BackerClub Special Perk

Most Important Things to Know

Special perks are a BackerClub tradition, and one can be offered to our members to enhance the conversion rates for your project in our community.

Monetary discounts, free add-on items, and coupons to your existing ecommerce store are our most popular perk types.

Special perks are retroactive, as a member could simply drop their current pledge and re-pledge to claim the special perk.

Introduction

A Flexible Tradition

Since 2014, it has been a tradition for creators to offer a special incentive (aka, a special perk or special reward) to our members in order to promote a campaign within the community. As a creator, the special perk you offer can be tailored to match your campaign, the product(s) you're launching, your budget, and your post-campaign operations.

Your Member Dashboard

When approved, you will have access to a creator dashboard which will show you the list of BackerClub members who have supported your project. This will make fulfillment of the add-ons or upgrades very easy. This page will list some common special perk types to get your creative juices flowing.

Great Perks = More Backers

Please keep in mind that the special perk you choose has an impact on whether or not your project will be accepted. Since only 3 in 10 submissions to BackerClub are approved to join the community, this is an important component worth giving careful consideration to. After all, the more generous your reward is, the stronger response will likely be from the Club. A super deal will encourage those who might otherwise be on the fence to get in there and pledge. So, be GENEROUS and CREATIVE!

Special Perk Recommendations

Monetary Discount

Offer a monetary discount on our members' pledges. Can either by on a % basis or fixed $ basis. The % basis is usually best because it encourages larger pledge amounts.

- Examples -

"BackerClub members can save 15% on any reward tier! To redeem, pledge like normal. We (the creator) will perform partial refunds through Kickstarter once the campaign has successfully ended." "BackerClub members can save 20% on reward tiers $XX or more! To redeem, pledge like normal. We (the creator) will process PayPal payments equal to your discount amount once the campaign has successfully ended." "BackerClub members can save $25 on our [insert your product here]! To redeem, click the Indiegogo button on BackerClub to reveal the Secret Perk and then pledge using that secret tier."

- How it Works -

On Kickstarter: Members make a normal pledge on your campaign that we're able to track with our system (and is shown in your Creator Dashboard). After the campaign, you can either: 1) process a partial refund through Kickstarter (learn how here), or 2) you can reach out to those members via email or private message to collect their PayPal information and proceed with payments for the correct discount amount.

On Indiegogo: Create an Indiegogo Secret Perk for your offer to our members that includes the discounted price (learn how here). Then, provide your special perk message & secret perk URL during your application to BackerClub. We will use the secret perk URL in our buttons/links for valid members. Finally, they pledge through the secret perk tier on Indiegogo like normal.

Free Add-On Item

Offer a free add-on item when a member pledges for a certain reward tier or higher. You can use this in a number of ways, from a simple BOGO like "Buy 3 pairs of socks and get a 4th pair for free!" to offering a relevant add-on item that will compliment your main product like "Buy our new travel shoes and get a free pair of slippers!"

- Examples -

"BackerClub members that pledge $99 (or more) will receive a free set of spare filters for their Mach 1 vacuum. To redeem, pledge like normal. We (the creator) will add the free filters to your pledge order in CrowdOx after the campaign."

- How it Works -

On Kickstarter: Members make a normal pledge on your campaign that we're able to track with our system (and is shown in your Creator Dashboard). From here, the goal is to remember that you owe certain backers a free item. For small campaigns, you can leave a simple note on their pledge in Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or a spreadsheet so that you remember to add the item manually during fulfillment. For larger campaigns, we highly recommend handling this during the survey process, where you can use the available tools on your survey/pledge management software to add the free item to our member's survey/order. Learn more about how to do this with a survey on CrowdOx or BackerKit.

On Indiegogo: Create an Indiegogo Secret Perk for your offer to our members that includes the free add-on item (learn how here). Then, provide your special perk message & secret perk URL during your application to BackerClub. We will use the secret perk URL in our buttons/links for valid members. Finally, they pledge through the secret perk tier on Indiegogo like normal.

Survey Credit

Offer a monetary credit that will be applied to a member's post-campaign survey that they can use towards add-on items or shipping. This assumes you're using a survey/pledge management tool like BackerKit or CrowdOx, and you intend to have add-on items available to your backers.

- Examples -

"BackerClub members that pledge $49 (or more) will receive a $10 credit applied to their survey for add-on items. To redeem, pledge like normal. We (the creator) will apply the credit to your pledge survey in Backerkit after the campaign."

- How it Works -

Members make a normal pledge on your campaign that we're able to track with our system (and is shown in your Creator Dashboard). Once your campaign has entered the survey process, use the available tools on your survey/pledge management software to add a monetary credit to our member's survey/order balance. Learn more about how to do this with a survey on CrowdOx or BackerKit.

Ecommerce Coupon

Offer a coupon code to your existing ecommerce store.

- Examples -

"BackerClub members that pledge $39 (or more) will receive a 20% discount coupon code that can be used at www.[insert-your-store-here].com. To redeem, pledge like normal and send an email to [email protected] to request the code."

- How it Works -

Members make a normal pledge on your campaign that we're able to track with our system (and is shown in your Creator Dashboard). They then send us an email to request the coupon code. After verifying they are a BackerClub member that made a valid pledge (adhering to any requirements like " ..pledge $39 (or more).. "), we provide them the coupon code to your ecommerce store. Please provide the coupon code, expiration date, and any constraints (like, shoppers must spend more than $X to use the coupon code on the website) in the special perk message field when you submit your application to BackerClub.

Exclusive Personalization

Offer an exclusive customization or personalization option for our members. Common options include a unique color, a small engraving/embroidery, a signed copy of the product, or access to a limited edition version.

- Examples -

"BackerClub members will have the option to choose an exclusive 'BackerClub green' color option. To redeem, pledge like normal. We will give you access to the color option during the survey process."

- How it Works -

On Kickstarter: As a creator, you can achieve this in 2 main ways. For a small campaign, you can ask our members to inform you of the personalization choice via a private message/email or in their post-campaign survey so that you can make a custom note of this to reference later. For a large campaign, you'll want to use your pledge survey/management tool to offer this exclusive personalization as an option that only our members can see. You can learn more about how to do this with a survey on CrowdOx or BackerKit.

On Indiegogo: Create an Indiegogo Secret Perk for your offer to our members to segment their pledges for personalization later (learn how here). Then, provide your special perk message & secret perk URL during your application to BackerClub. We will use the secret perk URL in our buttons/links for valid members. Finally, they pledge through the secret perk tier on Indiegogo like normal.

Giveaway Items

Offer giveaway products by running a contest within the Club.

- Examples -

"BackerClub members can enter a contest for awesome prizes! We're going to giveaway the base set of our cardgame to 10 winners, the expanded game kit to 5 winners, and the limited edition mega-bundle kit to 1 lucky winner. To enter the contest, check out the project page on BackerClub for details."

- How it Works -

For smaller contests, you can run them however you want. For larger contests, we recommend a software called Gleam to create, run, and manage the contest within BackerClub. The entry options, rewards, etc. are entirely up to you as the creator. To perform the actual fulfillment of the contest, you can keep separate notes about this manually, or you can use your pledge management tool to update the orders of the winners to reflect their winnings.