How to make a great crowdfunding video

Your video is your best chance to convey your excitement and passion for the business and to get potential investors as excited as you are – it can’t be rushed and deserves at least as much care and attention as the rest of your fundraising efforts.

At Seedrs, we review hundreds of campaigns every month and have a few dozen live at any one time. As an equity crowdfunding platform, so also see the data and analytics behind who is investing in what and how potential investors behave when they look at a campaign page. We’ve learned several things about what does and doesn’t work for crowdfunding videos.

The written portion of your campaign page exists to satisfy the audience’s rational questions about your pitch, but it’s the video that will get the viewer excited and engage their emotions. Equity crowdfunding involves real money changing hands for a stake in a company, so it needs to be done precisely and accurately. The video is there to bring some humanity and personality back into the factual disclosures in the campaign text.

The best crowdfunding videos are filmed in a setting that brings the viewer into the place where your work gets done. Filming in your offices can be annoying and make things harder for lighting and sounds. But it’s worth it to give the viewer a taste of your day-to-day work life because that’s what they’re investing in.

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 potential investors absolutely must see your face if you want them to trust you. If you are nervous, get a friend to stand next to the camera and talk to them instead of looking at the lens.

We’ve seen people try printing out the script in large font size and taping it up next to the camera, but the best technique is just to write bullet points and ad-lib the rest because it sounds more natural. Try and film short, direct and punchy segments rather than long rambling narratives. That way it’s easier to edit the footage together. Film as many takes as you can. It can be hard to memorise a script and still sound natural.

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