{"id":3617,"date":"2012-12-26T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tested-neuron.flywheelsites.com\/?p=3617"},"modified":"2015-02-17T12:21:39","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T19:21:39","slug":"anatomy-of-an-unsuccessful-kickstarter-campaign-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/anatomy-of-an-unsuccessful-kickstarter-campaign-pt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Anatomy of an Unsuccessful Kickstarter Campaign, Pt. 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Give a Damn: This is Part 2 in a series of posts about everything Unreasonable Media learned–the hard way–during their <\/em>unsuccessfully funded Kickstarter campaign for the Unreasonable at Sea documentary. Take note; it may save you a lot of time, energy, heartbreak, and money!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Some context for this article:<\/h3>\n

Mark Crawford, co-founder of Unreasonable Media<\/a><\/em> , provides hard truths and inspiration from the front lines of fundraising for the Unreasonable at Sea<\/a>\u00a0 documentary<\/em>. Check out Part 1<\/a>\u00a0 for insights on setting campaign goals and crafting your Kickstarter strategy .
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a04. Creating the Video:<\/h2>\n

There was much debate throughout the campaign about what our video was lacking.. Although we feel our production value was at an adequate level, it was TOO clean looking. Daniel and I have so much passion for this project, but when you put us in a well-staged environment, that passion doesn\u2019t come through. We were anxious (and overly caffeinated), and spoke too fast and spouted out a lot of jargon. Since the film crew has grown very close to our documentary subjects over the years, we forgot that the majority of our audience probably never had heard of our coined term \u201cUnreasonable\u201d, or really understood our definition of entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

Lesson Learned: A well produced video helps, but making a connection with your audience is obviously most important.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. Messaging is Everything:<\/h2>\n

Before starting any type of fundraising campaign, before posting a single word, image, or video, sit down and write. Write your story. Write your goals. Write on a whiteboard in front of a large group of people to see what sticks and what doesn\u2019t. Share your ideas as fast as you can so you can see what is and isn\u2019t working. When we decided to do a Kickstarter campaign, we were determined to start on a certain date. We put more pressure on ourselves than we should have and didn\u2019t take the time to write more drafts of our scripts, descriptions, figure out the best visual layout, etc. We were rapid prototyping more during the campaign when we really should have before it began. Here\u2019s a couple of things we learned about our specific messaging:<\/p>\n