How we got 100% funded on IndieGogo in less than 24h (Seawater-based chalk for climbers)

Just wanted to share my experience running a micro-crowdfunding campaign on IndieGogo that got 100% funded in less than 24h. There's 35 more days in the campaign before it closes.

You'll find the campaign on IGG if you search for "CHALK REBELS".

The campaign is for our climber's chalk that is made from sea-water. We already make climber's chalk but wanted to fund a process-innovation that makes the production cleaner. We chose to set a "low" goal because

1. We wanted to be able to meet it quickly. We did. 24h.
2. It really was mostly about recovering lab costs & packaging design.
3. The production capacity was already in place.

What we had before going in: a good brand, existing products, existing production capacity, but nearly NO AUDIENCE.

What we did to grow the audience: lots and lots of DMs on instagram. We started the campaign with a following of about 2000 (@chalk_rebels on IG).

One technique that worked well was asking for permission to use IG user's pictures in exchange for free samples. Cost to us: ~10 EUR per package sent. This generated some excitement & some initial orders.

We had mixed results with boosted posts on IG. CPC started out at 0.16 but steadily rose to almost 1 EUR as we saturated the channel. Couple hundred euros before we stopped doing that.

We ran a "coming soon" page for 3 weeks prior to going live. Conversion to email was between 5% and 25% depending on traffic quality.

On launch day we ran a "-50%" campaign through secret links that only people on the mailing list had access to.

Our biggest problem: GROWTH. We are a tiny tiny company with great products. But next to no audience.

What we did right:

1. Estimate traffic / conversion & set low funding goal accordingly.
2. Have production capacity in place so (1) becomes possible.
3. Correctly predict that most of the funding would come through product sales & not donations.

Regrets:

• Not running the "coming soon" pre-launch page longer.
• Not setting up PayPal payments earlier. Euroheads don't do credit cards.
• Not opening US Shipping from the very beginning. That is fixed now.

Funny Stuff:

We spent a lot of time worrying about shipping to Spain (our largest fan base) when in reality we should have been worrying about US shipping instead.

Brainstorming: NEED ADVICE ON STRETCH GOALS

We have another innovation in the lab which is world-class & could serve as a stretch-goal. How to announce that?

Here's 2 questions for you:

• How would you grow this campaign? (no ads!) 35 days left.
• What's your best idea for "dropping" a surprise stretch goal?

I'm serious about the stretch goal. If you're a climber you'll understand: we can PROVE that another production innovation can boost sweat absorption by at least 2X.