Getting Started Guide

Introduction

Congratulations! Your crowdfunding campaign was funded. You have lots of happy backers awaiting their rewards.

Before you begin, you can read the following help articles to familiarize yourself with the BackerKit process and terminology:

• Overview: Surveys
• Overview: SKUs

Let’s get started setting up your project in BackerKit so you can get the information you need from your backers, let them buy add-on items, prepare for manufacturing, and ship your items.

On this page:

• Import your Project
• Set up Items in BackerKit
  • Set up your First Item
  • Set up the Rest of your Items
• Review your Pledge Levels
• Manage Add-on Items
  • Review Add-on Items
  • Add Images for your Items
  • Change Add-on Item Descriptions and Prices
  • Set up Shipping Fees
  • Change Add-on Item Availability
  • Change the Order of Add-on Items
  • Preview your Add-on Items in the Survey
• Customize your Surveys
  • Preview your Survey
  • Personalize your Survey Emails
  • Preview your Survey Email
  • Let your Backers Promote you on Social Media
  • Support Other Project Creators
• Import your Backers
• Set up Payments
• Set up a Pre-Order Store
• Set up Customer Support for your Backers
• Confirm Project Settings
• Set Important Dates
• Review Pricing
• Request a Review of your Project

Import your Project

To get started, you’ll need to import your project into BackerKit:

1. Log in to your BackerKit account.
2. Enter the web address (URL) of your project from your crowdfunding site.

3. Check the I’m the owner of this project check box.

   

4. Click Get Started and you’ll be ready to start setting up your items.

Set up Items in BackerKit

Setting up your items in BackerKit is the first step in getting your backers their rewards. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The best way to begin setting up your campaign is to follow the steps in the Quick Start Guide. While there a few ways you can edit and adjust items, SKUs, and pledge questions, it’s best to follow the Quick Start Guide and make any adjustments once everything is set up.
• If you want BackerKit to handle your customer support, you must have add-on items in your project. If you set up your items following the Quick Start Guide, then your items are also set up automatically as add-on items.     
• Your backers will want to order add-on items. You can create additional items or offer items from your other reward levels. Add-on items are a great way for you to generate extra revenue and for your backers to get more of your items.
• Keep in mind that BackerKit will review your project before you can send out your surveys. This review is part of the service provided by BackerKit to make sure your backers have no confusion when filling out their survey, and to make sure you get accurate item counts. The review can take up to two business days from when you submit your project for review.

Set up your First Item

To see a video tutorial of how to set up your items, check out our video.

You’ll begin by setting up all the items for your most popular pledge level. You’ll see the dollar amount of the pledge level and the number of backers you have at this level.

To set up your first item:

1. Under What’s the name of this item, specify the name of the item in a few short words. The name of the item is the basis for the SKU associated with this item.
   

   

2. Next, under Does this item have any options, specify if the item has any options. If you’re not sure of the distinction between an item and an option for an item (also referred to as a variation), review the information in Overview: SKUs. You can specify up to three options per item.
3. Type a description of the option and the choices for that option. Once you’re done typing an option choice, click the Add <item name> menu to create the choice.The choices you enter here are the choices your backers see. If you make an error, just delete the choice and make a new one.
   

    

   Note: The order in which you enter the choices is the order in which your backers will see them in the list in their survey. Be sure to enter the options in an order that makes sense to your backers. For example, if your item is a t-shirt and you offer three sizes, small, medium, and large, you should consider entering the sizes in ascending order. Notice that SKUs are automatically generated based on the item and option names you enter. BackerKit automatically generates an individual SKU for each possible item and option combination.

   

4. Sometimes you won’t offer an item in a particular combination, such as a certain size and color combination. To remove items that you aren’t offering, check the exclude check box next to the combination not offered.
5. In Do backers receive this item as part of their pledge level, specify if this item is part of a pledge level and if so, which pledge levels receive this item.
   
   

   Pro tip: If you are assigning the same quantity of an item to multiple pledge levels, specify the quantity in the first pledge level and then click the arrow next to the QTY box to fill in the same quantity for all of the following pledge levels.

   

6. Finally, in Can backers select this as an additional item, specify if this item can be purchased by your backers as an add-on item. Be sure to list the price. You can set up additional details for add-on item sales in a separate step. For more information, see Manage Add-on Items.
   
   

   Best practice: Set up all of your items as add-on items, even if you don’t intend to sell them separately.

7. Click Create Item.

After you finish creating your item, you’ll be taken to a sample of the survey your backers will receive. Here you can see what your item looks like in the survey. You can edit your survey question later, just make sure everything looks right for your backers.

Set up the Rest of your Items

After creating your first item and reviewing how your pledge question looks in the survey, you can create the rest of your items:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Generate Items to return to the Item Generator.
4. Set up your next item following the steps above.
5. Repeat until all of your items are set up and have an associated SKU.

When you finish setting up your items, you can mark this step as complete:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Under Generate Items, select the Yes, I have created all my items check box.

Review your Pledge Levels

Once you create all of your items, you’ll need to review that each pledge level contains the correct items for your backers.

To verify the information and items for each pledge level:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Review Pledge Levels.
4. On the Pledge Levels tab, make sure that each pledge level contains the items promised to your backers at that pledge level.

5. Under each pledge level, review the information imported from your campaign in the Pledge Details box, such as number of backers, if the backers receive a survey, and if your backers are charged a shipping fee.

   

6. If you want to make changes to any of the information about your pledge details, click the Edit Details link.
7. In the Pledge Items box, make sure there is a SKU for all the items for this pledge level that don’t require further information from your backers.
8. In the Pledge Questions box, make sure there is a pledge question for all the items that require further information from your backers.

Note: If you need to make changes to your pledge levels, contact us for assistance.

Manage Add-on Items

You may have set up your add-on items when you first set up your project. Now is the time to add any additional items or pictures of your add-on items, and set up your shipping fees.

Review Add-on Items

To see all of your add-on items:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Set Up Add-ons.

You’ll see a complete list of all of your add-on items, prices, and shipping information.

Add Images for your Items

To entice your backers to purchase add-on items, you can add an image of the item:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Set Up Add-ons.
4. Click the edit link next to the add-on item you want to add an image to.
5. Under Image Gallery, click Add/Edit to add your image.
6. When you’ve added your image, click Save.

Change Add-on Item Descriptions and Prices

If you want to update the description of your add-on item or adjust the price:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Set Up Add-ons.
4. Click the edit link next to the add-on item you want to change.
5. To change the description, in the Description box, type a new description of your item.
6. To change the price, in the Price box, enter a new price.
7. Click Save.

Set up Shipping Fees

Click here to learn about shipping options offered in BackerKit. 

To set up shipping fees for your add-on items:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Set Up Add-ons.
4. Click the edit link next to the add-on item you want to change.
5. Under Shipping Fees, click Add New Shipping Fee or Add EU Shipping Fee if you’re shipping to an EU country.
6. Set the shipping fee for each country where you ship.
7. If you don’t need to collect a shipping address for this item, turn off Collect Shipping Address.
8. When you’re done adding shipping fees, click Save.

Pro tip: Be sure to charge the correct amount for shipping your add-on items by weighing your item and its packaging material and determining the cost on the shipper’s website. BackerKit’s shipping tables can help you manage your shipping costs. For more informations, see How do I set up shipping tables?

Change Add-on Item Availability

You may want to offer certain add-on items only to backers at certain pledge levels; for example, as an upgrade to an existing item or allowing backers buy an item they passed on when they made their pledge.

To review the pledge levels where each add-on item appears:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Set Up Add-ons.
4. Click the edit link next to the add-on item you want to view.
5. At the bottom of the page, under Who gets to see this add-on, you’ll see all of pledge levels where this item is available. You can adjust who sees this add-on item by selecting the check boxes next to the different pledge levels.
6. When you’re done adjusting who can see the add-on item, click Save.

Change the Order of Add-on Items

If you want to change the order of your add-on items:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Set Up Add-ons.
4. At the top of the screen, click the Sort Add-ons link.
5. Click and drag an item to change where it appears in the list of add-on items.

Preview your Add-on Items in the Survey

To see how your add-on items look to your backers in their survey:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Set Up Add-ons.
4. At the top of the screen, click the Preview link.

You’ll see a sample survey with the add-on items for a specific pledge level.

There are a lot of ways to customize add-on items. For more information about the other ways to take advantage of some of the powerful features of BackerKit, see our Best Practices.

Customize your Surveys

Now that all of your items are correctly set up, it’s time to fine-tune your survey and see what it looks like to your backers.

Preview your Survey

To make sure everything looks right to your backers, you can preview the survey for each pledge level:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Preview Surveys.
4. Click the Survey Preview Tool tab.
5. Select the pledge level you want to preview. If you ship to multiple countries, select a country as well.
6. Click Preview Survey.

You’ll see the survey as your backers will see it. If something is incorrect, go back to the Quick Start Guide to make adjustments.

Personalize your Survey Emails

To add a personal touch, you may want to make some adjustments to the survey emails you send. You can change the name your backers see when they receive an email from you and add a small note. You can also add an image to your survey and survey email.

To personalize your emails and survey:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Preview Surveys.
4. Click the Custom Settings tab.
5. Add any customizations for your emails and survey.
6. Under Add a survey deadline, be sure to enter the date the surveys are due. Once the deadline date passes, the date will no longer show on the survey reminders. This doesn't trigger anything to happen in BackerKit, the date is used so backers have an understanding of when you are going to lock surveys.
7. Click Save.

Preview your Survey Email

After you customize your survey email, you can preview it to make sure everything is perfect:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Preview Surveys.
4. Click the Survey Email tab.

Let your Backers Promote you on Social Media

Your backers think you’re great and want to tell the whole world. Make it easy for them to share your social media information after they finish their survey:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Preview Surveys.
4. Click the Social Media tab.
5. Add your social media information.
6. Click Save.

Support Other Project Creators

Do you have a few crowdfunding projects you love? Share them with your backers! Once your backers are done with their survey, we’ll show them up to three other crowdfunding projects of your choice.

To pick the projects you want to share:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Set Up Your Project, click View Checklist.
3. Click Preview Surveys.
4. Click the Pay It Forward tab.
5. Add the web address of the crowdfunding project you want to share.
6. Click Add Project.
7. To preview how the projects you recommended appear to your backers, click the Preview the Share Page link.

Import your Backers

Congratulations! All the information you need to send your surveys is set up. Next we need to know who will be getting those surveys. We can import your backer information from your crowdfunding site, or if you have a file with all of your backer data, we can import that as well.

To import your backer information from your crowdfunding site:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Customize Settings, click View Checklist.
3. Click Import Backers.
4. Enter your login information from your crowdfunding site and we’ll import your backer information.

Set up Payments

In order to receive payment from your backers, you must have an account with Stripe. Stripe takes care of the credit card processing and getting your payments from your backers to you. Stripe supports a growing list of currencies and a variety of payment types.

To connect Stripe to your BackerKit project:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Customize Settings, click View Checklist.
3. Click Set Up Payments.
4. Click Connect with Stripe.
5. If you already have a Stripe account, click the Sign in link in the top right corner.
6. If you don’t have a Stripe account, enter the information required by Stripe and create your account.
7. Verify the currency is correct. 

Note: If you are on the Professional plan, you can use PayPal to process your payments. You must have a PayPal Premier or Business Account.

Set up a Pre-Order Store

Once you add all of your items to BackerKit and set up your SKUs, you can set up a pre-order store to let anyone who may have missed out on your campaign buy your amazing items. You can offer any of the items you set up in BackerKit in your pre-order store and you can even charge pre-order customers a different price for your items.

For more information about setting up a pre-order store, see  How do I set up my pre-order store?

Set up Customer Support for your Backers

If you want BackerKit to handle front-line customer support for your backers, we’re here to do that for you. Additionally, we recommend setting up a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page for your backers to provide answers to common questions and your shipping dates.

Note: The Lock Order Date for Backers option is the date your backers can make changes to their order. You can wait to specify this date until you’re ready.

For more information about customer support, see the Backer Support page on our website.

Confirm Project Settings

Confirm your project settings including your project name, the custom URL you want to use, how often you want to receive email updates, your team members, and payments.

Set Important Dates

Set the dates for different milestones in your project. Your best estimate is fine for now.

Review Pricing

Review your cost and make a payment. View pricing details here.

Request a Review of your Project

Once your project is set up and you’ve picked your support plan, BackerKit will review your project, SKUs, and survey questions to make sure everything will go smoothly once your backers get their surveys. It can take up to two business days for your review to be completed.

When you’re ready for review:

1. On the menu on the left, click Quick Start Guide.
2. Under Submit for Approval, click Request Setup Review.
3. Read the review requirements and check the Yes, I have read and agree to the above requirements check box.
4. Click Request Set up Review.