Nobody said that crowd funding is easy. In fact it is one of the hardest online business activities you will undertake and It will be a roller coaster of emotion from start to finish. Without a great video to enhance your campaign you could find yourself in a world of hurt wondering "where are all the people?".
Inspire with video
Nobody cares about your idea except for you. Your job is to stir your potential funders passion and get them “imagining”. Your funders need to feel as if they are co-owners of your idea. So you need to stir their passion. Nothing stirs passion more then video right? If you are a film maker then you are telling stories with moving pictures and now it’s time to tell your own compelling story using a video camera. If you aren't a filmmaker and don't have video experience, then go find someone that does. There are thousands of graduate filmmakers looking to get a portfolio piece made and you are potentially able to help them make their first commercial video out of college.
Keep the video short
You need to star in and present your own case in a short video. Keep the video under two minutes. Statistics show that online viewers will click away before that time. Make sure that your video is of the highest quality and don’t skimp on sound. That means if you are shooting on a DSLR then you need to get external sound from a dedicated broadcast quality industry mic. Look professional and light yourself properly.
If you are asking people to give you money to make a film to appear in festivals but you are unable to put together a professional looking pitch video then you are going to lose all credibility before you even get started.
Your verbal message
Look professional and light yourself properly. Don’t beg for money in your video. Instead offer your funders a “fair exchange” for their money. Telling them they will be doing you a big favor will not win them over. However, telling them that they will have the kudos of being the “pioneers that help make it happen” just might stir some desire. Give your funders the opportunity to be part of some elite group. Script your video message and make it the most attractive sales package on the net, because after-all you are competing with millions of other net users for the consumers dollar.
Most of your funds will come from people you already know, however that is not an excuse to be unprofessional in your video. Providing you put in the work...there will come a point in your campaign when you have built so much momentum, that funds from strangers start appearing. It is always good to give your friends and family a shock with your level of seriousness as it shows them a side to you they might not know existed. They may be shocked into contributing.
It is extremely important to have a compelling call to action at the end of your clip. Instruct your audience on where to go to make a payment. The payment process needs to be kept as simple as possible.
Hosting your video online
Youtube will get your campaign found and can help drive traffic to your crowd funding campaign. If you are worried about spam comments and trolls on Youtube then tick the “allow comments after approval” setting and monitor your account. You can expect to be spending two hours online everyday driving your campaign anyway, so monitoring your Youtube account will be easy.
Learn how to use Youtube to it’s maximum capability. Learn how to embed your clip in your campaign and how to disable the videos that appear as recommended views when your clip has finished playing. You don’t need “redneck fights” appearing in your player after your crowd funding video finishes playing.
Ultimately crowd funding is a numbers game that breaks down to the amount of views your campaign gets. So you need to implement some video SEO (search engine optimization) aka get found tactics. Use the transcribe option an manually add captions to your video by writing all of the spoken script into text captions. You don’t need to have these captions displayed as the google search bots will find them anyway and help you appear more in search when people use those keywords to search.
Have more then just a pitch video. Create a few short viral type clips that also drive traffic back to your campaign. To drive traffic back to your campaign you need to include links in your video description and actually ask people in your video to go to your campaign if they aren’t already watching it on your campaign page.
Campaign views equal donations.
There is a campaign viewer ratio that you need to be aware of. If you have a convincing campaign then you should get one dollar per view. That means if 3000 people view your crowd funding page then you should average donations of 3000 dollars. I am not guaranteeing these figures and they are merely and observation from my own successful campaign. Your campaign host will have an analytics page so that you can monitor your progress.
It is essential that you get 20% of your targeted goal of donations in the first 48hrs. You can organize this by letting your obligatory family donators know when your campaign will be live and prepping them for it. Having people go to your campaign to see that it doesn’t yet have funders is like arriving early at an empty party.
Donation size.
Statistics show that perks priced between 25 and 50 dollars are the most popular.
You need to give value for money. You can’t expect 25 dollars in exchange for a thank you letter. Souvenirs and one off memorabilia items are winners. Be sure that postage doesn’t eat up your funds. A t-shirt might seem like a good idea until you have to post a hundred of them individually to international addresses. Posters, limited edition dvds, free online downloads, and other small collectables work well.
Be bold and offer a few limited perks of up to 2000 dollars for executives. There are a few people out there with this kind of money as pocket change and if you appeal to their desires then they might just fund you. Perks for these funders can include a day on set with a photo opportunity. For some strange reason these one off large donations will also add up within your overall viewer/donation ratio. To catch a big fish you sometimes need to catch lots of small ones first.
The size and influence of your campaign team
The more people you have in your fundraising team the better. You need to reach as many people as possible. Campaigns with large teams have a greater impact on social media.
Someone on your team might have a big following on Twitter while others may have a large list of friends on FB. Be careful not to spam your networks. Be informative but not pushy. Once a contact gets sick of “your begging” and mutes your posts, you have lost them forever and you will never know.
Good luck with your crowd funding campaign and feel free to follow me for more tips on maximising online video for marketing.
Photo courtesy of flickr.com/photos/everypassingminute/4202593609
