In the summer of 2022, this founder was laid off.
But she didn’t sulk. Instead she saw an opportunity.
You see, she had this idea for a board game and now suddenly with a lot more time on her hands she thought…
“Why don’t I try to launch this?”
Well, she not only tried, but succeeded, making over $400K on Kickstarter.
Here’s her story.
Meet Leonie, the founder of Lioness Games and creator of Biome.
Since she was young, she’s loved board games. But it wasn’t until 2022 that she actually thought about making her own.
Her and her best friend had been playing a lot of Wingspan and she suddenly had an idea… what if there were snakes that could eat the eggs of other players?
“That would be such a fun game…” she thought.
But that wasn’t the moment she decided to make Biome.
No, that moment came a few months later after she was laid off. She took a trip to Berlin, Germany to visit some friends.
They told her they were thinking about designing their own game. Having someone so close to her decide to make their own game made her game idea seem a lot more possible.
Not soon after, she decided to go for it.
She started working like crazy – from 6AM to midnight, she was all in. Working on the cards, the actions, the plants and animals that’d be in the game, and everything in between.
After many long days, she finally felt it was time to launch, so she joined forces with my team at LaunchBoom.
And on February 20, 2024, her Kickstarter campaign went live.
She raised $49,245 in one day… and by the end of the campaign, she had made $400,240 for her first product launch.
How’d she do this?
There’s a lot that goes into a successful campaign, but one of the most important pieces is the pre-launch marketing strategy.
So let’s dive into what that was.
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Even before Leonie started working with us, she was building her social following. She was pretty active on TikTok, but the majority of the posts were on Instagram. If you want some inspiration, make sure to check out the links I just shared.
Leonie used social media the right way. She chronicled her journey of creating Biome…
She got feedback about her designs…
She shared details about her game…
Social posts like these helped her fine tune her game and build genuine connection between her and people interested in Biome. But building a social following wasn’t the only marketing strategy she used. The next one was key in Leonie raising over $49K the first day.
Leonie built an email list with pre-launch advertising
Now making over $49K in 1 day is no easy task.
But it’s made way easier with pre-launch advertising.
More specifically, building an email list of real buyers before you launch your campaign.
One of our favorite ways to do that is by building a Reservation Funnel.
Here’s how it worked for Leonie.
1. Biome drove traffic with Meta Ads
Meta ads are the first step to building a pre-launch email list. This is how Biome drove traffic. She tested many different variations of copy and imagery, but here was her best performing ad.
Here’s the metrics for this ad:
- Cost per lead: $3.38
- Cost per reservation: $16.50
You can see all the pre-launch metrics later in this case study.
2. Biome collected email addresses on a landing page
The landing page is where she explained her product and collected email addresses. The landing page looked like this:
By the way, this is a screenshot from our LaunchKit software that all LaunchBoom Creators get access to.
3. Biome collected $5 reservations
This is the most important step and why we call this funnel the Reservation Funnel. Biome had what we call a “VIP offer” available for a $5 deposit in the pre-launch. Here’s what the offer was:
- A free upgrade to the Deluxe Kickstarter edition with upgraded components, pulp organizer trays, the Bountiful Biome Mini Expansion, and more.
The reservation page highlighted these benefits, explaining how the $5 deposit would help gauge market demand and create a more accurate budget.
If they put down the $5 reservation deposit, they were taken to a thank you page. This page confirmed their purchase and encouraged them to follow her Kickstarter pre-launch.
Biome got funded on day one
Leading into the launch, 902 people had put down a $5 reservation deposit. This gave Leonie confidence that there was demand for her launch and she would get a positive return on her investment.
And just like we thought, her launch was a success.
On the first day, she made $49,245.
By the end of the campaign, she had driven $400,240 in revenue from 6,043 new customers.
But most important of all, she had a 3.12x return on pre-launch ad spend.
The LaunchBoom system is focused on getting product creators the highest return on their investment. Because our goal is not to launch a successful product, but to launch a successful business.
But enough of me talking, what did Leonie have to say about her experience?
Want even more details?
Check out this Masters of Crowdfunding podcast we recorded with Leonie.
Do you have a game idea like Leonie?
We can help you turn it into a real business (or grow your existing business).
We’ve worked with over a thousand product creators.
If you want to be the next one…
Click here to talk with a LaunchBoom expert.
