Specifically for our company that is a hotel/managed Airbnb (ohotelsuites.com) and we are just relaunching our brand and platform in 3 weeks.
It really depends on your overall business objectives.
Some helpful thinking:
Why do you need funds or is funding secondary and you have other objectives here? Why Kickstarter? Are you wanting to sell an 'investment' in your business in exchange for equity? A product for pre-order? A room at a discount?
Answering those types of questions is a great starting point.
Shane
Shane is right. I've helped 150 campaigns raise over $50M and based on what you said, this isn't a great fit for a rewards-based platform like Kickstarter, because the specific rewards aren't super tangible. What would someone get if they backed you?
I agree with other responses, crowdfunding is not an appropriate channel for your business model. What is the value proposition that you offer to condo owners and people renting the place? Do you have an exclusive relationship with condo owners? Unfortunately, social media marketing is NOT FREE these days, paid social media marketing for B2C products is significant expense for all new high growth companies and I am not sure that's the best way to keep acquiring customers for you.
When it comes to raising money you must remember that risk is a perception. Your job is to drain the risk!
Below is a link to a resource I provide at my website. The 50 questions are specific to product design/development but the 15 categories are questions that apply to any industry.
If you can answer these questions about your deal you will have gone a long way to "drain the risk" for your investors and get funded.
http://www.jaredjoyce.com/freetreats/50questions.pdf
Once you have answered the questions for your deal schedule a call with me and I can help you integrate the answers into your investor pitch.
I agree with the other people who explained how your particular type of business may not do too well on Kickstarter. However, if you're still looking for best practices, here are some:
-Cross promotion of other Kickstarters that are going on around the same time as your campaign and also share the same audience as you, but are not direct competition.
-Influencer outreach - find really popular bloggers/youtubers who have your audience and ask (or pay) these influencers to mention and link to your Kickstarter campaign.
-Create a video for the Kickstarter page but also put it on YouTube and link the YouTube video to the Kickstarter campaign page.
-Make social media ads for the Kickstarter campaign to get more people on the page.
My agency has helped launch Kickstarter campaigns in the past. We would love to help you if you need help strategizing or executing any tasks. If you'd like a free project estimate, please let me know!
It does not have to be super detailed, but a budget will show potential backers that you've done your homework. Because Kickstarter uses an all-or-nothing funding model your funding goal should be the minimum amount necessary to execute your project. Do not go too low, however – remember, you are responsible for delivering rewards to your backers if your campaign is successful.
“Presumably, you’ll use some of the money raised on Kickstarter to make that happen. Plan and budget accordingly for these costs”. In addition, Kickstarter suggests you leave a monetary cushion to pay, well, Kickstarter. The crowdfunding platform applies a 5 percent fee to the total funds raised on successful campaigns, and there are additional credit card processing fees and tax fees.
You can read more here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234707
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
