Rainfactory

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO

For what projects/services did your company hire Rainfactory?

Digital marketing for crowdfund campaign.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop a website and branding. Build a waitlist pre-campaign, and execute a successful crowdfund campaign.

How did you select Rainfactory?

They were recommended to me by my co founder who has used them in the past.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

I decided to go with them because of their extensive experience with start ups and crowdfunding. My business partner had used them in the past and spoke very highly of them. They were able to help with all aspects of the campaign that I needed help with.

What was the team composition?

I worked closely with 3 individuals, however there were around 7-10 other folks involved in the project.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We hit our campaign goal within the first hour, which I believe is due to Rainfactorys great pre-campaign marketing strategy. Throughout the campaign we maintained a great ROAS.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They have the process dialed in using applications such as active collab to work together. They are very responsive and receptive to feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their knowledge about crowdfunding. There were several instances where they were able to advise me on how to handle a specific situation. As somebody who was new to the crowdfunding world, that was priceless.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They are really good at what you ask them to do, but I think if they took on more of a big picture marketing strategy company, that looks to the future of the brand they are working with they could be even more successful .

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Hangtime. We design and sell a product called KOALA, which is a smartphone leash primarily for outdoor enthusiasts.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rainfactory?

We had previously worked with another agency but they were having internal issues, so we had to pull the plug on that partnership. We already had our image shots and videos for the product, but we hired Rainfactory to support us specifically with the launch of our Indiegogo campaign. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team took on the project management for the launch and helped us get our pre-launch email list together. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Ehoud (Product Marketing Manager), who served as our project manager, Pearl (Online Advertising Manager), who handled social media advertising, John (Managing Partner), and Kaitlyn (Dir. Product Marketing).

How did you come to work with Rainfactory?

I asked someone who worked at Indiegogo to recommend some agencies and she gave me several recommendations, including Rainfactory, with whom she had worked closely. After we ended the partnership with our previous agency, I reached out to Rainfactory.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August–November 2019, and we launched the campaign in September 2019.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

It’s pretty unusual for a product that costs $25 to raise half a million dollars. We had 15,000 orders, which is a lot. Overall, the professionalism they brought to the process was really impactful. We had a standard that we were used to after working with the previous agency, but working with Rainfactory was the complete opposite.

How did Rainfactory perform from a project management standpoint?

There were reports that were reviewed during the sessions, and if something came up, Ehoud was always open to addressing it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There’s usually an incentive for an agency to push the overall figure as high as they can because that’s how they get paid, but Rainfactory was careful and thoughtful about making sure that we were safe. They were able to scale our crowdfunding campaign while keeping an eye on sustainability.

Additionally, Ehoud was a great listener and was always enthusiastic. Our branding style is kind of goofy, and he was able to get on board with it. So, it was nice to work with someone who was on the same page. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve been helpful to have more guidelines, advice, and assistance in terms of infrastructure to support the success of the project. We generated over 15,000 orders, and we had no help desk, so our personal email inboxes were full.

Rainfactory could benefit from having a handbook that can assist customers with long-term success. They did a good job of keeping an eye on the bigger picture, but I asked for this in the beginning and again at the end. 

It’s a project that usually gets put on the backburner because the agencies want to get more business. However, I think they would have a higher long-term success rate if they prepared their clients for what was coming next.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be too quick to engage with a crowdfunding agency. Wait until you have all of your creative assets together and your manufacturing source. The agency is there to help you, but if you don’t have a lot of the foundational elements, you’re going to waste a lot of money and time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a company called mifold, which is an advanced startup that created a new subcategory in the child car booster seat market. About four years ago, we launched the subcategory of company car booster seats through our mifold product. Recently, we launched a new product called hifold.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rainfactory?

We ran a crowdfunding campaign for our first product. We brought in Rainfactory to test the market's interest and acquire income because we were in the early stages of our development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team managed our crowdfunding campaign, which we ran through Indiegogo. We relied on Rainfactory's experience because we hadn’t run a crowdfunding campaign before. They gave us strategic direction and told us how to manage a campaign, build an email list, and work on our platform. We worked with them again to run our second crowdfunding campaign for hifold. At that stage, we also gave them all of our digital marketing activities in the US. They manage our social media marketing (SMM) campaigns as well as our search campaigns on Google. Their team also manages our direct mail campaigns.

What is the team composition?

We work with two key figures: an account manager who also looks after our direct marketing activities and an advertising manager who looks after everything involved with advertising—from creative concepts to media buying. There are also numerous people behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Rainfactory?

We found Rainfactory through a reference.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our organization started working with Rainfactory in 2015. We had a break after the first campaign and hired them again to run the second one in 2018, which evolved into an ongoing partnership.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The crowdfunding campaign was successful. We raised a record amount of $2.7 million for a juvenile product, not including tools. We’re experiencing significant growth in the US. Last year, we grew by about 50%, which was an excellent result. That was on the back of a 50% growth the previous year.

How did Rainfactory perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re blessed with a fantastic account manager, Kaitlyn (Director Product Marketing, Rainfactory). She’s been with us since we started working with Rainfactory. She’s creative, organized, and willing to listen as well as understand our needs. Their digital marketing team manages the budgets well. Overall, we’re pleased with Rainfactory.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Three qualities stand out. One quality that stands out is their experience, knowledge, and professionalism when it comes to managing crowdfunding campaigns. A second quality that stands out is their team’s excellent digital marketing skills. We work with a team that provides great insight, creativity, and managed to be a party to significant growth. The third quality is their customer service. They’re willing to listen and be partners. Their partners in our activities and give input. They don’t just tell us what we want to hear but pushback on important factors.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

We stopped our organic social media activities with Rainfactory because we had the capabilities in-house to manage the activities no less well than Rainfactory.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and treat Rainfactory as partners. Rely on their professionalism and listen to their direction but also challenge them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing at a company that manufactures portable chairs that fold down to the size of a water bottle.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rainfactory?

We engaged Rainfactory to help us launch our crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Our goal was to hit $50,000 and to manufacture 1,000 chairs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rainfactory helped us with every step of the process. They handled everything customer-facing, from lead generation to content creation for our Indiegogo page.

They also developed our website and managed all of our communications. They produced all of our video and photo assets for promotional materials. Now, they’re continuing to oversee all of the performance marketing campaigns we have going on different social media platforms.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 8–10 people. All of them focused on different aspects, like graphics creation or crowdfunding campaigns.

How did you come to work with Rainfactory?

They were a recommendation from a company that I’d worked with before.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent somewhere around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship began in August of 2018, and it’s ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Our results were astonishing—we far surpassed our crowdfunding and sales goals. While we were initially shooting for $50,000, we raised $1.5 million dollars. Our original goal was to produce 1000 chairs, but we ended up selling 23,000.

They’ve helped us maintain a profitable return on our ad spend so that we can stay in business. They’re consistently hitting the metrics we put in place, ensuring the organic growth that we’ve seen on our social media pages. They’ve exceeded all of our expectations.

How did Rainfactory perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication skills are amazing. We have our own Slack channel, so we’re constantly in touch, and they’re always extremely responsive. Formally, we have weekly calls to go over our KPIs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a really seasoned group of professionals. They know what they’re doing because they’ve been doing it for a while. They’re wonderful to work with, as they’re good people who care about your success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d highly recommend them.