Pre-Launch Checklist

Everything to do in the four weeks before your BlockReel Fund campaign goes live.

Pre-Launch Checklist

The four weeks before launch determine whether the campaign succeeds.

By the time the campaign goes live, your audience has either decided to pledge or not. Pre-launch is when you do the building. This guide walks through the weekly checklist from T-minus 4 weeks to launch morning.

Jump To

1. Why pre-launch matters more than the campaign itself 2. T-minus 4 weeks: foundation 3. T-minus 3 weeks: audience building 4. T-minus 2 weeks: press and partners 5. T-minus 1 week: soft launch 6. Launch day: hour by hour 7. Pre-launch email list targets 8. Common pre-launch mistakes

Why pre-launch matters more than the campaign itself

Across thousands of successful campaigns, the strongest predictor of outcome is the size and engagement of the audience the creator brings on day one. Campaigns that hit 30% of goal in the first 48 hours succeed 80%+ of the time. Campaigns that hit less than 10% in the first 48 hours succeed less than 20% of the time.

The first 48 hours are not driven by Kickstarter-style discovery (BlockReel Fund has /fund discovery, but it favors campaigns already gaining traction). They are driven by your existing audience showing up because you told them to. That audience exists or it does not by the time you launch.

If your audience is small, the right call is often to delay launch by 1-3 months and build the audience first.

T-minus 4 weeks: foundation

Build the email list.

The email list is the single most reliable launch-day pledge source. Open rates on a launch announcement email run 30-50% for engaged lists, conversion to pledge 5-15%. A list of 2,000 engaged people produces 60-300 pledges on day one.

Set up a landing page at /fund/your-campaign-slug/coming-soon (or an external Mailchimp/Substack page) and start collecting addresses. Offer:

Lock the team.

All key team members confirmed and credited. Cast attachments signed (verbal is not enough). Producer or fiscal sponsor agreements signed.

Finalize the pitch video.

Video locked, color graded, sound mixed, captioned. Uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo. Test on mobile and desktop. Get 5-10 outside opinions before locking.

Write the campaign story.

First draft of the full story complete. Edited at least once. Headers, images, and structure in place.

T-minus 3 weeks: audience building

Run a content cadence.

Three posts per week minimum across your primary social platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, whatever your audience lives on). Mix:

Every post should have a soft call-to-action: "Sign up at [link] for early access when we launch."

Email list growth checkpoint.

By end of T-3, you should have:

If you are below target, the campaign is not ready. Delay or downsize.

Engage relevant communities.

Identify 10-20 online communities where your target backers live (subreddits, Discord servers, Facebook groups, Twitter circles). Become a real participant, not a drive-by promoter. The promotion comes later; trust comes first.

T-minus 2 weeks: press and partners

Press outreach.

Identify 20-50 journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and YouTubers who cover your niche. Send personalized pitches:

Out of 20 pitches, expect 2-4 responses and 1-2 coverage placements at launch. Out of 50 pitches, expect 5-10 placements over the run of the campaign.

Influencer and ambassador outreach.

Identify 10-30 people with relevant audiences who might genuinely care about your project. Not paid promotions; genuine champions. Offer them early access to the trailer and a backer-only reward tier reserved for ambassadors. Ask them to post on launch day.

Partner cross-promotion.

If you are a member of a film org (Film Independent, IFP, SAG, DGA), pitch them on a member feature or cross-promotion. If your film overlaps with a cause or community (LGBTQ film festival, environmental org, regional film commission), pitch them too.

T-minus 1 week: soft launch

Soft launch to the inner circle.

In the 24-48 hours before public launch, share the campaign page (still set to draft or unlisted) with:

Goal: 15-30 pledges and at least $1,000-$5,000 raised before the campaign goes public. This gives you non-zero social proof for the public launch and lets you fix any last-minute page issues before scale.

Finalize launch day logistics.

Test the page one more time.

Launch day: hour by hour

T-2 hours. Final page check. Team standby alert.

T+0 (Tuesday morning, 9-11am PT recommended). Campaign goes live.

T+5 minutes. Send the launch email to the full email list.

T+15 minutes. Post launch announcements to all social platforms (with link, video clip, and clear CTA).

T+30 minutes. DM your inner circle individually to remind them the campaign is live. Personal asks convert better than broadcast.

T+1 hour. First check-in on dashboard. Pledges should be visible. If not, debug immediately.

T+4 hours. Mid-day push. Second wave of social posts. Reach out to press contacts who have not posted yet.

T+12 hours. End-of-day update email to backers thanking them. Post day-one numbers if encouraging.

T+24 hours. Day-two push. Continue social cadence. Begin replying to backer messages and comments.

Pre-launch email list targets

| Goal size | Minimum list | Target conversion | Day-one pledges expected | |---|---|---|---| | $5K | 500 | 8% | 40 | | $15K | 1,500 | 7% | 105 | | $30K | 2,500 | 6% | 150 | | $50K | 4,000 | 6% | 240 | | $100K | 7,500 | 5% | 375 |

These are floors, not ceilings. Engaged niche lists outperform large lukewarm lists. A list of 800 deeply engaged horror film fans outperforms 5,000 general film newsletter subscribers.

Common pre-launch mistakes