Do the Math: Know When You're Ready to Launch

Got an epic crowdfunding campaign on the horizon? You need an email list of folks who are interested in your upcoming project! It's your golden ticket to connect with your future backers, build hype, and rock your campaign's launch.

To figure out how many email addresses you need to increase your chances of successfully funding, you can follow this simple math problem. Take your goal, divide by your expected average pledge amount, and then multiply by 10. That's the minimum number of emails you should have on your list before launching. Take that number and multiply by 2, and that's the upper range of how many emails you'll need in order to fund.

For example, if my funding goal is $5000, and I expect my average pledge to be about $50, I will need 100 backers to back my project (5000/50). Because email lists convert at 5%-10%, I want between 1000 (100 x 10) and 2000 (100 x 20) emails on my list prior to launch.

If you have a draft of your upcoming project set up, you can navigate to BackerKit Launch and click on "projects," and then open up the project to use our calculator:

This is not a hard and fast rule. Remember: engaged, excited email lists convert higher than email lists that aren't being nurtured. Even if you have a smaller email list, if you're inviting those folks to join you on your journey and making them feel involved in the process (or offering them special rewards for backing early), you will likely see higher conversion rates! Furthermore, your project has to offer something new and exciting to your list.

To increase the chances of a higher conversion rate, it's good to verify the strength of your list of interested folks. BackerKit Launch can help you identify what percentage of emails are your past backers or have previous crowdfunding experience (both indicators of 'more likely to back').

For tips on how to check the strength of your list, check out this resource:

How Strong is Your Crowdfunding Email List?

For tips on how to build an email list, check out some of these resources:

How to Build Your Crowdfunding Email List in 10 Steps

Are You Ready to Launch Your Crowdfunding Project?

4 Reasons Why You Need a Crowdfunding Email List

For tips on how to engage your audience, check out some of these resources:

Make the Most Out of BackerKit Launch

BackerKit Engagement Tools

Don't get discouraged— if the amount of emails you should have in order to launch seems insurmountable, remember there are ways to shrink it:

1. Add higher-value pledge levels that will increase your average pledge amount. Even if you don't think anyone will back at those high levels, you're leaving money on the table if you don't give folks an opportunity to back at an "all-in" level. More on this here.
2. Consider lowering your goal. A lower goal changes the math on how many interested folks you'll need on your list. We all want to make a million dollars, but setting an achievable goal (even if it means nixing some of the bells and whistles) is crucial. Plus, you can add those bells and whistles back in as you go by leveraging stretch goals and/or BackerKit's Community Achievements feature.
3. Ask your friends/other creators in your category to share your teaser page. Part of crowdfunding is reaching out to folks in the community and helping each other out!