Many people associate crowdfunding with charity donations or as a means to fund an individual project, but it plays a role in many effective online marketing strategies as well. An astonishing $17.2 billion is generated annually in the U.S. from crowdfunding initiatives. The potential for raising money in this way is, therefore, immense and it is no surprise that many eCommerce enterprises and online entrepreneurs see the potential of crowdfunding as part of their business strategies.
However, recent research has shown that between 69% and 89% of crowdfunding initiatives actually fail to hit their targets. What this tells us is that there is a definite way to go about crowdfunding and several tips for success that really should be referred to in all cases. WMV Productions, an online video marketing service, recommend that crowdfunding is all about reaching a crowd, and that means informing as many people as possible of about the crowdfunding project. One of the best ways to do this is to create a crowdfunding funding video.
What is a Crowdfunding Video?
But what is a crowdfunding video, beyond the obvious? Video is the perfect tool for crowdfunding, simply because it is the most effective media type for conveying information through an entertaining and easily spreadable medium. It almost seems intuitive that, more than any other media type, video is the best for getting info about your crowdfunding project out to the masses.
But never mind any intuitive impressions, the facts are there to back this up. According to the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, projects that include a video see a 50% success rate, compared to 30% for those projects without a video.
Top Tips for Creating a Crowdfunding Video
The popularity of videos for crowdfunding has meant that there has been a wealth of information and hence tips built up regarding what exactly makes a great crowdfunding video. Here follows a few of them:
Get the Right Length
There is no one time limit for crowdfunding videos, only the imperative that they should not be too long. Like everything spread on the internet, you have the famously short concentration span of internet users to contend with. As a rule of thumb, you could aim for around five minutes but, again, it depends on what the crowdfunding campaign is. To get a more exact figure, you should use video analytics, and through trial and error you should soon come up with an optimal video length.
Tell a Story
There should be a narrative structure to your crowdfunding video. There can certainly be a summary of all the essential information at one point, but you should also reveal it over the course of a central story. This means a beginning, a middle, and an end. Aim to describe the world without your product at the start, introduce the product or service in the middle, and end with a reminder that it will only be made possible with the support of the audience.
Highlight The Development Process
Viewers of your crowdfunding video should certainly be made aware that there is a process involved in the creation of your product or service. After all, this is what you are crowdfunding for. Accordingly, you should highlight this in your video, perhaps by showing the creation of your product in action. Viewers want to know what you would be doing with their money.
For all forms of marketing, video is an incredibly powerful tool. On the internet, it might even be fair to say that it is the most powerful. For crowdfunding, the effectiveness of a good video cannot be understated.