This repository has been archived by the owner on Dec 12, 2024. It is now read-only.
-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathKickstarterCampaign.html
387 lines (346 loc) · 27.8 KB
/
KickstarterCampaign.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<title>Kickerstart Campaign</title>
<meta name="Author" content="Patrick Duncan">
<meta name="CreationTime" content="2013-12-13T03:34:23Z">
<meta name="ModificationTime" content="2013-12-13T03:34:23Z">
<meta name="Generator" content="Cocoa HTML Writer">
<meta name="CocoaVersion" content="1265">
<style>
body {
margin: 1em;
font: 1em;
}
p {
max-width: 30em;
}
.no-dot {
list-style-type: none;
margin: 1em;
}
#question {
display: block;
}
#answer {
display: block;
}
#comment {
display: block;
}
#example {
background-color: #CCDDCC;
padding: 1em;
}
#example li {
}
#method {
padding: 1em;
background-color: #DDCCCC;
}
#method li {
margin: 1em;
}
#resource {
padding: 1em;
background-color: #CCCCDD;
}
#tips {
padding: 1em;
background-color: #DDCCDD;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div style="width: 600px; margin: 0 auto">
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p class="p2">This is a curation of a series of marketing posts. There are links to all the original articles for fuller explanations. Please read them; their authors are inspiring. The sole aim of this page is to create a guideline that gives a logical progression for work on my own project. In doing so it judiciously uses the referenced works. It’s probably copyright infringement heaven. I will happily make changes as requested.</p>
<h2>Use a system, rather than goals.</h2>
<p class="p2">Rather than using goals, have a system to continually look for a better deal. Goals can only work until you achieve them, and then they’re useless to you. Rather institute systems (a.k.a. habits) for how you live your life.</p>
<div id="example">
<h3>Examples:</h3>
<ul>
<li class="no-dot">Your job is not your job; your job is to find a better job. Finding a new job doesn’t mean you have to leave the last; rather your system is to consistently improve how effective you are for your time, whether it’s in the current position or another.</li>
<li class="no-dot">Your health isn’t about losing ten kilograms; it’s about being healthy. Your system is how you choose to be healthy, for example Tim Ferriss’s low carb diet (with Faturdays).</li>
</ul>
It’s a continual process.</div>
<h3>A spectacular system beats passion every time.</h3>
<div id="example">
<h4>Examples</h4>
<ul>
<li class="no-dot">If I find a cow turd on my front steps, I’m not satisfied knowing that I’ll be mentally prepared to find some future cow turd. I want to shovel that turd onto my garden and hope the cow returns every week so I never have to buy fertiliser again.</li>
<li class="no-dot">The best loan customer is someone who has no passion whatsoever, just a desire to work hard at something that looks good on a spreadsheet. Lend to the grinder with the numbers in the right direction, not to the guy who loves his job.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Luck</h3>
<p class="p2">Luck is a huge part of any success story. You can’t control luck, but you can move from a game with bad odds to one with better odds.</p>
<div id="method">
<h4>Method:</h4>
<ol>
<li>Always keep your hand in the game and make it easy for luck to find you.</li>
<li>Identify your skill set and then choose a system that vastly increases your odds of getting “lucky”.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<h2>System for working</h2>
<p class="p2">Plan big but test assumptions. Assumptions are the mother of all fuck-ups. Be mindful of them, and then get testing.</p>
<p class="p2">Focus on the 1-3 things that will allow you to achieve your goals quickly. Eliminate everything else. This is all about working out the minimum effective dose (MED).</p>
<div id="example">
<h3>Example</h3>
<p class="p2">Here’s the method Somawater used to find out their MED for their Kickerstart project. Their aim was to get listed on Kickstarter’s “popular projects” section, which is how you get people who are browsing Kickstarter to check out your project. They raised their required funds in 10 days.</p>
<ol>
<li>Find the top referral sources for similar projects by looking at their referrers. Almost without fail, this order has been:
<ol>
<li>Facebook</li>
<li>Direct traffic (primarily via email)</li>
<li>Twitter</li>
<li>Kickstarter</li>
<li>Blogs</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Based on this data, Somawater focused all their attention on two goals:
<ol>
<li>Getting coverage in the right blogs</li>
<li>Talking to their networks to create buzz on Facebook, Twitter and email.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div id="resource">
<h3>Resource</h3>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly">Bit.ly</a> is a link shortening service used by Kickstarter. If you add a "+" to the end of any <a href="http://bit.ly">bit.ly</a> URL, you can see the stats about that link.</p>
</div>
<div id="method">
<h3>Methods</h3>
<ul>
<li class="no-dot">Determine exactly what you need, but remember that when negotiating, he who cares less, wins. Therefore, make sure you have multiple options for fulfilling each part of what you need.
<h4>Other negotiating tips:</h4>
<ul>
<li class="no-dot">Place time constraints at the beginning of phone calls (“I can only talk for ten minutes.”). The longer you stay on the phone, the less likely your desired outcome will be reached.</li>
<li>Fix your phone behaviours by filming yourself and reviewing the footage.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="no-dot">Like a chef, prep everything in advance. For example, craft emails 2-3 days early so you can just send them when they’re required, e.g. Launch day. You can learn about “prep and pick up” in The 4-Hour Chef.</li>
<li class="no-dot">Set up automated systems so that you can focus your energy on more valuable projects. Learn how to outsource and automate using the 4-Hour Workweek. Do not run a KickStarter campaign or your life, without virtual assistants. They will save you countless hours.</li>
<div id="resource">
<h4>Recommended source for outsourcing: Zirtual.</h4>
<p>They provide US-based virtual assistants for as little as $97 per month.</p>
</div>
<li class="no-dot">Be concise. Precision with impact is one of the most effective writing skills one can have. Try to write emails in fewer than five sentences.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2>How to be successful: What should I do?</h2>
<p class="p2">The market rewards execution, not ideas. This is tough to fully comprehend until you’ve failed a few times but it quickly constrains what you attempt to do. Concentrate on ideas you can execute.</p>
<p class="p2">Like you, I only have so much time each day, and I don’t spend nearly enough of that being athletic.</p>
<div id="method">
<h3>Method</h3>
<ol>
<li>Write down the 3-5 things - and no more - that are making you most anxious or uncomfortable.</li>
<li>For each item, ask yourself:
<ol>
<li>“If this was the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?”</li>
<li>“Will moving this forward make all the other to-do’s unimportant or easier to knock off later?”</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Take these items you’ve answered “yes” to for at least one of these questions, and pick just one of them.</li>
<li>Block out at least 2-3 hours to tackle it today. Let the rest of the urgent but less important stuff slide; it will still be there tomorrow.</li>
<li>Do that 2-3 hours. If you get distracted or start procrastinating, don’t freak out and downward spiral; just gently come back to your ONE to-do.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<h2>Promotion</h2>
<p class="p2">To raise a lot of money, you need to drive a lot of prospective backers to your project. You want to ensure that each story about your project reaches these people.</p>
<p class="p2">Amazon, Youtube, Kickstarter, etc tend to reward projects with momentum.</p>
<p class="p2">Check that each part of your activities supports building this momentum.</p>
<div id="example">
<h3>Example: Kickstarter</h3>
<p>Early pledges ensure that you project is featured throughout the site so capping numbers of backers into increasing price ranges can support this momentum. The first 200 might be able to back at $25, while the next 1,000 is at $29.</p>
</div>
<p class="p2">Aim for a deluge over a few days/weeks rather than a drip-feed over months. Carpet bomb the internet for brief periods of intense noise. Use multiple sites to deluge readers with high quality related content. People should open their RSS on a particular day and see 5-10 posts on the project, all from different blogs.</p>
<p class="p2">The hard part is that these sites all need to be promoting that content in sync with each other. Timing the release is just as important as the quality of your promotional efforts. Know what you’re going up against, and when. Your aim is to be the established category leader by the time most of your buyers will be receptive. Combine great content with finding the best combination of relatively lower category competition with the best call to action to your base with the highest response rates, along with optimal store traffic. Easy.</p>
<div id="tips">
<h4>Tips</h4>
<ul>
<li>Make sure that any stories are published on launch date or in the couple of days after, during working hours. Work published on a blog outside of working hours tends to miss a large segment of the potential audience.</li>
<li>Request supporting promotional actions on each story publisher’s social network pages. Examples include:
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">Posting their story on their Facebook fan page.</li>
<li class="li1">Mentioning their story in their twitter feed.</li>
<li class="li1">Featuring the story in their newsletter.</li>
<li class="li1">Re-pinning your picture on their pinterest page.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2>Focus on the best media targets</h2>
<p class="p2">Using 80/20, focus on the best media targets. You’re looking for four things:</p>
<h3>Relevance.</h3>
<p class="p2">Will their readers LOVE your project?</p>
<h3>Readership.</h3>
<p class="p2">You need to reach your prospective backers through email, RSS feeds, and social media. How much traffic do they get?</p>
<h3>Reach.</h3>
<p class="p2">Will the blog reach your prospective backers by promoting your post via email, newsletter, RSS feed, Facebook, Twitter, and other channels? Tim Ferriss says that this this is the most neglected checkbox. Blogs that expect you to drive all traffic to their posts are a waste of time. Remember, big site-wide traffic does not mean each post gets much (or any) traffic.</p>
<h3>Relationships</h3>
<p class="p2">Meaningful, long-term relationships pay long term dividends; friendships. Leveraging personal networks are the secret to success. This may be the most important part of your PR efforts. And it applies to more than just marketing.</p>
<div id="example">
<h4>Example: Somawater</h4>
<p>Eight out of ten valuable blog posts resulted from relationships. Either they knew the blogger or got an introduction. When they pitched a blogger without a relationship, less than 1% even responded. With introductions, their success rate was over 50%.</p>
</div>
<h2>Friendships</h2>
<p class="p2">Friends are incredibly generous. They will go to great lengths to help you succeed.</p>
<div id="example">
<h3>Example</h3>
<p>For the launch of Tim Ferriss’s book tk, most bloggers wanted to see him and the book succeed because he’d developed meaningful relationships with so many of them.</p>
</div>
<div id="method">
<p class="p2">Always try to empathise with others. Consider their fears and motivations. Afterwards, take the time to say “Thank you”.</p>
<p class="p2">Give way more than you take. Rarely ask for anything. Every meeting is a chance to be helpful. Anything you can do to help someone is going to win you karma. Give.</p>
<div id="example">
<p class="p2">Blogs etc don’t exist to just write about your big idea. You have to give them something. Rather than pitching them for publicity, figure out ways to be helpful. For example, send them a link to a breaking, yet underreported story you think they’d appreciate.</p>
</div>
<p class="p2">When you do ask, do it in a way that rewards them if they take action. Make their decision a no-brainer by over delivering with irresistible incentives. For example, give out advanced copies of your work and then later ask for reviews. Offer 2-10x more value in bonus gifts than the value they purchase. Be polite, explain the reasons behind your requests and give them the time and help they need to work within their constraints. Just remember not to offer too many options as that can overwhelm.</p>
<p class="p2">Thus when you do ask, you do so in a way where you are certainly giving as well.</p>
<p class="p2">Give them a sense of ownership. Have them work with you, rather than doing you favours. Empower them. Make it easy for them to contribute to a worthy cause.</p>
<p class="p2">An easy way to do this is by asking them for feedback on everything. Offer “sneak peeks” and collate the response.</p>
<p class="p2">When working with others, use “I’ll let you figure it out”. Get rid of the decision-making bottlenecks. People are surprisingly capable. Outline the constraints you need them to work within so that they know where limits are. A good way to figure out these constraints is to ask yourself “I will let anyone do anything, as long as….”.</p>
</div>
<h2>So, who do you want to work with?</h2>
<p class="p2">An existing relationship, either a friend, or a friend of a friend, can make the chance of your efforts much more successful. Do you know at least one person who can make a strong introduction?</p>
<p class="p2">Your mission is to find, befriend, and get covered by these bloggers/media so that the dream you’re launching can become a reality.</p>
<div id="method">
<h3>Method: Determining who you want to befriend to help with your new Kickstarter project.</h3>
<ol>
<li>Look at who covered Kickstarter projects similar to yours.</li>
<li>Find ten Kickstarter projects similar to yours, and for each, do the following:
<ol>
<li>Right-click and save-to-desktop 2-3 images.</li>
<li>Drag and drop each image file from your desktop into the Google Images search bar.</li>
<li>Review blogs listed on the results page to see which might be relevant to your project. Fill out the following fields in the attached “Media List” spreadsheet:
<ul>
<li>Publication</li>
<li>URL</li>
<li>First and last name of the writer</li>
<li>Links to relevant posts by that writer.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Now you have dozens of blogs that have a high probability of relevance, all neatly organised in a spreadsheet. Your VA can find more sites like the ones in your media list by searching <a href="http://similarsites.com">similarsites.com</a>.</p></li>
<li>Work out the distribution for each blog. <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seo-for-chrome/oangcciaeihlfmhppegpdceadpfaoclj?hl=en-US">This chrome extension</a> can help.</li>
<li>Estimate each blog’s reach. Have your VA research how many followers it has on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and RSS. You can research site traffic by using <a href="http://compete.com">Compete.com</a>. Have your VA research how many unique monthly visitors each blog has and add that data to your media list.
<div id="tips"><p>Remember that this work is a guesstimate. You won’t really know what your reach will be until you’ve landed each story and received a commitment by each blog to promote your posts.</p></div>
</li>
<li>Next, judge for yourself how relevant each blog is. Rate relevance in the spreadsheet (1 = extremely relevant, 3 = not relevant).</li>
<li>For each blog, research the writers your VA found. Based on their past posts, are they really the best bloggers to cover you? Is there anyone at the blog who is a better fit?</li>
<li>Now, identify existing relationships on Facebook.
<ul>
<li>Look for mutual friends you share with each blogger. Add them to your spreadsheet. Delete the people you do not know well enough to ask for an introduction. Email the people who remain and say:
<blockquote>“Hey _____, I saw you’re friends with [name of blogger] on Facebook. Do you know them well enough to make an introduction next month? I think your Kickstarter project could be a good fit for [name of blog]. Thanks!”</blockquote> Based on the answers you get, rate how strong your relationship is for each blog (1 = strong, 3 = weak).</li>
<li>If your VA didn't find any mutual connections, tweet or post on Facebook:
<blockquote>“Please message me if you know anyone at [name of blog]. I have a great story I’d like to share with them. Thanks!”</blockquote></li>
</ul></li>
<li>Sort your spreadsheet by relevance, relationships, and readership (in that order) to prioritise you outreach. Have your VA find email addresses of the top ten bloggers in your spreadsheet. At this point, you should only focus on ten bloggers. Make a one page brief for each of the top ten bloggers. This is a quick round up of who they are; the “Wanted” poster for each one.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<h2>What about your existing friends?</h2>
<p class="p2">Just like media outlets, you need to ensure that each group of your friends receives an appropriate message.</p>
<div id="method">
<h3>Asking your existing friends if they want to get involved</h3>
<ol>
<li>Export all of your contacts into a spreadsheet. Delete those that you don’t have a meaningful relationship with.</li>
<li>Divide the remaining into three groups.
<ul>
<li class="no-dot"><h4>Influences</h4>
<p>You can identify your influencers by using Klout, which measures online influence. Go to www.klout.com, connect with Facebook, select “friends” from the drop down menu in the upper right hand corner of the screen, then click on the “top klout score” tab half-way down the page on the right. This will show all of your Facebook friends, ranked by Klout score. Anyone with a Klout above 60 can be put on your influencer list. The goal Somawater set for this group was for everyone to share Soma on Facebook and Twitter, in time with the launch.</p></li>
<li class="no-dot"><h4>In-the-know friends</h4>
<p>The in-the-know friends are those already aware of your plans. The aim is to get them to back our project and spread the word, regardless of their Klout score or financial resources.</p></li>
<li class="no-dot"><h4>Acquaintances</h4>
<p>Acquaintances are people that you haven’t spoken with in a while. They needed to be told about the project and why it’s important.</p></li>
</ul></li>
<li>Each of these three groups receive a different email on launch date. Acquaintances receive a mass email, sent via Mailchimp. Influences and in-the-know friends each received a personalised email. Each wis slightly different, which is time consuming, but those extra hours honours those friendships.
<div id="resource">
<h4>Resources</h4>
<ul>
<li class="no-dot"><h4>TextExpander</h4><p>It allows you to paste any saved message – whether it’s a phone number or a 2-page email – into any document or text field, simply by typing an abbreviation. For example, a basic form of an email can appear with fields to fill in, like the name. It probably saved Somawater 1-2 hours a day in typing.</p></li>
<li class="no-dot"><h4>Boomerang</h4><p>It’s a Gmail plug-in that allows you to schedule emails.</p></li>
</ul>
</div>
Craft emails to your influencers and in-the-know friends using TextExpander, slightly customized each one. Use Boomerag to schedule them to be automatically sent the second you launch. This can save many valuable hours on that day.
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<h2>What do you want to do together?</h2>
<h3>Create something worthwhile</h3>
<p class="p2">Fundamentally, this must be to produce worthwhile solutions. Without this, marketing is just flash and noise. Create something that people want with the least painful solution, while minimising confusion and producing it to a higher standard that anyone else on the playing field. Iterate, constantly refining each piece, cutting anyway the inessential. Create something that will still be valuable five years from now.</p>
<p class="p2">Your aim is to create a product you do not need to ask anyone to promote. Rather, the product you create is something that these people would want to write about it. Think about this as you create it.</p>
<p class="p2">A good example of this is a solution that produces a strong contrast between “before” and “after”. Content that can transform the reader in a short period of time can market itself just through word of mouth.</p>
<h3>Promotions</h3>
<p class="p2">Bloggers work hard to create content. Like you, they want it to be seen by as many people as possible. Your shared aim is to maximise the impact of each article. Make it as easy as possible for them to write a story that is valuable to their readers and to you.</p>
<p class="p2">Tailor your pitch to their needs. To do this you must know thy media outlets, and customise. Don’t pitch the same thing - or something general - to niche outlets It’s a waste of their time and yours. Focusing on a few people to build relationships with allows you to get to know them, their blog etc and their writing style.</p>
<div id="method">
<h4>Method: Providing useful content for the media/bloggers</h4>
<p class="p2">Find something timely to discuss where you have a position that runs counter to the mainstream or expectations. Make notes on this timely something and then whittle these down to the 3-6 major points you can convey in a total of 120 seconds, 20 seconds or so per point. These are the talking points you’ll repeat ad nauseam with slightly different segues with each interview.</p>
<p class="p2">You also need to answer these questions (Answers from Tim Ferriss for the 4-Hour-Body book launch):</p>
<ol>
<li><span id="question">Why is what I’m doing different or controversial?</span>
<span id="answer">Answer: Using new tools to scientifically test all of the myths and old wives tales on myself and others.</span></li>
<li><span id="question">Why is this timely or important?</span>
<span id="answer">Answer: I’m part of a much larger trend; cite books and growth of Quantified Self, etc.</span></li>
<li><span id="question">What are some actionable examples of counter-intuitive findings?</span>
<span id="answer">Answers: 30g within 30 minutes of waking, replacing milk in coffee with cinnamon, etc.</span>
<span id="comment">Tim listed these first, and then numbered them in descending order of priority for inclusion.</span></li>
</ol>
<h4>Provide convenient resources</h4>
<p class="p2">Make sure that you have convenient resources available. These include 5-7 bullet points about your project, high resolution photos of your product and of your people involved, and the embed code for your video if you have one.</p>
<p class="p2">You can provide easy access to these by using a service like Dropbox. For Kickstarter projects, most of the information and assets bloggers need for a story can be found right on your Kickstarter page.</p>
<div id="example"><p class="p2">Somawater after receiving and email introduction to a blogger at Gear Patrol, the men’s digital magazine, sent over this pitch (to a guy not called John).</p>
<p class="p2">Hi John,</p>
<p class="p2">It’s great to meet you. I’m a huge fan of Gear Patrol and wanted to pass on something new that could be a nice fit for your kitchen section. I’ve attached an image of the Soma glass carafe and our revolutionary water filter. Our Kickstarter page has a video and bullet points on why Soma is unique.</p>
<p class="p2">We think Soma could be a great story for Gear Patrol for these reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>Innovative gear – Soma is the world’s first compostable water filter: made of Malaysian coconut shells, vegan silk, and food-based plastic.</li>
<li>Sleek design – The Soma carafe is made of decanter-quality glass, in a world of plastic pitchers. The hour-glass shape is unprecedented in the industry.</li>
<li>Made for busy guys – Soma delivers your water filters right to your door so you never forget when to change it.</li>
</ol>
<p class="p2">If you’re interested, please let me know how I can make the writing process easy for your team. I’m happy to send more hi-res photos. We launch Tuesday at 8am PST.</p>
<p class="p2">Thanks for taking the time to check us out,</p>
<p class="p2">Mike</p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="p2">Never assume that you’ll get to cover everything you hope or rehearse. Plan of this by prioritising your points, both mentally and logistically (you could use props to help you with this.)</p>
<p class="p2">For audio and video based media, producers want to know that you’ll speak clearly, be entertaining and not embarrass them. If you can help them design a fun segment then that’s great. Youtube is a great method of creating this proof in the first place.</p>
<div id="method">
<h4>Method: Getting national press</h4>
<ol>
<li>Look for local affiliates of big networks.</li>
<li>Using your prep from above, write out a pitch that is never longer than 20 seconds.</li>
<li>Call them, request the newsroom, and read your prepared pitch.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p class="p2">If you don’t get written up, or quoted, or appear to have gotten nothing in return for your time, don’t fret. Remember that these people do not exist to do you a favour. There is always value in taking the time to meet someone.</p>
<div id="example">
<p class="p2"><i>Another pitch to Wired Magazine.</i></p>
</div>
<p class="p2">Remember how you and your blogger friends share an aim to gather the most impact you can for your story? Use the content in the “Promotion” section to help to maximise this for each of these relationships.</p>
<p class="p2">Remember that we’re not asking for things outside a transaction that gives a lot in return. Therefore, soft-selling is very important.
<div id="example">
<h4>Before the release of the tk book.</h4>
<p>In the lead up to releasing tk, Tim Ferriss kept his blog interesting and varied, while keeping the “Buy my book!” posts to a minimum. More than half of the content had nothing to do with the book. Tim’s greatest asset is his blog. Tim never used his 100,000+ subscriber email list during the book launch, preferring to use his top 1,000 blog because it gives him access to hundreds of thousands of people.</p>
</div>
<p class="p2">You can also use things like trailers. Videos convert well when it effectively highlights the product.</p>
<h3>Sequence asking one thing at a time</h3>
<div id="example">
<p>Somawater tended to find that sending people from email links to landing pages was more effective than sending them straight to Kickstarter. This was because it allowed them to ask people to do just one thing at a time, typically to click on something.</p>
<p class="p2">Visitors would click on one link, which had three ways to help. Then, when they returned to their email, there was a subsequent ask, which was to forward the email to others.</p>
<p class="p2">Later on, more landing pages were used. Each aimed to maximise sharing on social media, primarily Facebook. They included videos as both the incentive and pay-off for visiting the page.</p>
<p class="p2">This strategy was critical when attempting to build momentum with your story on different platforms. When a lot of people share the same link on Facebook, it’s displayed to more people which helps create a positive feedback loop.</p>
<div id="resource">
<h4>Resource</h4>
<p><a href="http://github.com/somawater">Here’s Somawater’s code</a> for creating their landing pages.</p>
</div>
</div>
<h2>It's a mindset</h2>
<p class="p2">It’s a mindset, not tricks and technology.</p>
<h3>Summary goes here.</h3>
<p class="p2">As a startup founder, you’re a cheerleader. Always have a recent email, tweet or quote from one of your users who love you readily at hand. Feel good about the wins and bad about the losses, but only for twenty-four hours. Then get your mind off it and think about next week.</p>
</body>
</html>