Thanks to a lot of hustling by Sharka, her 100% Plant-Based, Sustainable 3D Jewellery Kickstarter got funded! By the time this post goes up, there should be just under 48 hours to go on the campaign. So if you want a Thorn earring, like the one I am wearing, you should back the campaign now!

It’s been an interesting experience being on the other side of a Kickstarter campaign. My involvement with the campaign was as follows;

Initial idea and encouragement
Helping Sharka with setting up the campaign
Copywriting for the campaign page
Helping with the layout, the look and feel of the campaign
Seeking feedback from r/Kickstarter on Reddit while Sharka got advise from her network
Writing the press release and putting it out on free press wires
Setting up and launching a Facebook Ad campaign
General technical support and assistance with community engagement
Setting up Mailchimp and helping with Mailchimp campaigns

The marketing campaign was not effective and really hammered home how much more I have to improve my sales and marketing skillsets to be an effective entrepreneur and business owner. I had success with Facebook Ads before, but I forgot that the algorithm changes all the time, and so what worked last year would not work this year! There is a reason why digital marketing agencies exist.

That said, I was shocked by how expansive marketing packages are for Kickstarter campaigns. Like you have to pay a fee upfront to get the marketing material, and then some even took a cut of the money raised! It’s prohibitively expansive for small projects, and there are so many agencies that it’s hard to tell who is worth it and who is not.

As this was the first Kickstarter campaign for both myself and Sharka, although Sharka has previous experience crowdfunding through GoFundMe for her Madagascar Project, I think it was good to do or attempt to do everything ourselves as we went through the Make 100 small project track. But perhaps in the future, I’ll look more into marketing agencies.

I am glad I got to see behind the curtain. I have learnt a lot, and I am hopeful that we’ll finish strong. So please back us today and get your own sustainable modular jewellery!