Pledge tiers in the designer’s words.
The pledge tiers are the only part of a campaign page where a backer reads a number and decides. Everything above them is persuasion; the tiers are the offer. Designers tend to write them last and in the platform’s voice — “EARLY BIRD DELUXE BUNDLE” — and the page that was plain for forty screens suddenly sounds like a shop. The tiers should sound like the person who wrote the rest of the page. Here is what goes in the tier line, what goes in the FAQ instead, and the sample’s four as the worked example.
What goes in the line
- The amount, in the currency the campaign runs in, first. The backer is scanning for the number.
- A name in your words, two or three of them: Tide-watcher. Tidewrack. Two copies, one to a school. Not “Supporter”, not “Deluxe”, not a word the platform uses on every page.
- What it gets, as a count: one copy of the game; one copy and the turned-wood tide marker; two copies. A tier that lists eight things is a tier a backer cannot price in their head.
- The one condition that changes the price, if there is one: “shipping charged after the campaign.” It goes in the line because a backer who finds it only in the FAQ feels caught.
What goes in the FAQ instead
- When it ships, and why that date: “Our estimate is June 2027. The factory quote is in hand and the rules are final; the remaining art is the longest line on the schedule.” One answer, under one question, not repeated on every tier.
- Where it ships from and how shipping is charged. The tier line says “shipping charged after the campaign”; the FAQ says from where, through what, and that backers pay the real rate for their region.
- Whether the art is finished. A tier that promises “final art” is making a promise the risks section may have to walk back.
- How to try it first. The print-and-play link belongs beside the question, not in a £1 tier that then has to explain itself.
The worked example
£24 — Tidewrack: One copy of the game, shipping charged after the campaign.
£32 — Tidewrack with the wooden tide marker: One copy and the turned-wood tide marker that replaces the card one.
£60 — Two copies, one to a school: Two copies: one for you, one sent to a UK school you name.
The invented Tidewrack campaign’s four tiers, in the designer’s own amounts and words, from the sample page. Four tiers, each one line, each with a count. The £1 tier says what it is (updates and thanks) rather than pretending to be a product. The £32 tier names the one thing that differs from the £24. The £60 tier’s condition — a UK school you name — is in the line, because it is the reason for the tier.
How many tiers
Three to five. One backer-only tier at the bottom for people who want to follow, one copy of the game, one copy with the thing that makes it worth more, and one that gives a reason to buy two. Every tier after that splits the backers who would have chosen the one above it, and gives the comments section a thread about which tier is “really” the best value. The platforms’ own guidance says much the same, in more words.
What we never write into a tier
- A tier you have not decided. If the deluxe edition is a maybe, the page says it is not decided; it does not get a tier with a guessed price.
- A stretch goal as a tier benefit (“includes all unlocked stretch goals”) before any are costed.
- A “limited to 100” or “early bird” count unless you have actually decided to cap it and will.
- A retailer tier with wholesale terms you have not worked out. Say retailers can email.
The tier a backer picks depends on the trust the page has earned by then: the risks-and-challenges section, in plain words covers that half.
Three questions.
Should I write the tier names in the platform’s style, since that is what backers are used to?
No. Backers are used to it the way they are used to shop signage: they read past it. A tier called Tidewrack, in the voice of the page above it, reads as the same person still talking. The only convention worth keeping is amount first.
Do I put shipping in every tier line?
Once per tier that ships a physical thing, in the shortest form — “shipping charged after the campaign” — and the full answer once in the FAQ. The £1 updates tier does not need it. A backer should never find out about shipping for the first time in the pledge manager.
What if my tiers change during the campaign?
Then the page changes and an update says so; the text file we deliver has a break before each section so a tier can be replaced without touching the rest. What we do not do is write a tier now for a change you might make later.
Get the sample page first
The invented Tidewrack campaign page text as a PDF, and the eight things a backer reads before pledging and the three that make them close the tab.
Download the backer’s eight-things list now (PDF, one page, 189 KB) — no email needed.
The whole page text from your own facts, within two days, $59 / £47 / A$89 / C$79. The tiers are written in your amounts and words; no tier is added and no price is changed.