Why We’re Launching On Kickstarter Now (Not Indiegogo)

So, slight change of plans…

If you’ve been following this blog for the last few months, this might come as a surprise.

After almost a year of preparing for an Indiegogo campaign, we’re changing course.

Now, the last-minute plan is to bring Visonic Dome exclusively to Kickstarter.

The campaign is still 32 days long to celebrate 32 years since my father invented the world’s first ultrasonic contact lens cleaner. And it’s still a crowdfunding exclusive. The only difference is the choice of crowdfunding platform.

Indiegogo is officially out. Kickstarter is in.

Why make such a radical change so late in the game?

In this post, I want to walk you through my reasoning for launching on Kickstarter vs Indiegogo. In the end, hopefully we’ll both be convinced that it’s the right choice for this crowdfunding campaign, for all of the backers, and for the project as a whole.

Let’s get into it!

Why Indiegogo was my first choice

As a crowdfunding backer, I’ve supported 4 times as many Kickstarter projects as those on Indiegogo. It’s a fun and easy platform to use as a backer.

In most ways, the two platforms are almost identical. But when I started looking into launching a campaign of my own, Indiegogo had a lot of standout features for project creators that made me a fan.

The single biggest reason that I chose Indiegogo was their support team.

Launching my first campaign involved learning a lot of new skills. But from the moment I first posted a pic of the Visonic Dome on Instagram, the Indiegogo support team has answered my questions and offered their help.

Here’s a short list of some of the other super features that won me over:

1. Secret Perks

This is easily my favorite Indiegogo feature. And unfortunately there’s really nothing like it on Kickstarter.

A secret perk is a reward you can give to backers via a special link. Only people who have the link can see the Secret Perk.

That means you can reward select backers with special deals.

The idea for this campaign was to offer early backers an exclusively low pledge amount for a Visonic Dome. It’d be a secret reward tier that no one else could see.

Kickstarter’s only feature that compares is the common “Early Bird” rewards. These are rewards at the most significant discount, usually limited to a certain number of backers or for a defined amount of time (or both!).

But that’s really not as special as a secret perk because it isn’t as exclusive. You can’t reserve that “Early Bird” reward especially for email subscribers, for example.

This is a bummer.

2. Advertising

Indiegogo also allows project creators to put a Facebook pixel onto their campaign page.

That’s a great feature for anyone who wants to advertise their project on the social media platform.

With a Facebook pixel, you can advertise directly to anyone who has actually seen your page. You can even track potential backers who might’ve clicked the “Back It” button, but didn’t pull the trigger.

Combined with the Secret Perks, you might offer backers a special deal to help them make up their mind.

Additionally, Indiegogo runs their own Facebook ad agency. I was told that availability is limited, but there can’t possibly be any other agency who knows this audience better than Indiegogo itself.

3. Expert Directory

Indiegogo has a great resource to find all kinds of businesses that help project creators. They call it their “Expert Directory.“

You can find experts to help with marketing, production, shipping, and so on. All vetted and endorsed by the Indiegogo team.

Most enticing is their exclusive partnership with the online lending firm ClearCo. If you raise at least $40k and surpass your funding goal, ClearCo can advance half of your raised funds, minus a fee. That means a project can get to work before the campaign is officially over… or spend more money on advertising (assuming the RoAS is consistently high).

4. A Bunch Of Little Things

Those are the major advantages to launching on Indiegogo, as I see it. But there are a few other, minor features that I’ll miss out on by switching to Kickstarter, too.

• Indiegogo has a partnership with Backerkit to collect backer shipping info.
  Kickstarter creators can use Backerkit, too, but only for a fee. It isn’t built into the platform like on Indiegogo.
• An open comments section means that anyone can interact with an Indiegogo campaign. Getting feedback and questions from people who are still on the fence seems like a good way to communicate about your project. Kickstarter only allows backers to leave comments.
• YouTube video integration on Indiegogo lets campaign creators use a YouTube clip as their main campaign video. In comparison, Kickstarter videos are self-hosted on the Kickstarter platform. That just means fewer YouTube views.
• Indemand preorders are substantially cheaper if you run an Indiegogo campaign rather than switching over from Kickstarter. I don’t plan on offering Visonic Dome after the campaign ends so this makes no difference to me. But it might be worth considering for you.

Why Kickstarter is still better for small campaigns (like Visonic Dome)

With all those great features, why switch platforms? How does Kickstarter compare vs Indiegogo?

Most of us already know that Indiegogo is the smaller platform. It’s the Pepsi of crowdfunding while Kickstarter is Coca Cola. Maybe that underdog status is what’s pushed Indiegogo to innovate with so many of those features above?
Who knows?

But the bottom line is that Kickstarter is still the king of the crowdfunding game. There’s no getting around the fact that Kickstarter kicks ass where it counts the most: visitors, backers, and total funds raised.

According to the crowdfunding formula blog, Kickstarter has more than double the monthly web visits than Indiegogo. That’s almost 30 million unique visitors every month.

Since more people use Kickstarter and are familiar with it, the chances are better that blogs and media outlets will feature your campaign than an Indiegogo project, too.

What’s more, advertising agencies are much happier to work on a Kickstarter campaign than the same project featured on Indiegogo. Many like Jellop flat-out refused to help promote our Indiegogo campaign – but were more than happy to consider it on Kickstarter.

The reason is in the numbers. Backers are more likely to click on Kickstarter ads. They’re more familiar with the platform. And the ads convert at a higher rate. Even the ad agencies who were open to promoting an Indiegogo campaign admitted this was the case.

More than just a crowd

The numbers speak for themselves. Kickstarter is the bigger, more popular, more profitable platform.

But the reason I’m switching to Kickstarter vs Indiegogo so late in the game is admittedly also an emotional decision.

This campaign started as a way for me to share my dad’s product and his story with the world. It was inspired by other crowdfunding campaigns. And all of those were on Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter team has built a thriving community of backers and creators, big and small. Whereas Indiegogo does a good job at hosting new and fresh product ideas, Kickstarter feels more collaborative. More personal.

From the “Projects We Love” to the “Trending” page, you can browse Kickstarter every day and find something new to inspire you.

It’s not a feature that can be quantified or measured. Just a feeling.

Comments are more lively.
Backers seem more engaged.
The mobile app is great and it’s overall a more fun platform to use.

I’m looking forward to contributing to the Kickstarter community with the new recreation of my father’s design, Visonic Dome. It feels like a natural fit.

Kickstarter VS Indiegogo – a personal choice

There’s no doubt that the Indiegogo team has worked their asses off to compete with Kickstarter. Their platform has a bunch of exclusive features to help campaign creators.

And if you have an existing audience for your project, you should feel very confident about using it. Just look at campaigns like the Star Trek Voyager documentary to see how it’s done.

But the thing is, I don’t have that audience… yet. And connecting with like-minded people is just more likely on the bigger platform. Backers are more familiar with Kickstarter than Indiegogo and the ads are more likely to connect. It’s that simple.

Does anything else change for the Visonic Dome campaign?

Naturally, this spells a metric ton of extra work for me to get going on.

Just look at this website, man! Is there a single page that doesn’t mention Indiegogo a bizillion times?

So now I’ll go through every piece of media and text and video and edit in the Kickstarter name. Which is a pain, but it’s gotta be done. If I miss something, please forgive me.

The only major change for you, my favorite backer, is that there won’t be any secret links on launch day. Instead, we’ll go the traditional route of steep “Early Bird” discounts for the first 24 hours and a limited number. Reward prices have to go up to cover the manufacturing costs, but early backers deserve the best deal.

Plus!

Let’s not forget that this campaign is celebrating 32 years since my dad debuted his design. And what’s a celebration without gifts?

From here on out, early email subscribers enter for a chance to win 1 of 32 Visonic Dome contact lens cleaners. You don’t even have to back the Kickstarter to win. Just click this link to enter the sweepstakes. The earlier you sign up and the more you interact with the campaign, the better your chances to win!

We’ll draw 1 new name every day of the Kickstarter campaign ’til the end, with a total of 32 possible winners each getting 1 Dome (once production is complete).

See you on launch day!