Crucial Crowdfunding Guide

Your video is the most compelling tool you have for present why your campaign deserves to succeed. You have a small window of opportunity to stand out. You can do this by telling your story in a clear, memorable, passionate and professional way.

It’s critical that your core idea is communicated effectively. It may help if you follow the AIDA principle when preparing your video and all other pitch materials.

A         Attention: Attract the attention of the investor

I           Interest: Raise interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits

D         Desire: Convince customers that they want and desire to invest in you and your idea

A         Action: Lead customers towards taking action and investing

You should consider the following point when preparing your video or pitch animation:

Introduce yourself and your team

• Tell us who you are and what you are trying to do? What are your qualifications?
• Try and build a connection with the viewer, show your passion, professionalism and personality
• Include shots of yourself and your team speaking to the camera. Let people see your face and hear you explain your project in your own words. The face of the entrepreneur is one of the most important parts of the video. Some entrepreneurs try and hide behind a product demonstration or an animation. But if potential investors see your face they are more likely to invest in you.

Introduce your Project

• Tell us the story behind your project. Where did you get the idea? What stage is it at now?
• Sell your project on impacts, advantages and benefits. Focus on the problem it solves and the value it adds rather than the technical aspects
• Showcase your progress and experience. What have you already done to work towards your objective?

Campaign specifics

• Tell us why you are crowdfunding?
• Come out and ask for people’s support, explaining why you need a specific amount of money and what you’ll do with it
• Talk about how awesome your rewards or perks are
• Explain that if you don’t reach your goal, you’ll get nothing, and everyone will be disappointed.

Other considerations

• The first frame of your video often acts as your thumbnail / preview – think about what people will see
• Make sure you are dressed appropriately considering your target end user
• Speak directly to contributors
• Check what’s in the background – something may seem small to you, but investors may view it as ignoring the details
• Check your spelling thoroughly – don’t kill a great idea with a random apostrophe in the first frame
• Honour short attention spans. Your video should be no more than 2-3 minutes long. Avoid long, boring shots of just talking to the camera.
• The best crowdfunding videos are filmed in a setting that brings the viewer into the place where your work gets done. Give the viewer a taste of your day-to-day work life because that’s what they’re investing in
• Pitch in the first person rather than the third person
• Script or no script? The best technique is just to write bullet points and ad-lib the rest because it sounds more natural. It can be hard to memorise a script and still sound natural. So practice until you are comfortable and can deliver a confident, comfortable pitch. Nervous pitches don’t sell.
• Try and film short, direct and punchy segments rather than long rambling narratives. That way it’s easier to edit the footage together.
• Don’t make statements of fact, predictions about the future or mention financial information in your film unless they can be supported by evidence.
• Don’t include the financial terms of the deal in your video because it might be shared or embedded anywhere and wouldn’t have the disclaimers and context that it does when it’s on the main website’s page.
• The clarity of the presenter’s voice is also extremely important. Make sure that you use a good quality microphone, film in a quiet place and that any background music (added afterwards) is kept fairly quiet. The quality of the sound is as important as the quality of the images.

Multiple video

Much of the effort of marketing for your campaign happens off the platform that it’s listed on. You should be promoting your campaign through as many channels as you can and video is a great way of doing this. You can post your outtakes, behind the scenes videos and all sorts of video content directly on YouTube and other Social Media. Don’t be afraid to use more than one video on your campaign page. The most important video should be your general trailer, but other video could focus on your early preparation, your product, your team or some aspect of your campaign or company philosophy that people want to know more about.