Your Kickstarter Needs This $1 Reward Strategy

Why should backers pledge $1 on your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign?

Among a lot of crowdfunding campaign's juicy rewards sometimes you may find a curious $1 reward tier, it is a very common practice to use as well as a clear marketing strategy. And we'll see that in a bit.

I know, you have a big goal to reach and a $1 pledge will not make the difference, for sure. But hold on, there is a reason behind it!

Let's see what's the strategy of the $1 pledge and why should you have such a low reward tier in your campaign.

Before reading the article...

Make sure to smash like and subscribe to my Youtube channel to support me and to stay updated on new crowdfunding videos that I’m weekly sharing, and keep on following this blog in which I'll feature very useful and detailed Crowdfunding tips.

1. $1 REWARD TIER, WHY AND HOW?

There's not a lot that you can but with $1 nowadays, especially on crowdfunding campaign pages, so why there are so much 1 dollar tiers?

There are multiple reasons why a lot of creators choose to put a $1 reward tier on their crowdfunding page. As I said before, it happens to be a real marketing strategy:

For creators, a standout $1 reward can be a way to attract backers' attention and let them take part in the community around their project, in this way they will keep track of the backer and send them emails trying to convert them into backing more.

From the backer's side, a $1 pledge is a backer's gesture of support, a crowdfunding version of "liking" a project, since creators get an email notifying them of the action.

More than just support, sometimes $1 can be much more than a simple gesture, as the case of the artist Amanda Palmer shows: She set a $1 that was pledged by more than 4.000 people, meaning more than $4,000. The offering? A digital download of her new album.

After having explained the ''why'', here's the ''how'':

Your reward tier should make people interested, that's why your $1 reward should be more appealing, don't make it about just ''thank you'', make it about humor, curiosity or something more that entices backers in buying the final product!

Some examples:

- The magazine InDigest offered $1 backers a chance to be a part of the story and write a line to a collectively written story. Making backers feel part of the team!

- The comic site Penny Arcade offered a hilarious reward for $1: chasing a duck shouting the name of the backer (LOL) and guess what, 1680 people pledged it, meaning $1680! Sounds crazy, but that's the power of a good old laugh.

- A documentary project, Design & Thinking created the $1 pledge limited only to 20 backers, the reward was a creative way to attract artists, pledging only $1 musicians could send their song to add to the soundtrack of the documentary. It's a win-win!

These rewards are very interesting and show that these creators are identifying with backers as people, not numbers.

Make sure to go and explore other creators' campaigns and let it inspire you, or better, make your own unique reward!

2. 5 REASONS WHY $1 PLEDGE IS NECESSARY

Your crowdfunding campaign is actually a pre-sale page, to make people aware of your new product and your brand. In this case, a $1 reward is a perfect marketing strategy. And here are the reasons why it cannot be avoided in your campaign!

1. Offer Project Updates: these updates only go into backers' inboxes only if they back the project because clicking on the ''remind me'' button isn't enough. These updates are crucial for creators because are one of the key ways to keep backers informed and build trust with them. Keep in mind that backers will not get the 48-hour reminder e-mail from Kickstarter, you have to send your own reminder, especially to $1 backers to give them time to think if they actually want to upgrade their pledge.

2. Not everyone could buy your core product: Some people support you just to show that they care, but maybe they won't need your core product. With a $1 tier level, they're going to be encouraged to back and get involved. When someone backs your project, everyone who follows that person on Kickstarter gets a notification about it, so it creates a ripple effect.

3. Make backing as easy as possible: The primary goal of creators is to collect backers, sometimes it might not be easy to entice people to back, especially if all the rewards need a good chunk of money. A lot of people may be just curious and want to think about backing your project in the future. Think about it, your chances of getting a $1 backer that will upgrade their pledge to the core product are much higher than converting non-backers!

4. Help build your own community: As you cannot interact with a campaign if you're not a backer, the $1 pledge will help involve people in a project in a quick way. There are a lot of backers that will back $1 just to ask some questions in the comment, and ofter after a quick reply, they upgrade to the core reward!

5. Create urgency: You can place the $1 just for a limited amount of people offering a special deal, for example, a close look into the project, a private live q&a, or something else. More people would want to get that before it expires. If this limited amount of people backs that pledge, you can’t send them a group message like you can with other reward levels.

3. MY CLIENT'S TAKE ON $1 REWARDS

A lot of my clients used the $1 strategy, and it actually worked.

Don't be scared to add low-priced rewards, always remember that people would like to participate and be part of the project without spending a lot of money it can create more buzz than you think. Since $1 dollar is very easy to spend a lot of backers will contribute with $1 and it will ''hack'' the platform algorithm as it sees that your campaign is being visited and backed by a lot of people.

This may lead your campaign to be featured by Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

My client Frescopod used this strategy offering a virtual high five, a simple and funny way to say thank you to all the people that are interested to the campaign but not ready to pledge the core reward.

Other examples of my clients using $1 pledge are Cytress, Cleep Pro and Spicify.

Spicify is a card game, with the $1 pledge they offered a demo trial of the game and if they like it they could go buy the official one.

Cytress is a board game, they offered access to their pledge manager as well as updates regarding the game, in this way backers could change their pledge anytime.

Cleep Pro is the smallest 4k action camera, they said thank you and sent a virtual hi-five to all the people who pledged!

WRAPPING IT UP

Using this $1 strategy will allow you to gather more people around your campaign, you can share a laugh and actually make people feel part of your project. There's no reason to avoid this simple reward, as it will bring more benefits than avoiding it!

Just remember how much important is the community creation and pre-launch only in this way you'll get to meet your goal.

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! 

Privacy Policy: We hate spam and promise to keep your inbox safe, occasionally sending high-quality content related to this topic, according to your permission.