Lucas McNelly, writing for The Huffington Post, asks director Matthew Lillard what he learned during his efforts to fund the film with Kickstarter donations.
...the big surprise for me has been how difficult it's been translating eyeballs and people loving the film into donations. I knew because of our exposure in the world, the social media numbers we have behind the project, that we'd be able to spike awareness around the film and I assumed that would mean we'd generate enough interest in our story to give money. That has not been the case. Facebook, Twitter, etc. is about awareness but it's been direct contact with people that's made the greatest impact on our campaign.
Based on what I've heard from filmmaker friends and what I've read in articles like these, the big lessons of Kickstarter are the same as the big lessons of any marketing effort. You need to know your audience really, really well, you need to offer them something they want, and you have to make it easy for them to participate. Kickstarter is great for the last part, but the other parts are up to you.
