Charizard and the TRUTH of Crowdfunding Platforms
Kickstarter. Backerkit. Gamefound.
Each is a popular option for board game developers seeking to fund their latest creations.
These creators begin planning their campaign with dreams of success, envisioning legions of like-minded players rushing to fund their game and studio. And for many, this dream is a reality! Many tabletop games products have been brought to life thanks to crowdfunding campaigns!
However, most creators don’t know what these crowdfunding platforms are REALLY for.
They assume that they just need to create a GREAT landing page, spend a little money on ads, and their fantastic game will be a shoo-in success!
The problem with this plan is that it overestimates the marketing abilities and potential of crowdfunding campaigns. As a result, they skip over essential steps they need to take in order for crowdfunding a board game to work.
I’ll explain what I mean, but first let me illustrate, using Pokémon TCG as a quick example…
I Help Tabletop Creators Launch Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns
How to Play A Charizard
Imagine this…
You are sitting on a worn-in metal chair that used to belong to the nearby public school. You have just cracked open a fresh Arizona Iced Tea. The fluorescent lighting of the FLGS reflects off your deck.
You are ready to play Pokémon.
Your opponent has a Bayleef as their defending Pokémon, and you want to do 100 damage and obliterate it to the lost zone with a Fire Spin attack.
To do that, you’ll need to play your Charizard card.
Now, unless you have a rare candy, the only way you can get your Charizard onto the playmat is to do the following:
You must first play Charmander (a basic Pokémon) onto your Bench or Active Spot
On a future turn, you then must play Charmeleon from your hand to evolve the Charmander
On another future turn, you must evolve your Charmeleon into a Charizard
If you have 4 fire energy cards, then you make your Fire Spin Attack
All these cards must be drawn from your deck, either randomly or from a search. But long story short, there are three steps: Charmander, Charmeleon, and then Charizard. Each step must be performed, and in that order, before you can use Fire Spin to incinerate any unfortunate plant types on the opposite side.
Now imagine that same situation, but your opponent had no Charmander or Charmeleon in play, and no fire energy cards, and they emphatically threw down a Charizard and yelled “I choose yooooooou!” like a ten year old boy while they turned their hat backwards.
You would probably object, saying something like: “That’s not how this works…”
Which is exactly what I say when clients approach me, hoping to do all their marketing during the Kickstarter campaign…
Board game crowdfunding marketing is all about customer acquisition.
Each backer is a new customer and a potential future customer
And in this industry, customer acquisition has three steps, and they must be followed in order:
1) Customer Attraction: the strategies, actions, and efforts a business uses to draw the interest of potential customers and encourage them to engage with or buy from the company.
2) Customer Nurturing: the process of building and maintaining strong relationships with potential and existing customers with the ultimate goal of guiding them toward a purchase.
3) Customer Conversion: the process of turning a potential customer (a lead or prospect) into an actual paying customer.
You attract customers. You convince them that it is a good idea to back/buy from you. You convince them to buy at the right time. Its as “simple” as that.
Most creators don’t realize that these crowdfunding platforms are ONLY tools for customer conversion.
It is an all-in-one landing page that tells the potential backer every conceivable thing they might want to know about your board game. It's about converting interested, potential customers into passionate, excited, current backers. It’s trying to communicate: “Isn’t this awesome! You should back it RIGHT NOW!!!”
The Kickstarter page is about customer conversion. And it performs this job well.
But you’ll notice that customer conversion is just the final step in the process of customer acquisition, it is not the whole thing.
And to get new customers…
To get new backers…
To drive traffic to your Backerkit page…
You need to attract and nurture new customers.
And this is my public service announcement:
Customer conversion is something Kickstarter, Gamefound, and Backerkit do NOT do.
Of course, there are some exceptions:
You might be featured the day you launch, or days before your campaign ends
You might get some backers by Kickstarter promoting your board game by labeling it a “Project we Love”
There are some people who hop on Kickstarter just to see what new projects are crowdfunding.
But those aside, crowdfunding platforms do not bring a significant number of new customers.
This is so true that some creators jokingly refer to “Kickstarter” as “Kickfinisher”. Its not where you go to find your
Why?
Because Kickstarter is the culmination of your efforts to build a community of customers.
They do not bring traffic and they do not nurture that traffic. They just convert those ready to make a purchasing decision.
You don’t go there to build. You go there to capitalize on what you have built.
Which means… creators need to use other marketing channels to acquire customers.
In the next post, I’ll share about available marketing channels you can use to both gain customer attention and nurture interested, potential customers about your game and upcoming crowdfunding campaign.
