dedicated page, linked on the product offerings page in BackerKit, in case authentication has gone wrong. 
• Changing credit card information for Indiegogo InDemand is a cinch: On the “verify account page,” there’s a link to update your Indiegogo InDemand payment information.

Launch

• Tell us about your project: When we have more information about your project, we’ll have a better idea of how to help you. To help us learn more about where you are in your crowdfunding journey, creators are now asked to submit pre-launch information when they import a draft project to Launch. 
• Simplified email campaign setup:  We’ve streamlined the email campaign setup process in BackerKit Launch to save you time.

Pledge Manager

• All projects are SCA compliant: Strong customer authentication (SCA) is a new requirement for authenticating payments in Europe. When you charge cards for backers whose banks require SCA compliance, backers will now receive a notice with a link to their bank to authenticate  
• Pledge Manager Notification: Creators will get an email reminder, letting them know that now is the right time to set up Pledge Manager if they sign up before their project has launched.
• Easily find backers receiving Kickstarter Add-Ons: Backers with add-ons selected on Kickstarter are now immediately put into a segment when we add the add-ons to their order in BackerKit, making it easier to identify these backers for bookkeeping purposes or send special communications.

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Global

• Get tips every crowdfunding creator should know: We’ve added links to useful BackerKit guides about how to have a succesful project launch to the project dashbord if you have yet to launch your project.
• Start developing your pre-launch plan: Want to make sure your project is on the right track? Creators can now add information to a pre-launch checklist on the project dashboard page.

Launch

• Launch for Indiegogo: BackerKit Launch is now available for Indiegogo projects. Creators can get real-time pledge results and see how their Launch emails are contributing to their project’s performance. 
• Formatting text is a cinch: Links to helpdocs that detail how to format your landing page are now shown in Launch.

Marketing (Ads & Newsletter)

• Improved conversion tracking: We’ve built tools that allow our team to get a more accurate picture of marketing performance. 

Pledge Manager

• Improved Kickstarter Add-On support: BackerKit customers using Kickstarter’s new add-on feature can expect a more streamlined experience. We can now pull in shipping fees and add-ons that are marked as hidden on Kickstarter. 
• Stripe statement descriptor: Not knowing how charges will appear on a backers’ bank statements can cause confusion and may even lead to chargebacks. Now, in payment setup, creators can see their Stripe statement descriptor. 
• It’s easier than ever for backers to find their surveys: We added a link to find your survey on the backer password reset page.
• Survey preview for creators: Creators, when previewing what the survey looks like for their project, can view it as someone who has not yet paid for shipping.

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Global

• Import Indiegogo projects earlier: Creators can now add Indiegogo projects to BackerKit when they are still in a draft stage.
• Improved CSV uploads: CSVs with special characters can now be uploaded without issue.

Launch

• Support for Indiegogo projects on Launch (coming soon): Creators can now add their Indiegogo projects into Launch and we will be able to track conversions and performance of emails directed towards those projects.
• Sort members by date added: Your most recent member imports will appear at the top of the list. 
• New loading spinner: Uploading a large email list may take some time. A spinner will indicate that the upload is progressing. 

Marketing (Ads & Newsletter)

• Optimized dashboard UX: We’ve improved the layout of the dashboards to better illustrate how our ads and newsletter are performing.
• Better Facebook tracking: We’ve built out tools to better optimize ads. You should be able to see an increase in conversions.

Pledge Manager

• BackerKit fully integrates with Kickstarter Add-Ons: Did you utilize Kickstarter’s new feature to charge for add-ons directly on Kickstarter? We can now pull them into BackerKit and apply those add-ons to backers’ carts if they’ve already ordered them. 
• Creators can set a price on a freeform answer: If, for example, you want to ask people if they want a signed copy of an item, you can ask how they’d like the item to be signed, and then add a charge to that. 
• Share more information with your fulfillment service: We’ve added backer notes to the Easyship export.
• Improved digital distributions: By default, digital distributions will require a lockdown before distributing codes.
• Backers have one more opportunity to update information: Backers can now change their state after their order has been charged if the project is not using state-based shipping fees or state-based tax rules.
• Hello, Poland: We’ve added support for the Polish Zloty.
• Bug Fixes:
  • The project name will now always be shown when sending a support ticket to the support email address of the creator. 
  • Backers won’t be able to click “place my order” if they haven’t entered their credit card details. 

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Performance Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Global

• Spread the word with our Friend Referral program: Have a friend who should use BackerKit? It’s now easier than ever to share out a friend code. Creators who sign up using your code will have their setup-fee waived and we will donate a $100 pledge on your behalf to the project of your choice.
• Getting backers where they need to be: Backers who’ve accidentally logged in as creators will see an “are you a backer?” error message on the creator login form. Clicking the message will direct them to the correct experience.  
• Tell us what you think about the BackerTracker extension: We’re trying to make BackerTracker better! Now, when viewing a campaign’s funding progress, you’ll see a message requesting feedback. 
• Collecting more draft project information during signup: When we have more information about a project pre-launch, we’re able to better serve creators. Now, when a creator signs up with a draft project, we’ll check in to get the launch date and other important campaign details.  
• Combine the power of BackerKit Launch and BackerKit Ads: Launch is here and it’s a great co-weapon to use with Ad services! When looking at your Ads dashboard, you’ll see a new section, showing how much you’ve raised in Launch. 
• Bug fix: We’ve fixed a bug that prevented large creators from importing new projects into BackerKit. 

Launch

• New self-serve Member uploads: Creators can now upload CSVs of their email lists from Mailgun or elsewhere directly into BackerKit to reach out to their community.  

Performance Marketing Ads & Newsletter

• Learn how to optimize ad assets: We’ve updated the BackerKit Ads onboarding process to help set creator expectations and share recommendations on the types of assets we need to make the best ad experience possible. 

Pledge Manager

• Zendesk support for multiple projects: Have multiple BackerKit projects associated with the same Zendesk account? Now when that integration searches for backers, it searches across all matching BackerKit projects instead of just one! 
• Bug fix: When a creator views a backers survey, they will no longer see a Backer Account login screen.

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Performance Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Launch

• Import project notification: BackerKit now sends an email asking you to import your project in Launch email if you have an “upcoming project on Kickstarter”. BackerKit also no longer sends the email if you have already imported your project.

Performance Marketing Ads & Newsletter

• USD conversion: On the referrals page, the USD conversion is now better clarified.

Pledge Manager

• State based shipping fees (BETA): With the help of our team, creators can now set up shipping regions using US states and Canada regions.
• Undo a tracking CSV upload based on segments: If a creator accidentally uploads a CSV of tracking numbers, they can now choose to undo it for one segment of backers.
• One project navigation: If a creator has one project in BackerKit, they will now be directed to the index page of their projects, instead of defaulting to the pledge manager dashboard.

Product Updates covers what the BackerKit team has been building for BackerKit Launch, Performance Marketing (Ads and Newsletter), and Pledge Manager, as well as global BackerKit account changes to better serve Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding creators.

— WHAT’S NEW —

Global

• BackerTracker updates: Campaigns that are unsuccessfully funded or canceled no longer appear on BackerTracker.

Launch

• Draft project insights: Creators with draft campaigns can better see insights on how ready the people on their email list are to pledge to their campaign when they launch.
• Warning!: Creators now see a warning if they try to dissociate a project to an email campaign that was already sent to backers.
• Email bug fix: Some backers were receiving Launch emails, but were not able to click on the “commit” button due to the limitations of a specific email client.

Performance Marketing Ads & Newsletter

• Credential notification: Creators are now notified to update their credentials in BackerKit if realtime pledge data is no longer appearing in BackerKit.

Pledge Manager

• Pre-live access: Creators can no longer sign up for the Pledge Manager before their campaign is live to reduce pulling in incomplete pledge level information before campaigns go live on Kickstarter or Indiegogo. 
• Not taxable pledge levels: Creators can now mark a pledge level as “not taxable”, which will prevent tax rules from being applied to that pledge level. This is useful if you have a “donation” tier or if the items are digital and you don’t want to collect taxes on digital goods. The “no reward” tier is defaulted to not taxable.
• Tax rule duplication: Creators can now copy tax rules from one project to another.
• Add-on chart bug fix: The add-on chart now renders correctly in the counts section.
• Excluded countries bug fix: Backers with a Backer Account can no longer enter an address country that is in the “excluded countries” list for a project.
• New credit card bug fix: Fixed a bug that prevented some Backer Account backers from being able to add a new credit card to an order.