191: How to Grow Your Crowdfunding Sales

Mark Pecota is the Co-Founder of LaunchBoom, the original and largest crowdfunding agency globally. He's also the author of the top-selling Amazon book "Crowdfunded," a guide covering the end-to-end crowdfunding process, which has held its top spot for over 3 years. Additionally, Mark co-hosts the Crowdfunded Summit, an event I've had the honor of keynoting several times and will be speaking at again from September 12th to 14th. Mark shares some invaluable insights tailored for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He delves into the mechanics of sales growth before and during a crowdfunding campaign for new hardware products. Mark also sheds light on the online advertising tools instrumental in driving sales, while highlighting the best practices to optimize your return on advertising investment when selling your novel invention through platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Here are some key points from the discussion: Crowdfunding serves as a potent avenue to bring hardware products to fruition. The beauty of crowdfunding lies in generating pre-orders, with the funds earmarked for manufacturing. A crucial misconception is assuming that products on crowdfunding platforms will naturally gain immense traction. Establishing a robust pre-launch strategy is pivotal to leverage crowdfunding algorithms. Harness advertising to cultivate email subscriber lists. Facebook stands out as the primary platform for launching new products, both in pre-launch and during crowdfunding. The cornerstone is consistent, scalable, and high-quality traffic. In the pre-launch phase, the focus is on constructing a meticulously curated email list. During the live campaign, the goal shifts to driving actual sales. Accurate targeting is vital, with Facebook audiences revolving around user interests. Utilize Facebook's suggestions to build a comprehensive list of user interests. The visual content of ads holds paramount importance, with the creative element (photo or video) being particularly critical. Crafting scroll-stopping ads is a key strategy. When choosing Facebook objectives, prioritize those yielding tangible ad results over awareness campaigns. Mark Pecota Links: LinkedIn | Boast.AI | Book The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.