3) How to Create a Video Pitch?
What you need to know about creating a video to support your fundraising campaign.
Your campaign page will showcase your campaign video. Understanding why you need a video pitch for your fundraising campaign is easy. We love to watch videos! If done well, not only are they engaging, but also extremely powerful. If a picture paints a thousand words, then how much can you communicate in one video?
Your video is often the first thing people will look at on your campaign page — it should be a reflection of the professional brand and business you are.
It can quite literally make or break your deal as it is not unusual for investors to commit funds to pitches based on their video alone. Usually, a suggested practice is to invest 1% of your total fundraising target as a budget for filming your video.
Video fundamentals
- Your video pitch should be no longer than 5 minutes.
- Create a storyboard for your pitch, framed around your product and your story. Set out key scenes you would like to include, this might be things like your offices, your customers using your products, or people giving recommendations to the camera.
- Write a script and stick to it, this will stop you from waffling on and keep your pitch concise and to the point.
- Utilise graphics over your shots to emphasise key points. This can also help clarify key technical aspects of your product or service that may otherwise be hard to explain.
- Be visible — don’t be camera shy and show your face! Remember that people buy from people and investors invest in people. To do this effectively it can help to mix talking-to-camera shots with voice-over. If you are going to go down this route, we highly recommend you invest in a professional videographer and editor who can ensure this is done professionally.
- Invest time and money into creating a professional and engaging video. We’d recommend investing approximately 1% of your total desired fundraising target into your video.
- What works for you might not work for someone else and your video should relate to your brand and values as a business. For example, if you are a cutting-edge tech firm with ambitions of becoming the next big thing then you need to take prospective investors on that journey with you. You may take inspiration from movie trailers or high-profile adverts to get people excited. If you are a kitchen table business with plans to grow, then it would be appropriate to film in your kitchen table setting. Your video needs to reflect you as a business and a brand.
What to include in your video?
Your video will often take a similar structure to your campaign page, however, it is important to remember that your video is a storytelling asset. You need to emotionally engage with your audience and bring them on a journey with you.
The aim is that at the end you will have investors thinking, “great, where do I sign up?”
Use the first 15 seconds as your ‘elevator pitch’, briefly describing who you are, what you do and the problem you solve. You can also include a “hook” in your opening section with an interesting fact or story about your business or industry.
- What motivated you to start your business?
- What is your vision and why?
- Focus on your product, how are you different, what is unique about your business and your approach?
- What have been your business successes to date?
- Discuss why your business is investable — how big is the market and where is it going in the future?
- Why do investors need to get in on the action now?
You may not have time to film each team member individually but it is important to show your team (preferably working!) as well as having your founding members narrating the story. You should also include “talking heads” of external stakeholders who can help validate your idea and investment proposition. This could be your lead investor, current customers, or board members.
Finish with a strong call-to-action — put simply, what do you want from people?
Finally, if you have decided to recruit a professional videographer for your campaign, ask to have your video edited into several small sections too so that you can share these mini-clips via email and social media.
Here are some videos we think really worked well to give you some inspiration:
- The Good Egg take you on a journey with them and use powerful visuals to help prospective investors understand their vision for their business. Watch it here.
- goHenry have used the power of social proofing and customer recommendations in their video to showcase market demand for their product. Watch it here.
- MyCouchbox uses their appearance on popular TV show Kampf der Start-Ups to enhance credibility. Watch it here.
For most founders, the video is one thing that cannot be done in-house. Professional video makers do cost money, therefore it is wise to create a video that can be reused for other purposes as well. For example, you could use the same pitch video as a demo for clients, as an introduction on your website, or on social media, etc.
The Funderbeam Guide for Raising Funds
In case you missed the previous chapters in our series and want to know more, check them out here:
- 1) Is Equity Fundraising a Good Idea for Your Company?
- 2) How to Create a Campaign Page?
- 3) How to Create a Video Pitch?
- 4) How to Get a Lead Investor on Board?
- 5) How to Create a Marketing Plan for Your Campaign?
- 6) How to Use Direct Outreach to Your Advantage?
- 7) How to Manage Your Campaign After Launching?
About Funderbeam
Funderbeam is a platform that combines the three most important pillars of investing: Access to data, capital, and liquidity.
Raise money from local and global investors, without the usual hassle of cross-border deals. Only one new entry to your cap table.
Our vision is to provide everyone in the world with equal opportunities, whether you are building a company, or looking to fund the next big thing. What if the next Silicon Valley is not a place, but a platform?
> FIND OUT HOW TO RAISE FUNDS ON FUNDERBEAM.COM, OR WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:
