Background
Outbound Lighting ran a Kickstarter campaign for their high-performance, long-lasting bike lights in November of 2017 in an effort to raise funds to bring their product to life. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Outbound Lighting has been able to sell their products on their website and continue to grow their business. To better understand how they navigated their path from crowdfunding to ecommerce, check out their results below!
Crowdfunding Marketing Approach
After creating a campaign page with well-thought-out copy and graphics that both educated and excited potential backers, Outbound Lighting launched their crowdfunding campaign at the end of 2017. Through the use of rewards, email marketing, frequent backer updates, paid media and more, the team was able to raise almost double their funding goal. This gave them the financial support they needed to move forward with production and prepare for ecommerce.
Ecommerce Marketing Approach
Peak season for mountain biking and cycling is the summer and fall. Outbound Lighting’s first year operating as an ecommerce business wasn’t until early 2018, and the company was banking on a successful summer and fall season, along with holiday sales, to carry the business through the off-season. With the help of additional resources from a reputable ecommerce marketing agency, Outbound Lighting focused on Facebook Advertising efforts to quickly get the word out about their product to the most relevant audiences.
The marketing efforts were so successful that they accidentally created a hurdle during the fall season - the team ran out of inventory due to a 138% increase in sales from August to September. However, the team had to rely on clever copywriting to position the product as the must-have accessory for bike riders, regardless of whether the product was in stock or not. This copy was used in ad campaigns that played up the scarcity of the product, which appeared to entice customers even more; rather than a decline in sales, Outbound Lighting saw an increase in sales. The team also had to sell the product online without the help of promotions and special offers. During this time, the company offered new customers a discount when they signed up and offered free shipping to customers online to incentivize purchases.
Currently, Outbound Lighting continues to sell their products on their website.