How to Run a Phenomenally Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

by Carolyn Edlund

Rowan Rose and Charles Hughes of Hughes Pottery raised almost twice their crowdfunding goal. I recently spoke with Rowan on their strategies, and how other artists can do it, too.

AS: You had a plan to do a wholesale trade show, and realized it would be too expensive to go it alone. What made you think of crowdfunding?

RR: I had been a Kickstarter member since 2012, backing a pretty diverse group of projects. When our pottery business started having growing pains, and we needed bigger studio space, I started crafting a campaign to fund those capital improvements. Then our plans changed, and the opportunity to be part of a major wholesale trade show came up, so I took that draft campaign and completely overhauled it to fund our trade show experience.

AS: Why did you choose Kickstarter over other platforms?

RR: To be honest, I didn’t take a very long look at other platforms. What sold me on Kickstarter was that I was already a member and knew my way around a bit and that they had a very nice tutorial on creating and launching a successful campaign. Plus, they were (and still are I think) the largest crowdfunding site on the net. I wanted to toss my hat into the biggest ring out there!

AS: Did you do any research before putting together your Kickstarter campaign?

RR: Oh, yes. I spent weeks looking at other successful campaigns. Since there weren’t many that were ceramic specific, I looked at small, artisan food campaigns instead. I paid attention to the “feel” of each campaign, and how they were selling their idea. Were they earnest or a little silly? Did they give a lot of small details or just pitch the “grand idea” behind the business or product? How much personal information was part of the story? I also looked at what kind of rewards they offered, the images they used, and even the music they picked for their videos!

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of not having to reinvent the wheel when it comes to how to market yourself. I’m not saying you should copy other people’s ideas exactly, but the internet contains a wealth of free marketing information if you’re willing to do the work of digging it up.

I knew what moved me to back other people’s campaigns, and I applied that to our project. As I said before, Kickstarter provides a lot of tutorial information, so that was a great starting point to being crafting the campaign. I also poached a lot of concepts and marketing ideas from other Kickstarter campaigns.

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