Ep. 40: Using Kickstarter to fund your project on Instagram™ with Christa Hutchins

Today we’re discussing Using Kickstarter to Fund Your Project on Instagram™. We’re joined by my good friend, colleague, and member of my own Instagram Insider community, Christa Hutchins. Congratulations on your new podcast! It’s called “Just One Simple Thing” and it’s so great. It has short succinct gems of wisdom and practical tips! Every week, […]

The post Ep. 40: Using Kickstarter to fund your project on Instagram™ with Christa Hutchins appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Today we’re discussing Using Kickstarter to Fund Your Project on Instagram. We’re joined by my good friend, colleague, and member of my own Instagram Insider community, Christa Hutchins. Congratulations on your new podcast! It’s called “Just One Simple Thing” and it’s so great. It has short succinct gems of wisdom and practical tips! Every week, there’s an action step. So far, my favorite is episode 5 – “What type of stuck are you?” Let’s get into it! 

*This episode contains either affiliate links or links to my products. Should you choose to purchase, the show will go on! Woo hoo!

Click below for show notes

Ep. 40: Using Kickstarter to fund your project on Instagram with Christa Hutchins

Quiz: “What Type of Stuck Are you?” 

What Type Of Stuck Are You?

Christa’s website at Do A New Thing 

Home

Christa’s Podcast: Just One Simple Thing 

Home

Ruthie: Christa, your tag line is, “Moving your God-dream from vision to action together.” How are you using Instagram to drive traffic to this effort?   

Using Kickstarter to Fund Your Project on Instagram
Christa: Well, I think one of the key words in that tagline is “together.” You know, I am big, big, big on relationships and on collaborations and bringing people together.

So, I hope that through my Instagram work that people feel like they’re less alone because I’m in there with them. I’m also helping them connect with other people who are in there with them. So I drive them to places like the podcast or my mastermind and my one-on-one coaching so they feel less alone and they feel comfortable joining those places because they’ve gotten to know me through Instagram. 

R: Yes, you are one of the first people that ever reached out to me for collaboration. You’ve taught me a lot about collaboration and community and that we are in this together.

How Using Kickstarter can Bolster Your Goals

R: As you know, in this series we’re discussing ways to monetize using Instagram, and one of the ways you did this was by using Kickstarter to fund your Line-a-day journal. Obviously, I got on board because I thought it was a fabulous idea and I use my journal every single morning. Tell us the results of using Kickstarter and how you exceeded your goals!

C: Yeah. So Kickstarter is a platform where you can offer new products, new product ideas, things that you’re exploring, and offer people an opportunity to join in with you by crowdsourcing to fund your idea. I knew I had this idea for the line a day journal. I had done a short four month trial version and I was ready to launch the full year version for 2021.

On Kickstarter, I set up a campaign and you can run them for a limited time. The suggested time is two weeks. So that’s what I did. Then you pick a value that is your target goal for your Kickstarter–how much money you want to raise to be able to produce your thing.

People who join in on your Kickstarter can get different levels of bonuses and extras to go along with whatever it is you’re funding. So, um, if you reach your funding level, then Kickstarter collects all that money and gives you most of it and they can keep a little bit for themselves which is normal.

Then you produce the thing, but if you don’t make your goal, then nobody pays anything. You don’t get funds and it’s all gone. I set my goal at $1,500 in two weeks. That was what I was going to try to do. I promoted it on my Instagram, my newsletter, and my Facebook.

A Real Audience Response

I was shocked at the response. Partly, I think it was because, yes, it’s a good idea. It was a very unique idea. There’s nothing like a one year line a day journal on the market. All the line a day journals are for five years and this one is for one year that cycles through every month.

In the journal, you can see every month what you wrote. The date, the month before. So it was a unique idea and my community, my Instagram community and the rest of my “Do a New Thing” community wanted to support me and Kickstarter is a fun way for people to support you and to promote and help you to be able to fund your project.

I met the $1,500 goal within I think seven days. So then you’re allowed to stretch the goal if you meet the first goal. So we set a stretch goal of $2,500. And then we met that. So that is where we ended up. That was that funded, the printing of the journal. 

My goal for the journal the first year, last year was to sell 300 copies. And because of using Kickstarter and a partnership with Another Minute Ministry, we sold about 700 copies of the journal last year. I really was excited about that. God really used it to help people to get the thoughts out of their heads.

That was an important thing in 2020, we had a lot of things going on in our heads that are things to process and just needed to get them out. This was a quick and simple way to do that. That’s how it all worked out. I think that the way you can make this kind of thing happen from Instagram by leveraging Instagram is knowing your audience well and knowing what they need.

Christa’s Top 3 Tips for Monetizing on Instagram

R: What are your top 3 tips for the woman entrepreneur who wants to monetize on Instagram? 

 

1. Don’t be afraid of it 

You can feel really icky sometimes trying to sell. However, as I’ve learned from you a lot, any time that we’re trying to monetize and earn income through Instagram, we are offering value along with whatever it is that we’re selling. 

So yes, people will get value if they pay for what you are offering. They also get value just by hearing your promotion because you’re offering tips and ideas and encouragement through your offer.

In that way, even just your offer is valuable to them, whether or not they buy in to whatever it is that you’re selling. So that’s my first tip. My second one I think, would be:

 

2.Continue to be authentic to your brand

Make sure that whatever it is you’re offering, whether it’s something of yourself or you’re on affiliate opportunity, offering for someone else by using Kickstarter, or something else that you’re promoting– just make sure that it fits with your brand and that it’s something that people would expect to come to you for.

You know, I wouldn’t necessarily where I am be promoting Children’s products or whatever, because that’s not what people would expect from me. Just make sure that whatever you’re offering or promoting fits with the brand that you’ve built because your brand is your promise.

 

3. Look at your calendar and plan strategically

Think about affiliate promotions, things that you’re doing, because it does get really tiring for people if you’re constantly promoting something all the time. If those opportunities come up a lot, there’s a million things that you could promote that you could be an affiliate for. Your own products, your friends, those kinds of things.

Digging Deeper

R: Name one fun fact most people don’t know about you! 

C: One thing that not many of my online friends know (a lot of my older friends’ know) is that my dad was a sports writer when I was growing up. We went to all the major sports events and I’m the oldest of three girls. He never got a boy to do this and that with. None of us three girls are truly athletic. I was the one who realized to have a good relationship with my dad I needed to be a sports fan. So, I’m a huge, huge sports fan. I love football. So yeah, that’s what a lot of people don’t realize about me.

R: I did not know that either. That is a very fun fact. I bet you that our people in the membership don’t know that either.

R: What plans do you have for the journal for next year?? 

C: Well, I’m hoping to expand it. Last year was just the journal, and this year I’m hoping to put a little bit of content from my mastermind around finding your focus and setting goals into it.

I want to create a hardback, wire bound version that’s a little sturdier and maybe a little bigger. Although, I want to make sure I offer both versions because people do love the slim version. It just kinda tucks in your Bible and is easy to have. So, I think I’d like to offer a little bit of a deluxe version and I’m going to work with a designer to start designing that here within the next couple of months.

R: So, how can listeners connect with you online?

C: You can connect with me on Instagram at @doanewthing and on my website. Those two places are the best and you never know, you might see us do a live.

Do A New Thing equips busy communicators and leaders with project management and problem solving skills so they can turn their big ideas into a successful ministry or business.

The post Ep. 40: Using Kickstarter to fund your project on Instagram™ with Christa Hutchins appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.