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Public Relations Manager (optional).
As mentioned, Eric Migicovsky had to hire an external PR team when his campaign went viral and the media came calling.
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Some projects are focused on niche markets and won't generate this much press. However, if you desire to raise a large amount of money, you need to reach a large number of people. Getting your campaign talked about online, especially when that
digital media links back to your campaign page, is especially useful. A PR manager can both help generate attention and—equally critical—help dispel entrepreneurial myths (for example, the fact that everyone building a cool product is certain
Wired
will pick up the story). Having a professional around is going to save you from chasing pie in the sky and help you focus on real ways to move the needle.

Super-Connector (optional).
Super-connectors are influential individuals who have access to a vast network of important people, money, and ideas. They usually have large followings themselves and thus know a lot about idea distribution and success. They can help brainstorm marketing strategies for the campaign, internally motivate and inspire the team, implement some of the more ambitious goals, lead behind-closed-door fund-raising efforts, and really build momentum during the campaign. If you know a super-connector or can figure out how to inspire one to help (typically by aligning your campaign goals with theirs), then you will have a huge advantage over campaigns that don't have this access.

6. SHARPEN YOUR AX: PLANNING, MATERIALS, AND RESOURCES

Abraham Lincoln is famous for saying, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
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The same is true here. Preparation is everything when it comes to crowdfunding.

Planning and Coordination.
Crowdfunding campaigns typically have a lot of moving parts, making significant preplanning critical. Go into the campaign with an extremely detailed strategy and logistics map. The campaign manager should keep a master calendar of all meetings, hangouts, events, check-ins, and calls. Team members should have access to this calendar so that everybody stays on the same page. Schedule biweekly or thrice weekly check-ins with members of
your team, affiliates, sponsors, and customers. This ensures coordination of your efforts and helps you understand which milestones you will hit and which require pivoting.

Materials.
While campaigns vary, some common items you'll need for launch include a prototype or rendering of your product, the campaign video, a crowdfunding platform web page, company or product web page, prewritten emails and announcements, physical promotional materials and handouts, logo and content designs, infographics, and miscellaneous incentives and perks (such as T-shirts and posters). Many of these materials will need to be developed in-house, or via the crowd on websites such as Freelancer, Tongal, or 99Designs. Bottom line: the more you finish before launch, the better off you will be.

Resources.
It is easy to underestimate the costs associated with running a crowdfunding campaign, in terms of both time and money. At Planetary Resources, once we pulled the trigger on the campaign, we spent four solid months extensively planning, organizing, and strategizing. Costs incurred during the campaign included advertising (Google, Facebook, Kicktraq, etc.), supplier fees (marketing, creative costs, PR, legal), Kickstarter fees (Amazon hosting, Kickstarter percentage take), physical fulfillment (T-shirts, patches, models, cards, etc.), web applications and education, and contracted work/salaries. As with any digital product launch, you also have to take into account the sometimes substantial costs of faulty payments, refunds, and processing fees.

7. TELLING A MEANINGFUL STORY (AND USING THE RIGHT WORDS)

Traditional fund-raising is something of a niche game. The goal is to please a specific kind of person—a venture capitalist or bank loan officer. Crowdfunding is the opposite. Its focus is exceptionally wide instead of seriously narrow. Every element of a crowdfunding
campaign must appeal to the masses. What's the best way to do that? Simple. Use the same technique employed by the very best books, movies, and songs—tell a great story.

The best crowdfunding campaigns draw in backers with powerful, compelling narratives. Consider Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum. The goal here was to buy Tesla's old laboratory and turn it into a museum. But the campaign wasn't about purchasing property or crafting exhibits. Instead, the Oatmeal's comic told Nikola Tesla's story, recounting his brilliant inventions and enormous contributions and revealing the considerable lack of credit that had come his way. And because the Oatmeal is a masterful storyteller, the comic went viral, receiving over 820,000 likes on Facebook and 43,000 mentions on Twitter. People connected with Tesla's story and wanted to help preserve it.

Make it cohesive.
The best tales follow a logical progression. There's a beginning, middle, and end. There are only a few main characters. Confusing potential backers with too much information—too many facts, figures, and spokespeople—does not make for a viral campaign.

Fill a need or desire.
In storytelling, never underestimate the power of emotion. Even if the idea seems silly—like, say, a space selfie—if it's deeply compelling and fulfills a basic need, the crowd will listen. People want to be associated with cool stuff, significant events, and inspirational people. Humans make purchasing decisions largely based on emotional impulses.

Focus on the why, not the what.
With a product or service, the easiest way to tell a story is to focus on the why. Don't worry so much about explaining what it is and how it works. In other words, remember that the view is different on the inside. If you've been working on a product or service for years, of course all the nitty-gritty details
are fascinating to you. But they are perhaps not so fascinating to your audience. Instead, what most people want to hear is why your product/service/idea will improve their life—why it is significant, cool, and important to them and the world. Think solutions and improvements, not explanations or specifications.

Connect with your vertical.
Craft your story to target your ideal audience. If your audience is technical, go technical; if they're humanitarian, emphasize the world-changing nature of your solution. However, as mentioned above, even the most technical of ideas needs to be framed inside a greater narrative. If you can't come up with one, tell the story of how and why you came to create the product you're selling. The truth is always the very best story.

Use the right words.
In 2014, researchers at Georgia Tech published a study in which they examined over nine million words and phrases used on Kickstarter to determine which language leads to success.
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The most important lesson is that the words and phrases associated with reciprocity and authority produce the best responses, while projects that focus too much on the need for funds fail.

The most successful language can be broken into the following categories:

• Reciprocity, or the tendency to return a favor after receiving one, as evidenced by phrases such as “also receive two,” “pledged will,” and “good karma and.”

• Scarcity or attachment to something rare, as shown with “option is” and “given the chance.”

• Social proof, which suggests that people depend on others for social cues on how to act, as shown by the phrase “has pledged.”

• Social identity, or the feeling of belonging to a specific social group. Phrases such as “to build this” and “accessible to the” fit this category.

• Liking, which reflects the fact that people comply with people or
products that appeal to them.

• Authority, where people resort to expert opinions for making efficient and quick decisions, as shown by phrases such as “we can afford” and “project will be.”

8. CREATING A VIRAL VIDEO: THREE USE CASES, SHAREABILITY, AND HUMANIZATION

Most crowdfunding platforms let you post a short video to help potential backers understand what they are funding and why it is important. This may sound optional, but if you're serious about funding your campaign, it isn't. Fixed-funding campaigns with a pitch video raised 239 percent more money than those without.

Video Tip: Identify three use cases.
The best crowdfunding campaign videos target one to three markets. For example, Migicovsky's videos shows footage of the Pebble being utilized by cyclists, runners, and open-source developers. While there are certainly many other ways to use the watch, he focused on three of their largest verticals, keeping things simple and clear.

Video Tip: Put faces to ideas.
The video is the perfect way to introduce your team. While it's important to show as many members as possible, the best videos feature one main character—the celebrity—narrating the story and explaining the product. Viewers need a face to associate with the product; having too many faces to keep track of gets confusing.

Video Tip: Show, don't tell.
People need to see something to believe in it, but more important, they need to see something to pull out their wallets. If it's a campaign for a new product, then the prototype or rendering of your product has to be a prominent feature in the video. And it shouldn't just sit there. The easiest way to convey the value of your idea to a potential backer is to show people using it. The good news
in these days of 3-D printing and computer animation is that it's very easy to create compelling visuals of your product.

Video Tip: Keep it short.
Indiegogo found that campaigns with videos under five minutes are 25 percent more likely to reach their goal than anything longer. In 2012, their average campaign video length was 3:27, while the average length for campaigns that reached their goal was 16 seconds shorter (3:11).
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Video Tip: Get feedback.
“Before we launched Pebble,” says Migicovsky, “more than a hundred people had watched our video, seen the page, and given feedback.”
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Not only did it make their video better, but it also validated their ideas and helped shape the focus of the campaign.

9. BUILDING YOUR AUDIENCE: THE THREE A
S

Having an authentic community of supporters and partners before you launch can be critically important. These people will provide initial momentum and, if managed correctly, will help make your campaign super-credible, jumpstarting the fund-raising process by carrying your information into their networks. For simplicity's sake, let's break down this community into three parts: affiliates, advocates, and activists. Make it a priority to actively build and support these groups in the months before launch.

Affiliates.
Affiliate marketing is the practice of partnering with influential individuals, companies, or community organizers to release a product or service. There are two keys to affiliate marketing: picking the right affiliates and designing the right incentives to minimize cost, maximize value, and excite participation. In both cases, the trick is alignment.

Picking the right affiliates.
The ideal affiliates share your vision and
your customer base. The affiliate's audience must be a coalition of the willing—willing, that is, to do what the affiliate asks when he or she asks. When we started planning for the ARKYD launch at Planetary Resources, we thought science museums would be our best partners, so we went out and built a coalition of five top science centers. We were wrong. As it turned out, science museums tend to have an older audience and a very young audience and neither are particularly Internet savvy or familiar with crowdfunding. Ultimately, we ended up partnering with people like Bill Nye (the science guy, and chairman of the Planetary Society), Brent Spiner (of
Star Trek
fame), Hank Green, Jorge Cham (PHD Comics), Rainn Wilson (the actor), and Matthew Inman (the Oatmeal), all of whom have heavy followings of rabid fans, which is exactly what you're looking for.

Designing the right incentives.
In typical product launches, affiliates often take a percentage of sales in return for their help in selling and spreading the product. In crowdfunding, this is too complex and expensive to do effectively. Instead, we came up with creative solutions that excited our partners. For example, we agreed to send one PHD Comic's fan's actual PhD thesis into outer space if the fans shared our campaign with their social community. They loved it. The bottom line: Design programs to spread the word about your project that are
self-promotional
to the partner.

Advocates.
Advocates are the fans and supporters of your cause. These are the folks who follow you on social networks, enter their email address to be on your mailing list, and tell their friends about your launch. It's very important to build your mailing list and social following in the months before launch. In the case of Planetary Resources, we put up a splash page on the website asking people to join our mission and give us their name and email.

Eric Migicovsky cultivated his preexisting inPulse fans, leaning on their feedback to help design the Pebble, then turning them into the first wave of crowdfunding supporters. By spreading and sharing the Kickstarter page at launch, these fans helped the campaign go viral.

What to do if you don't have active followers? First, take the time to correctly identify possibilities. Make sure you understand who is going to be interested in your offering and why. Next, find their online hangouts and reach out to them with an invitation to your website. Finally, on your website, have a capture page that invites them to join your community. One of the best ways to get email addresses is to use “ethical bribes”—trades. What can you trade potential customers in exchange for their email address and membership in your community? The simplest answers are often best: an invitation to receive access to your monthly blog, future discounts on products, early access to limited edition products, invitations to events, or in some rare cases (like PayPal back in the day), money. Get creative.