This is Sian Ellis

The portfolio of Illustrator Sian Ellis

Tag: Crowdfunding

Stay Spooky Kickstarter Campaign: The first 3 days

Posted on by sian


I am so please at how the campaign is going you guys!  Have to share it with you, because I am so excited!

It is currently Wednesday afternoon after the campaign launched Monday lunchtime. Sunday night I was way too excited. I wanted to launch it immediately, despite advertising the Monday launch. Part excitement, part nerves. When I am nervous about something I like to just do it. Stop worrying and dive in!I deifinitely felt like that about the campaign. So far at this point I had made some teaser posts on instagram about designs. I’d written a few blogs about it. I made a public video and a Patreon video about designs. I had advertised it in a few obvious places. The campaign was ready and I had a promo plan in mind.

The Launch

The first 24 hours after launch were the big ones for me. This was because I had launched some early bird prices that would only be a viable for this time. The quicker we unlock the designs the less stressed I need to get and the happier my backers will be. I know people want to see the design they like best unlocked.  Wanted this to happen as soon as possible. I also wanted to advertise this point because I wanted people to know about the special offers. I wanted people to be able to get a deal if there was one available. 

So I dove in and promoted the campaign EVERYWHERE. Everywhere I could think of where I could post for free. In my first campaign I had tried a whole range of advertising techniques. Also as an events organiser marketing was a huge part of my job. So I know that promotion is the biggest deal. Well, having a good product and well made campaign is the biggest thing, but promo is a pretty close second. The biggest thing with promo is that on average people need to see something a few miles before they act. I’m quite impulsive so this is quite different to my own nature but I know that it is true. Getting it out everywhere and often but without being spammy is definitely an art form! I am always open to advice on how to get this balance right.

Funding Target Reached

I am so pleased to be able to say that it only took 1 minute for the first backer and 8 hours to become fully funded! There are still designs to unlock and stretch goals, but this is amazing! I never thought it would happen so quickly. It so meant that the time I have to super stress about whether it will get funded or not was gladly much shorter than expected.

The Designs

By this point on day 3 we have happily unlocked 3 designs. After the excitement of day 1 with the launch and discounts the pledges have understandably slowed. So it’s on me to keep advertising, keep up memento and make the campaign go as well as I can. The unlocked designs are the ‘Boo’, ‘Say Cheese’ and ‘Ghost Dog’. Happily these are some of the designs that got the best reception. I didn’t know this when I launched. I kept the designs secret for a while So I wasn’t sure the best order to unlock them in. I am happy that the designs people are most excited about are unavailable. It means more happy campers and less chance of cancelled pledges. 

The campaign is live until September 7th so if you want to pledge or are able to share before then, thank you!

You can find out more by following the link below 🙂

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thisissianellis/spooky-season-acrylic-earring-collection
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thisissianellis/spooky-season-acrylic-earring-collection

Preparing to Launch My Next Kickstarter Campaign

Posted on by sian

I am excited to finally start talking about my next Kickstarter campaign. The campaign will launch on Monday 24th August. It will be my first campaign to launch a brand new series of Spooky Season themed acrylic earrings!

My First Campaign

This will be my second ever Kickstarter campaign. My first ran just over one year ago and funded my Skeptical ghost enamel pin. It was my first pin badge and I learnt all about pin production and kickstarter too. I have taken forward my learnings about running a campaign to this next project. If it is even half as successful as my last campaign I will be super pleased. My enamel pin campaign raised three times it’s target goal.

My First Acrylic Earrings

As with my first campaign I am using kickstarter to help launch a brand new product. Currently I have a range of 1 inch plywood charm earrings available. These earring have been really popular and I have really enjoyed designing and making them. I am running this campaign to fund a series of larger earrings made from recycled acrylic. Kickstarter is a brilliant platform to allow artists and creators to fund products that are new to them or with a large set up cost in a less risky way. It allows you to offer pre sales on your item so that you can be sure that there is support before you put your item into production. Especially in the current climate and as my art is now my full time job, it is a valuable tool to access. 

The Designs

There will be five designs available. This is a change from my first campaign where there was just one. Each design is unlocked as we hit various funding targets. I also have additional freebies on offer after for all pledges after all designs are unlocked. The designs are based on the spooky season. Which obviously won’t surprise you at all! I had great fun drawing them and they are all based on my own designs of earrings I would love to wear. A first peak at all five will be released on my Instagram page this week. Details of freebies will only be announced with the campaign launch. 

Support the Campaign

To support the campaign just visit my Kickstarter page by following my bio link at www.instagram.com/thisissianellis once it launches Monday 24th August 

Kickstarting my Kickstarter Campaign

Posted on by sian

A few weeks ago I wrote a review of a Kickstarter information event held at Site Gallery Sheffield. Fast forward a couple of months and I’ve taken the plunge. I’m running my first ever Kickstarter Campaign. The goal of the campaign is to raise £300 towards the production costs of 200 enamel pin badges of my always ever popular Skeptics design.

Making an enamel pin is my dream come true!

The great thing about as I’m writing this is that I’m just over a week into my 30 day campaign and I am 192% funded! Woohoo! If I’d have written this a week ago I’d be talking about just how stressed I was. It’s that weird, adrenaline fuelled addictive stress though. Obsessively checking your total stress. I kinda thrive on it, whilst I think it’s simultaneously horrible. All in all, it’s enough for me to be glad it’s over, but enough that I’d do it again.

The all or nothing Kickstarter approach is what feeds the fear. Even upon being funded the fear of mass cancellations remains, but it feels great to get this far.

Its amazing, you’re amazing, thankyou!

What has been especially interesting is the backers. The supporters who you’ve known who really step up to get behind you. Reminding you how awesome your supporters are! Then there are the new supporters. A great deal of traffic comes from Kickstarter  itself, but also it encourages you to find new audiences.

I turned to new reddit threads to promote my campaign. The product itself, an enamel pin, opens new audiences to enamel pin fans. The big new thing I tried though was working with influencers.

Like, Kardashian size influencers?

Well, micro influencers. Niche influencers. Whatever you call folk with good followings of fellow folk who like creepy stuff! My aim was to avoid being spammy at all costs but try and engage with accounts that felt synergetic with mine. I offered praise and thanks and packages of goodies. I won’t name an shame those who didn’t reply, I’ll just say this is to of course be expected. There was some excellent support though, so as well as gaining pledges to my campaign, I was getting new social media followers too.

My goal is funded but I am still accepting pledges until my rewards are sold out. The pin production will be totally funded, but it helps me to book stalls and promote the designs across the country too.

You can check our my kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thisissianellis/skeptical-ghost-hard-enamel-pin

Thankyou to you beautiful folk that have backed me on this, it really means the world!