Pepe the Frog Diaries chronicles my experiences using BackerKit after the conclusion of the #SavePepe Kickstarter campaign. Keep in mind, this is not a “how to” series to be used for guidance, but rather a “how I did it” series to be used as an in-depth look from a creator’s perspective on how BackerKit can be implemented from beginning to end.

Among all the benefits and advantages BackerKit provides, the ability to offer add-ons to existing backers and a pre-order store to late adopters was a big draw for the #SavePepe campaign. Both are great ways to stay engaged with the community and maintain the momentum you’ve built during your campaign . And needless to say, it’s a great way to keep the funds coming in long after your initial campaign ends.

BackerKit offers the ability for backers who supported you during your campaign to add extra items during their exit survey (more on surveys in the next installment!). Did you want an extra Save Pepe zine or other campaign item for a friend? No problem. Do you want to add completely new items such as a cool new sticker or pin? Easy. The options you have are completely up to you and there is no limit to how many items and item variations you can offer.For #SavePepe, we wanted to both reward backers who were privy during the main Kickstarter campaign and allow newcomers to purchase a few of the main items if they missed out. The Kickstarter campaign had tons of super exclusive items such as t-shirts and original art. While it would have been completely possible for us to add any of the unsold items in our BackerKit add-on store, we decided to keep those items exclusive to the campaign. That said, we wanted to make sure latecomers had something special to choose from. We decided to offer the main zine as an add-on along with the sticker and enamel pin offered on Kickstarter. In addition, we added 2 brand new designs for additional stickers and pins as well as a new limited edition art print. But again, the options I had at my disposal were limitless, and each project has the flexibility to decide what works best for them. 

Creating add-on items was super easy during the BackerKit setup process. Assigning a name, description, image, and price was a breeze. I highly recommend creating your add-ons during the “Generate Items” step. This way each item gets assigned a unique SKU that will help keep things organized down the line. If you enter the “Add-Ons” section in the sidebar of your dashboard, you will have to manually add a SKU to each item. Backers also have the option to upgrade their pledge level (not downgrade), collect payments from backers who had failed credit card payments, and the ability to set inventory quantities. You can also manage shipping fees since extra items equal extra shipping weight. I decided against adding additional shipping fees to our initial Kickstarter backers as a way to say thanks, but there is an option to add shipping tables by weight for those with bulkier rewards that can add up.No matter how many backers support your project during the initial run, there are dozens, hundreds, dare I say thousands of other backers out there who are bummed they missed out! Most Kickstarter campaigns run for 30 days and then they’re done. BackerKit offers an opportunity for latecomers to get in on the action and lend their support after the campaign ends. Not everybody has an online store to post their items for sale post-campaign. BackerKit makes this simple and easy and even integrates with your original Kickstarter page pointing potential supporters to your new pre-order store. For #SavePepe, we decided to create a pre-order store with all the aforementioned add-on items. Many supporters thanked us for giving them a way to support us in this later stage and we raised an additional $3k helping offset some of the fulfillment costs. If you agree to use BackerKit before your campaign ends, you will be able to open up your pre-order store immediately after the campaign ends capturing all those that just missed the deadline.

Add-on items and pre-orders are a simple and flexible way get additional funds post-campaign. Setting it up was a breeze and my only real regret was not aligning with BackerKit sooner to take full advantage of all the options. In the next Pepe the Frog Diaries, I will detail the survey creation and delivery process, which in my opinion, made my whole crowdfunding experience a lot less stressful.

For a more detailed “How-to” experience, please check out BackerKit’s help and resource page. And if you’re interested in sealing the deal with BackerKit, you can sign up today on our homepage and embark on a journey of your own!

And be sure to read past Pepe Diary entries:
Pepe Diaries #1: Discovering BackerKit
Pepe Diaries #2: Getting Started
Pepe Diaries #3: Generating Items & SKUs

The post Pepe the Frog Diaries #4: Add-Ons and Pre-Orders appeared first on Crowdfunding Blog & Resources | BackerKit.

Pepe the Frog Diaries chronicles my experiences with BackerKit after the conclusion of the #SavePepe Kickstarter campaign. Keep in mind, this is not a “how to” series to be used for guidance, but rather a “how I did it” series to be used as an in-depth look from a creator’s perspective on how BackerKit can be implemented from beginning to end.

Now that I’m set up with BackerKit, it’s time to get my hands dirty and start generating my items. BackerKit’s dashboard allows me to navigate all the features offered with ease. The “Quick Start Guide” tab on the sidebar is a good place to call home during these introductory steps. It lays out all the checklist items you need to cross off before sending out surveys to your backers. My first step is to generate all the items for my project.

When my brother Matt and I planned the #SavePepe Kickstarter campaign, we thought it would be best to keep everything as simple as possible. One of our main goals was to limit the number of items offered to avoid getting overwhelmed. Neither of us had ever managed a crowdfunding campaign before. There were too many horror stories surrounding disappointed backers, delays in production, and even a lack of delivery. One of the main reasons we decided to team up with BackerKit was to finish our campaign on a high note honoring all the support we gained. Backers will undoubtedly shape their opinion of you based on how well you handle fulfillment. In short, we kept things simple to help keep our backers happy.

Generating items via BackerKit is a breeze. You can enter through the Quick Start Guide, or through the handy “Generate Items” tab. Once you’re in, all you need to do is answer a few simple questions. Name the item, add any options (such as size and color), assign to a pledge level if it was a part of your campaign, and decide if you want the item included as an “add-on” (more on those in a later diary entry).

The item generator is the best way to set up all the items you will be providing your backers whether they were part of your initial campaign or not. Using the Item Generator automatically creates SKUs for all your items. A cool robot would tell you a SKU is a “Stock Keeping Unit” used as a short unique identifier assigned to each individual item. Each unique item in your project must have it’s own SKU. This means your medium-sized Save Pepe shirt has a separate SKU from the large-sized Save Pepe Shirt. Luckily, t-shirts were the only item in my campaign that needed to add “options”. It’s important to note, if you create an item outside of the Item Generator, you must manually assign it a SKU. Properly setting up your SKU’s is a key part of your campaign with BackerKit.

The #SavePepe campaign ended up having 23 unique items (SKUs) including all the main Kickstarter items, a handful of BackerKit exclusives, and a digital copy of our comic. Don’t forget to give digital items SKUs too! It’s important to take your time during the item generating process as it has a big impact on the rest of the steps moving forward. Once all your items are generated, it will be time to review your add-ons and set up your survey questions. We will be covering that in the next Pepe the Frog Diaries entry. Stay tuned.

For a more detailed “How-to” experience, please check out BackerKit’s help and resource page. And if you’re interested in sealing the deal with BackerKit, you can sign up today on our homepage and embark on a journey of your own!

The post Pepe the Frog Diaries #03: Generating Items and SKU’s appeared first on Crowdfunding Blog & Resources | BackerKit.

Pepe Diaries chronicles my experiences with BackerKit after the conclusion of the #SavePepe Kickstarter campaign. Keep in mind, this is not a “how to” series to be used for guidance, but rather a “how I did it” series to be used as an in-depth look from a creator’s perspective on how BackerKit can be implemented from beginning to end.

So I’ve already discovered BackerKit and have realized it’s a great fit for the #SavePepe campaign. It’s a common misconception to think “smaller” projects (under 500 backers) don’t need any extra help when it comes to fulfilling campaign promises. Sure we only had a little over 300 backers total by the end of our campaign, but our team basically consists of just 2 people. It made a lot of sense for us to seek out some support to deal with the business end of things allowing us to focus on the frog.

Normally, during these beginning stages, I would have been partnered with a BackerKit team member for support. But since I work here now, I have the advantage of just bugging people that sit near me to help when the need arises. So that’s cool. My first step is to initiate the BackerKit Tour and begin my adventure.

I highly recommend taking the time to explore this tour. It’s a great snapshot of your overall campaign allowing you to get a grasp on all the steps ahead. There are brief rundowns covering some crucial steps in the process including setting up your surveys, sending out your surveys, managing your backers, and shipping like a pro. BackerKit users have the option to “skip ahead”, but newcomers should most definitely choose “Get Started” to…ya know…get started.

The next step shows you how to set up an item. BackerKit suggests starting with the most popular pledge level to begin this process. In my case, the $20 pledge level was the most popular which included a digital and physical copy of the #SavePepe zine. From here, it’s basically plug and play. You can name the item, add any relevant options, and decide if you want this item to be included in the “Add-On” store. It’s important to keep in mind that you should add one item at a time. This means the “digital copy of the zine” and the “physical copy of the zine” are two separate items.

Another common misconception is that backers are required to create a separate BackerKit account. Creating an account is definitely the recommended option. No bias, I promise!  The benefit of creating an account is to save your information for the next time you interact with a project using BackerKit. It’s also a great way to see an overview of all the projects you’ve supported that have partnered with BackerKit all in one clean dashboard.

Details concerning add-ons, payments, shipping options, and collecting address information is made clear and backers are shown a nice clean confirmation page showcasing all of their shipping, pledge, and add-on information followed by some options to share and rate the project with your social networks.

Overall, it’s a pretty clear representation of the backer experience giving creators some good perspective. Now that I have a good sense of the big picture, I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and begin generating my items in BackerKit. Until next time, #SavePepe.

For a more detailed “How-to” experience, please check out BackerKit’s help and resource page. And if you’re interested in sealing the deal with BackerKit, you can sign up today on our homepage and embark on a journey of your own!

And be sure to read past Pepe Diary entries:

Pepe Diaries #1: Discovering BackerKit

The post Pepe Diaries #02: Getting Started appeared first on Crowdfunding Blog & Resources | BackerKit.

Welcome to the first installment of Pepe Diaries, a new blog series chronicling my experiences with BackerKit after the conclusion of the #SavePepe Kickstarter campaign I managed with my brother Matt. This series aims to highlight all the key steps I take during this process as well as explain how I use all the features and services included with BackerKit. Keep in mind, this is not a “how to” series to be used for guidance, but rather a “how I did it” series to be used as an in-depth look from a creator’s perspective on how BackerKit can be implemented from beginning to end.

A common misconception is that creating and successfully funding a crowdfunding project is the “hard part”. While it definitely does take a lot of work and patience, I consider it half the battle (Go Joe!). When the #SavePepe campaign concluded, I felt a great swell of pride since we were supported by 300+ people and tripled our funding goal. Sure there are projects out there that make boatloads more, but to me, Kickstarter helped us discover our somewhat small yet completely dedicated fanbase. But when the dust had settled, I realized there was still a lot of work to be done.

Some crowdfunding projects have huge teams with a clear view of how to start and how to finish their campaigns. The #SavePepe team is basically just two people, my brother and I. So when it comes to customer experience and service, two people just won’t cut it. My main goal once the project concluded on Kickstarter was to find a way to positively “bookend” our customer’s experience. The last thing I wanted was to have a fun and positive campaign sullied by a negative exit survey and shipping experience. Basically, as a small team we needed some major help. That’s where BackerKit comes in.

I had previously heard about BackerKit through friends that used the service and had a positive experience. I was told that it was the necessary next step in any campaign to ensure the best customer experience possible. Near the end of the #SavePepe campaign, BackerKit reached out to me and invited me to their San Francisco Headquarters. During my visit they pitched me their service, showed me how it all worked through a detailed demo page setup, and detailed all the benefits BackerKit could provide our project. Needless to say, I was convinced that this was the next step for my project.

I have a bit of an unorthodox journey from here. After my pleasant and productive visit (Thanks Alex!), I felt compelled to get involved even more so I decided to look into actually joining the BackerKit team. Making a somewhat long story short; I applied for a position, I interviewed with co-founders Maxwell and Rosanna, I talked to the team in more detail about how I could help and get involved, and ended up joining the team as a Content Creator. A romance story for the ages!  I’m now in a great position to dive in head first and give you a detailed account of my experience with a unique perspective.

So what’s next? From here, you should stay tuned to the BackerKit blog where new installments will be posted. I’ll detail my overall experience, dive into all the features that make sense for my project, and hopefully discover more uses that I haven’t discovered yet. It should be an exciting adventure, thanks for joining me.

For a more detailed “How-to” experience, please check out BackerKit’s help and resource page. And if you’re interested in sealing the deal with BackerKit, you can sign up today on our homepage and embark on a journey of your own!

The post Pepe the Frog Diaries #01: Discovering BackerKit appeared first on Crowdfunding Blog & Resources | BackerKit.