How to Create and Use Kickstarter Add-Ons?

Crowdfunding campaigns are the best ways to create your dream project and the major crowdfunding players are Kickstarter and Indiegogo, when you launch a reward-based crowdfunding campaign you will want to reach the goal by offering your backers catchy rewards.

The purpose of a campaign is to raise money to create an innovative project and people ofter contribute because they like or believe in it.

Rewards on Kickstarter are an opportunity for the creator of the campaign to generate sales and create buzz around their campaign page, more than that there's the possibility to have add-ons on your campaign. What are they? And why do the most successful campaigns have them?

I'll show you how to create them and the tips to include add-ons on your campaign page on Kickstarter.

Before reading the article...

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WHAT'S AN ADD-ON ON KICKSTARTER?

Other than offering their core rewards, a creator could also include add-ons. Add-ons are optional that the backer can add to its main pledge, most of the time they are complementary to the main rewards, for example, accessories, expansions, posters, etc.

The add-ons are used to create more pledges and to complete the backer's experience, without distracting from the core mission of the project.

The official introduction of add-ons on Kickstarter was made in 2020, before that moment creators were ''unofficially'' offering their optionals, and that was a tricky way to do that because it meant listing additional items on the project page and asking the backers to increase their pledges manually for the extra add-ons, all to be sorted out at a later date.

Of course, that was a much more complicated way to do that, that's why it's finally now much easier to include and buy add-ons both for creators and backers.

Add-ons were created to make multiple-reward backings and Kickstarter decided to first test it out with creators. The results were successful: Add-ons promote higher average pledges and overall project funding.

By the way, creators interested in offering add-ons to backers can set the feature up in the rewards tab of the project editor.

Here are some examples of how add-ons are displayed on a Kickstarter campaign page. Left is from Couple's cookbook and right is from Sunken Isles.

1. HOW CAN I CREATE AN ADD-ON ON MY KICKSTARTER?

After you've learned what add-ons are, you probably want to add them to your campaign page.

What are the things to consider and how to start creating them?

1. Think Complementary
The first thing to do is decide what you will be offering, for example, you may think to upsell your backers the same product or your merchandise, but that’s not the best option to consider first.

As we saw earlier, it's better to add complementary things that can go along with you main rewards in order to make them special. Something that the backer can't miss in order to have a complete product experience.

For example, if you're selling a board game think about creating some add-ons that can make the game funnier or easier, for example, a set of branded dices a sack to carry the game around, etc.

2. Set a bar to achieve add-ons
Not every pledge in your campaign could offer the possibility to buy add-ons, figure out a basic amount of pledge from which will be possible to achieve an add-on. If for example, a backer will only pledge 1$ they are not unlocking the add-ons options. Think to that as an extra to add if you pledge the main rewards.

3. Put the right price to your add-ons
Some of your add-ons will be physical and they will require shipping, and even if they're just virtual they will need extra working hours and budget to create them, so they shouldn't be for free, it's better to have the right price point to start from.

For example, you could write $10 for the game sack + $2 shipping (delivery date: January 2023).

4. Educate your backers
The purchasing phase should be nice and quick for your backers.

Explain to them every single step they will have to do in order to buy the add-ons. Make a simple guide, post a screenshot or make a graphic to add to your campaign page. Don't make the job difficult for them as that might discourage them from buying anything at all.

5. Time to announce add-ons!
After setting all of these things now you're ready to announce to your backers that they have the possibility to achieve some catchy add-ons that will make their crowdfunding experience even better.

What you must do now is to add an update on Kickstarter and then share it with your community, in your social media channels or email lists.

(Add-ons examples by Retrograde)

2. HOW CAN I BUY MY FAVORITE ADD-ONS?

You've already backed your favorite creator's campaign... but they just added some new add-ons!!

You absolutely need that to complete your reward, but how do you proceed to buy it?

It is really easy, all you need to do is follow these 3 steps:

1. Click to ''manage your pledge'' button inside the campaign you already backed. Now you're inside the pledge page where you see all of your personal information, scroll down 'till you see the ''change your pledge'' button.

2. Now you can pick the tier and click pledge, even if you already backed it don't worry, you won't be charged another time, this is the procedure to go and have add-ons. (If you want you may change your pledge amount to make it higher or lower, because your credit card wasn't charged yet)

3. Now you can choose your add-on and click continue, and if everything looks fine to you click on ''Confirm Change'' .

Now it's all done, easy right? You can enjoy your reward and add-ons once the campaign is done!

WRAPPING IT UP

This is it for today, make sure to follow these steps to create and use add-ons on your crowdfunding campaign in order to generate more pledges and give a boost to your campaign!

A crowdfunding launch requires a lot of hard work and sacrifices, but I'm sure that it will be worth it in order to start making your dream project come true.

Always remember that before launching your project you will need to analyze and prepare your pre-launch phase to launch your first product, I’ve got you covered with my crowdfunding pre-launch free e-book called ''3 steps to success on Kickstarter and Indiegogo''. 

As always make sure to subscribe to my channel to stay updated on fresh new content that I’m gonna drop there.

Ciao ciao! 

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