Kickstarter众筹 | 专访Kickstarter硬件&设计总监（原文译文附上）

Kickstarter作为全球影响力最大的众筹平台，自2009年成立至今，已经为201,560个项目成功融资5,812,991,775美元；且在在全球经济都受疫情影响的 2020 年，创下了12年来历史最高8.15亿美元的众筹业绩，和12年来历史最高49%的项目成功率。

毫不例外，2020年也是中国项目在Kickstarter平台上创下破纪录的一年，同时创下了547个项目数量和6050万美元众筹业绩的双双历史新高，同年中国也是全球各国家地区中成功率最高的地区，达到了60%。

本周，我们有幸邀请到Kickstarter硬件&设计类总监进行访谈，她帮助过许多中国的创业团队在 Kickstarter 平台上实现成功众筹。带着许多用户都关心提问的问题，让我们一起来听听Kickstarter官方前线权威的答案。

1、Question：There are Kickstarter campaigns spent a lot of money on promotion such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads. Can they profit on such a large marketing spending? Is it possible to make a good profit through a successful Kickstarter campaign?

问题：如今，越来越多的Kickstarter项目要在广告营销上花费大量成本，例如我们最常见的Facebook Ads和Google Ads。基于这么大笔广告营销费用，项目还能盈利吗？有可能通过一个成功的Kickstarter项目获利吗？

Heather：

It’s important to go into a crowdfunding campaign for the right reasons, and making a big, quick profit is probably not the best one.

The unique opportunity of Kickstarter is to find your first community of early adopters, who connect deeply and meaningfully with your vision and passion. Creator vs. backer is a different kind of relationship than buyer vs. seller – it’s more like a collaboration. It can be a powerful relationship if you can turn those first backers into your evangelists, long term.

For those reasons, it’s better to ask: how will the Kickstarter campaign fit into your overall goals, for the long term? How can crowdfunding act as a ‘step one’ to launching your product and finding new audiences in the world?

We do often hear from creators who are not making much profit margin on their Kickstarter campaign, whether because of their ads spend or lower reward prices or other factors. Instead, they are using it as a way to fund their tooling and first production runs, and build that first community of evangelists towards a longer-term business goal. That said, it’s really important that you don’t put yourself in a precarious position with not enough funds to deliver your product.

I would encourage you to avoid the hype of a large funding target and think instead about a manageable, meaningful number of backers that you can cultivate and engage on a deeper level through crowdfunding.

译文：

你要明白进入众筹圈子的目的，这一点很重要。以及，如果你想通过众筹快速赚大钱快钱，它或许不是你最好的选择。

Kickstarter给予项目特别的机会是，你可以找到你的第一批受众社群，也就是所谓的“种子用户”，他们和你一样对项拥有期许和激情，和你紧密有意义地联系在一起。所以，项目发起人（Creator）和支持者（Backer）的关系不同于日常买家与卖家间的关系，它更像是一种合作。作为第一批种子用户，如果运营得当你把他们转变为长期的拥护者，他们将会是你忠诚的高质用户。

所以，倒不如这么问：从长线去看，Kickstarter项目如何来适应你的总目标？众筹如何充当在世界范围内新品发布和寻找第一批种子用户这一步？

我们经常从发起人（Creator）那里听到，项目没有赚钱是因为他们的广告费用支出和比较低的产品定价，或者其他因素。相反，你要将它当作资助你项目成功和产品首次生产交付的工具，以及面向长期的业务目标去建立第一个传播社区。不要让自己处于没有足够资金交付产品的危险处境，这一点很重要。

我会倡导你去避免夸张的筹集资金目标，而去考虑通过众筹培养一批更深层次参与的、易于完成的、有意义的支持者数量目标。

2、Question：Will Kickstarter support Facebook pixel in short future?

问题：Kickstarter会在短期内支持Facebook pixel吗？

Heather：

There are big changes happening in the world of digital advertising. Due to changes with Apple iOS, it looks like Pixel tracking will no longer be able to be integrated or supported by most major platforms. While this has always been a highly-requested feature, it doesn’t look like it will be possible to support Pixel in the near future.

译文：

数字广告世界正在发生翻天覆地的变化，且由于Apple iOS的改变，很多主要的平台似乎都要不再支持Pixel跟踪。这一直都是个要求很高的功能，将来Kickstarter仍然可能不支持Pixel。

3、Question：Currently only Hong Kong is accepted by Kickstarter. Will Kickstarter allow China creators to launch campaign in short future?

问题：目前，Kickstarter仅支持中国香港发起，不久将来Kickstarter会支持中国大陆Creator发起项目吗？

Heather：

Kickstarter is limited by the locations our payment processor, Stripe, is open and currently that does not include China. We’ll keep an eye out if things change. Until then, you will be able to launch a project if you can set up a business entity in one of the 25 countries that we are officially open, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, US, UK or others.

译文：

受我们的付款平台Stripe开放的地点限制，Kickstarter目前支持发起的国家地区不包括中国大陆，一旦情况有变我们将会密切关注。在此之前，如果你可以在我们不限的25个国家之一（包括香港，新加坡，日本，澳大利亚，新西兰，美国，英国等等）成立实体公司，都可以发起项目。

4、Question：China creators can open a Hongkong or US company, but Kickstarter requires a local person`s identity when launching campaign. We don`t have access to the local identities. Any suggestion to solve the issue?

问题：中国发起人是可以成立香港或美国公司，但Kickstarter发起项目时还需要发起地当地人的身份（SSN），我们无权拥有当地身份，如何解决这个问题？

Heather：

We are in the process of making changes that will allow Chinese creators to use their own passports as identity documents on their Hong Kong or US entity project. I hope this will be rolled out to all users by the end of the year.

In the meantime, we’re running a trial beta program to allow this on a case-by-case basis – you can get in touch with your chose agency, like GadgetLabs, to discuss if it may be possible.

Another option is to find and work with a local person as a collaborator on your campaign. However, be sure this is a person you can trust and a true collaborator n the delivery of your project, since they will ultimately be the legally responsible party for the campaign and their actions can affect your project (and vice versa.)

译文：

我们正在改进以允许中国地区的Creator利用香港或美国公司发起项目时，使用自己的护照作为身份证明， 我希望在今年年底之前可以将其推广给所有Creator。

同时，我们也正在运行一个对用户公开的Beta版测试，逐步实现此功能。你也可以选择与代理机构（例如GadgetLabs）取得联系，去解决这个小问题。

还有另一种选择，你可以去寻找一个当地人与你的项目合作，但是，必须要确保他在你的整个项目发起到交付结束期间，是你100%可信任的人，因为他们最终将是项目的法律责任方，他们的行为会影响你的项目（反之亦然）。

5、Question：What are the important things to build a successful Kickstarter campaign?

问题：成功的Kickstarter项目都具备哪些关键因素呢？

Heather：

I’d say it’s understanding the broader point that Kickstarter backers are looking to support inspiring projects with interesting narratives, and are not necessarily looking for the “best deal” or “lowest price”. It’s not e-commerce, so don’t use the same kind of sale or bargain language or approach. Instead, use a mission and quality-focused approach.

For example, if we look at just your campaign page: Stay away from too many all-white studio shots or 3D renderings (they’re not allowed on Kickstarter anyway!) Don’t include overused, e-commerce sales language like “World’s Best” or “World’s First”. And don’t make discount graphics too prominent.

Instead, focus on authentic and natural-looking images, showing the product in context, in a real-world setting and ideally some human element like a hand (to warm it up and make a human connection.) If it’s a cooking product, for example: show it with some colorful food, in a nice kitchen, with a hand holding a spoon nearby. Having a great main image is important, as are all the images on the page.

译文：

我想说的是，Kickstarter的支持者是希望通过很棒有趣的故事叙述来支持那些令人振奋的项目，而不是寻找“最划算的价钱”或“最低的价格”。它和电商不一样，所以请不要使用电商销售的语言方式。反而，应该使用以某使命和以质量为中心的方式。

例如，仅从项目的Kickstarter页面来看：避免出现过多的工作室拍摄的白底图和3D渲染图（总之，审核的页面不能出现任何渲染图和白底图）；不要过度使用电商销售语言，比如“世界最佳”或“世界第一个”；而且不要让折扣图太突出。

所以，更应专注于使用真实自然的图片，在日常真实的环境和情境中展示产品，理想情况应该是和人互动的元素，换句话来说，这些可以帮助你们彼此间建立连接和信任。例如，如果是一个烹饪产品，环境和情境设定可以是，在一个漂亮的厨房里，利用五颜六色的食物，手拿勺子烹饪来展示它。最后，拥有出色的主图很重要，同时页面上的所有图像也很重要。

6、Question：How to get “Project We Love” label and included in Kickstarter weekly newsletter?

问题：项目如何获得“Project We Love”标签并登上Kickstarter每周newsletter上？

Heather：

We have two types of features on Kickstarter: automated and editorial.

Automated features (like ‘New and noteworthy’ or ‘Recommended for you’ on the front page, among lots of other smaller ways we recommend) are driven in tandem with your own pledges and traffic, plus the backer’s own taste profile. The more pledges and traffic you generate, the more we’ll surface the project among backers. In this way, the power is in your hands – just keep sharing the project. Automated features are some of the most powerful and consistent ways that backers will find your page on Kickstarter.

Editorial features (certain slots and newsletters) are selected by a dedicated editorial team who are looking at each project as it launches. These are really more about Kickstarter brand stories than about driving pledges per se, but can be powerful too of course. Our team are looking for two things when they select a project for this kind of feature: an interesting, notable project doing something new in the world. And one whose story is told well on the campaign page (so, you can follow some of the tips I shared above – avoiding sales language, and focus on mission/quality.)

In general, you can expect between 20-30% of your pledges might come from Kickstarter’s features. The true average in Design & Tech categories is actually a little higher, but this is a ‘safe’ range to expect. We’re pretty proud of this – our organic community can have a big impact on campaigns. But keep in mind that the majority of pledges to any successful campaign will be driven by your own efforts to do outreach and find your audience. Consider Kickstarter pledges a bonus.

译文：

Kickstarter有两种方式：自动化和可编辑的。

自动化功能（比如首页上的“New and noteworthy”/“为您推荐”等等许多小窗口），与项目每天得到的pledge数量和页面访问量息息相关，产生的pledge和流量越多，你的的项目就越多机会浮出首页。这个方法是可控完全掌握在你手中的，你尽管大力推广做好你的项目就好。这也是backer在Kickstarter首页上有机会看到你项目最普遍但又最有效的方式了。

有些项目会被我们专门的编辑团队挑选到（某些广告位和newsletters）去展示，我们在每个项目发起时都会对其进行检查。这些实际上更多地是关于Kickstarter品牌故事的，而不是关于推动Pledge本身的，但肯定也可以发挥作用的。我们平台在筛选这种项目的时候，最关注的是这两个点：第一，这必须是一个既有趣吸睛、独树一帜的新产品；第二，整个众筹页面呈现的是一个讲得很好很棒的众筹故事。（技巧可参照我上述所说的注意事项）

通常，你可以期望所有的pledge有20-30％是来自Kickstarter内部，所有的类别中，其实“设计与技术”类别的平均水平要相对更高一些，这是预判的“安全”范围，我们的平台社区能对项目有这么大的影响力，我们为此感到非常荣幸。但是请你们记住，成功项目的大部分pledge都是由自己外部的推广营销寻找新受众所得。你可以把Kickstarter内部pledges当作额外的红利。

7、Question：My product was only selling on Taobao to China market. Possible to launch it on Kickstarter?

问题：我的产品已经在中国淘宝市场上销售了，该产品还能在Kickstarter平台上线吗？

Heather：

No. Kickstarter is geared entirely towards new ideas, and for backers and creators to collaborate in bringing new projects to life. We don’t allow products that have been for sale elsewhere, even if it was just in one specific market. If you’re making a new version of an existing product with some notable new features, that may be allowed, but you should be clear on the page (with a chart or graphic, for example) about how the new version is different from what is already existing.

译文：

不可以。Kickstarter定位完全就是面向新的idea，支持backer和creator协作将创新产品带到我们的生活中，你的产品不能在任何线上线下的市场有销售过，这是最基本且很重要的门槛。除非是具有某些显著新功能的二代三代新产品，是没有问题的，你要在在页面上清楚地说明新旧产品功能特点的不同之处（可通过图表或图片说明）。

8、Question：Does Kickstarter track all the successful campaigns and what are the hottest product category on Kickstarter (in terms of backer number)?

问题：Kickstarter是否追会踪所有成功的项目，以及Kickstarter最热门的产品类别是哪些（根据支持者的数量）？

Heather：

We do track some of our broad, higher-level categories, like Design & Tech or Games, for example. Those are the three highest-funding categories on Kickstarter with Design & Tech projects representing almost 45% of all funding on Kickstarter. (Games is another 35%.) But we don’t track subcategories too much, like Headphones or Robots, for example.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that certain product categories are proving popular this past year – 2020 was our highest-funding year of all time, with more funds pledged to Kickstarter and more backers than any other year before, and 2021 looking just as strong. The projects that are standing out do tend to respond to this pandemic moment.

For example, we’re noticing projects that capture a renewed interest in nature, like Terraplanter (a unique indoor planter), or Bird Buddy (a smart bird feeder). We see projects that help with indoor fitness, like Quell, a motion-tracking wearable that combines gaming with working out. Cooking has been another popular category, with one of our highest-funding European projects being Otto’s Smart BBQ/Grill. We’ve even seen some things that respond to this moment in off-beat ways, like Cinera, who brought the big-screen movie-going experience to an immersive personal display at home.

译文：

例如，我们确实会追踪了一些比较普及又高级的类别，例如“设计与技术”和“游戏”，这也是Kickstarter上筹款资金最高的三个类别，其中Design＆Tech项目几乎占了Kickstarter上所有筹款资金的45％（游戏占35％）。但是，我们对单独子类别项目的追踪不多，例如耳机或机器人这种。

以及，我可以告诉在与众不同的2020年最受欢迎的产品类别—2020年，无论是筹款金额和项目数量，都是我们成立以来最高的一年。而2021年的势头同样强劲，独树一帜的项目依然可以应对疫情这个特别时期。

2020年，我们注意到了体现人们对自然重燃兴趣的项目，例如Terraplanter（一种室内无土种植的陶质花盆，荣登 2020 年 科技类类别的榜首）或Bird Buddy（一款智能鸟类喂食器）；我们也看到了帮助你室内健身的项目，例如Quell（一款将游戏与室内健身相结合的运动追踪可穿戴设备）；烹饪也是受欢迎的类别，智能烤箱Otto’s Smart Grill，是去年欧洲区众筹金额最高的项目；抗对疫情最好的方式就是呆在家里，例如Cinera Edge，一款头戴 IMAX 3D 电影院，将大屏幕的电影观影体验带入了身临其境的个人显示器中。

最后，如果你对Kickstaeter平台或Kickstaeter众筹还有任何相关的疑问，可以评论区里大胆告诉小编，小编将为你们一一解答。

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