On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Roy Morejon, Co-Founder & President of Enventys Partners – a full-service turnkey product launch agency based in Charlotte, NC. Roy’s company is the brains and agents behind multiple million dollar kickstarter campaigns. He has over 20 years of experience in delivering digital marketing campaigns and product launches.

In past episodes, we have had guests talking about first hand experiences with their own Kickstarter campaigns. But today’s guest brings the experience of creating and scaling over 80 million-dollar campaigns. He shares how after starting out as a marketing agency, his company merged with a product development company to offer end-to-end product launch services for inventors.

Roy shares specific examples and insights from the over 2,000 crowdfunded product launches he has been involved in. You get to learn about everything from crowdfunding platforms to building prototypes to pre-launch marketing and post-crowdfunding best practices. There are great nuggets of information here for everyone. You certainly don’t want to miss this one!

Here is a summary of some of the most important points made,

• Enventsys Partners has raised over $80 million from crowdfunding campaigns they have run
• Kickstarter gives a better return on ad spend and has more early adopters as compared to Indiegogo
• You must create enough “Buzz” before launching your crowdfunding campaign
• Maintaining a connection with your Kickstarter community is key
• Email is still the most effective medium of communication
• Youtube is gaining importance as a campaign marketing platform

Covered Topics:

On today’s interview Kunle and Roy discuss,

• Structuring and Scaling crowdfunding campaigns
• Delivering Turnkey solutions
• Pre-launch marketing strategies
• Post-crowdfunding best practices
• Defining target list size
• Landing page hacks
• Transitioning from Crowdfunded to being a DTC brand

Timestamp:

• 10:30 – What does Enventys do?
• 11:55 – This is why some ideas don’t work
• 14:55 – The dope on main platforms in the crowdfunding space:
  • Kickstarter gives a better return on ad spend
  • Kickstarter is faster and optimizes better
  • Kickstarter has a bigger chunk of the early adopter population
• 16:00 – Product development timelines:
  • 9 phases to having a ready prototype
  • Starts with a patent search – figure out if it has been done before
  • then figure out ergonomics
  • Use 3d printed mini models to refine design
• 19:00 – Bringing a prototype to Kickstarter
  • Build the product’s story
  • Create an avatar and define positioning
  • Decide on pricing, packaging & shipping
  • Build buzz before launching the campaign
• 22:10 – Facebook ad strategies for novel products:
  • Use niche product category pages because brand is unknown
  • This provides easy access to relevant lookalike audiences
• 27:40 – Pricing / Bundling hacks:
  • Bundling research starts during the pre-launch marketing
  • Use different landing pages to test out prices
• 30:30 – Marketing video best practices:
  • Ideal length is 2-3 mins (as per our attention span)
  • Product-feature focused
  • Founder story at the end
  • Should be reusable and not kickstarter specific
• 34:10 – Defining Email list targets:
  • Use historical conversion and AOV data to set funding goals
  • The average acquisition cost $1-1.3/lead
  • You need to have 5-10k emails before launch
  • Incentivize sharing to move up in the line
• 41:30 – Best channels for activation / advertising:
  • FB is performing better than google over last 4 years
  • YouTube spend is increasing as quality of videos improves
  • Pinterest is a good option post-funding
• 44:45 – Landing page best practices:
  • Product has to be front and center
  • Use GIFs to show product dynamics and engineering
  • Have multiple email sign up slots
  • Incentivise sharing
  • Give them a next step or assets to follow
• 47:17 – The one clear advantage offered by Indiegogo
• 53:00 – Inventor incubation resources / ideas:
  • Edison Nation is a community of over 150k inventors
  • Run inhouse “Shark Tanks” to leverage employee ideas
  • Start100 Fund
• 58:10 – Transitioning from Crowdfunded to DTC brands
  • Need a solid Product which solves a problem
  • Ensure you are protected with patents to avoid being ripped off
  • Build and maintain the connect with the community
  • Provide at least 1 update per month
• 65:30 – Comparison of all social channels as mediums of communication
• 68:20 – Bunch o Balloons (2013) – Roy’s favorite campaign
• 71:05 – Tips for press
  • Build long term relationships
  • Arrange founder interviews/spotlights
  • Adds trust and credibility

Takeaways:

• Kickstarter has a bigger chunk of early adopters than other platforms
• Use historical conversion & AOV data to build the optimum list size
• 2-3 minutes is the ideal length for marketing videos
• Email is still the most effective marketing / communication channel
• Brands with successful campaigns tend to go back to Kickstarter for future launches

Links & Resources

• Kickstarter
• Indiegogo
• Edison Nation
• Start100 Fund
• Mailchimp
• Bunch o Balloons
• Art of the Kickstart Podcast

Tweetable Quotes:

“There is an amazing opportunity, cheaper than ever before, to launch a product using Kickstarter as a means of validating that idea.”

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