3 Step Formula to a Successful Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign
Over the past 10 years, Crowdfunding has changed the way entrepreneurs, start-ups and innovative businesses can launch their products. Providing an alternative route to the problematic and expensive way of traditionally bringing an idea to market. But how do you launch a successful Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign? Our 3 step formula explains how you can.
Crowdfunding is amazing, it is a ‘game-changer’, giving entrepreneurs and start-ups the opportunity to launch their products and big ideas, but it hasn’t always been this way. Traditionally, launching a product was expensive and was only possible for companies with large R&D budgets. Most entrepreneurs or small businesses didn’t have a chance and could only dream of launching their products, with a small minority actually taking their idea from concept to selling it commercially. But thanks to the way the Internet has changed how we communicate with each other and with the rise of Crowdfunding, entrepreneurs and startups now have the ability to navigate the issues of traditionally launching their product and make their big ideas a reality.
Although crowdfunding has levelled the playing field for creators there is still a lot of work to be done in order to launch your product successfully. Many people see the large raises by certain successful campaigns on platforms like Kickstarter and instantly think Crowdfunding is the easy way to raise funding and the answer to their start-up dreams. However, Crowdfunding isn’t as simple as you may think.
Official stats from Kickstarter show that only a third of campaigns to date have been successful (489,000 campaigns launched, 183,000 successfully funded) and of those successful, the average funding raised was around $7,000. When you see these stats in the cold light of day it puts a different perspective on things. As mentioned before, many people see the successful campaigns that raise 6, 7 or 8 figures and think they can easily do the same. In fact, only the top 3% of campaigns raise over $50,000. The top 1% raise over $100,000 and those that reach 7 or 8 figures are the top 0.4%.
You can be successful and launch a 6,7 or 8 figure campaign, but it's vitally important that you understand what the successful campaigns do in order for you to replicate them. Whether you want to raise ten thousand dollars or one million dollars with the right effort, the right planning and hard work you can certainly do it.
So, what do successful campaigns do that unsuccessful campaigns don’t and what do you need to do to give your campaign the best chance of success and skyrocket the chances of smashing your funding goal?
From our own experiences, helping our clients to successfully launch 5,6 and 7 figure campaigns (joining the much sought after 1%) and by studying the most successful campaigns over the past couple of years we have developed this 3 step formula:
Step 1. A Unique Product
The most successful campaigns don’t rush their projects. They spend many months and years developing their idea. Researching similar products, understanding the needs of the user and then developing something that improves on what has become before. It's no coincidence that the big campaigns are for products that are generally labelled ‘The World’s First…’ These products and ideas are different to what has been made before and are pushing boundaries, creating unique innovations that provide users with something different.
For example, Vectoman wallet didn’t rush their launch. They spent two years tweaking the design of their luxury wallet, adding additional smart features, so that the wallet was completely different to any other wallet that had been launched before. When they did eventually launch they raised over $2million.
If you launch a product that is the same as what has come before, people will stick with what they already have. They have no reason to switch or upgrade. The psychology behind inventing products that people want is for you to change a user's habit in order to get them to buy.
Step 2. An Awesome Pitch Story.
It would be incredibly unjust if you decided to create an amazing product that was completely different to what has come before and then not backs it up with a standout pitch story that conveys exactly how your product helps its users. But unfortunately, this happens regularly. Many creators have great ideas and create awesome products but they fail to explain the value the product provides the user.
A great pitch story hooks audiences on a physical and emotional level. Your story and marketing message should be written so that the user thinks you have built your product specifically for them.
A pitch needs to stimulate your audience, and get them thinking emotionally,... “yes I must have that now!”. Create an offer your audience can't refuse. But remember you aren't selling, you are building a relationship with a user who has a problem or knows someone with the problem and has a need for your product, the solution to their problem. Work these message points into your pitch video, your campaign page and all of your marketing campaign and your crowd will be queuing to buy your product.
Step 3. A Hungry Crowd
A big mistake made by many people is thinking the crowdfunding platform (where the campaign is hosted) will provide the backers required to help fund the campaign. This is far from the truth. Industry stats show that around 75% of funds raised by campaigns come from their own traffic sources - their crowd.
It's vitally important that your project builds a crowd of hungry backers prior to launching. Backers who are ready to buy your product as soon as you go live. This will allow you to reach your minimum funding goal quickly and give your campaign momentum. Once your campaign is underway and off to a good start you can send cold traffic to the campaign page and make more sales.
Platforms like Kickstarter will only advertise your project in its newsletters and promote the campaign on its homepage once the campaign is showing signs of success and audiences are backing it.
So it is vital you build your crowd beforehand using organic and paid advertising methods - such as leveraging your contacts and generating leads through paid Facebook advertising campaigns.
Crowdfunding really is a game-changer and helping entrepreneurs and start-ups all over the world make their dreams come true and it can make yours come true as well. To make sure your campaign is a success, seek support from a crowdfunding marketing agency and let them guide you on your crowdfunding journey and help reach your fundraising goal.
Bespoke Crowdfunding Agency in the UK
Facebook Advertising has changed the way businesses advertise their products and services for good. No longer do companies have to rely on expensive Google ads or offline strategies like mailshots, leaflets or expensive advertisements in publications. In this blog wowyourcrowd will help you to learn how to master Facebook advertising and set up your first campaign.
Facebook advertising has changed the way business can target their target market and attract interest in their products and services. Prior to Facebook advertising if you wanted to attract interest in your marketing campaign you would have to implement various traffic strategies - online and offline. Google Ad Words (PPC) was the main online way to attract customers, but with Adwords most people are looking to buy straight away. When running a crowdfunding campaign particularly in the prelaunch phase you are looking for ‘audience interest’ with a view for the audience to buy when you launch. It turns out Facebook traffic is perfect for this.
If you haven’t already, your first step is to set up a Facebook business page. Once set up you can start to create your Facebook advertising campaign.
Step 1. To start go to Facebook business manager
https:// business.facebook.com/ads manager . Click on ‘create ad’.
Step 2 - Choose a Goal.
This is where deciding on a clear objective is very important. Choose the objective for creating the ad. For example, if you are seeking to build leads or sales the objective to choose would be ‘Conversions’.
Step 3 – Choose Your Objective and Target Audience.
We at wowourcrowd believe that it’s important to be specific about your target audience and their demographics when planning your campaign. Facebook will only display ads to the audience demographics you choose. For example, your campaign objective might be to collect emails via a landing page, this is what most people do when crowdfunding. In this case you will choose ‘Conversions’ as the main objective.
Then you want to confirm who your audience are. For example, our audience is male 26 – 46, who like dogs and are living in New York, and speak English.
Your ads will now be displayed to this specific audience. You can narrow the search by selecting the specific location, e.g. Washington DC, which can help better your results.
When starting your ads and carrying out an initial test you can set your ad budget low as $1 to $2 a day. You can also place limits on your ad spending if you are worried you may forget to turn off your ads, although this is unlikely to happen. For example, you can start your ads from as low as $1 a day if you choose to run ads without a set time frame. You can also set a start date/time and end date/ time if you want more control over your campaign. Its best practice to start your ad budgets low when starting out. The Facebook algorithm needs to learn about your needs and target audience, so it will be important to run campaigns for a number of weeks and months. You don’t want to blow all of your ad budget in the first few days. Typically the Facebook algorithm needs around 4 weeks to really understand your best target audience.
With thousands of businesses competing on Facebook for user attention , it's almost impossible for Facebook to place every ad out on the platform. So, instead what they do is put your ad into an ad auction, where those campaigns with the highest bids get their ads displayed across the network. The bid is the amount you're willing to pay to get your ads in front of your audience.
We at Wowyourcrowd feel that the other important areas of setting up an advert are the ‘Ad Spend Limits’ and the ‘Schedule’ option. When you are prompted to fill in the Ad Spend Limit, be sure to fill in the minimum and maximum amount you want FaceBook to use on a daily or monthly basis. This is part of what is called a budget optimization and helps you remain in control of your spending. If you don’t put in a fixed budget you could log in 1 day and find out Facebook has spent more than you wished, which is good for the bank balance.
In the Schedule option you can choose a time of day when you want to display your ads to the audience. Facebook will show you the time when your audience is the most active, so all you have to do is select a specific time and Facebook will take care of the rest.
Running a Facebook campaign to attract interest to your crowdfunding campaign is a really good idea. To find help to set up your Facebook campaign simply search Goggle using a keyword term like Crowdfunding Agency UK. Then select an agency like us that are experienced in using Facebook and have the credentials to prove it. To your success!
Product Positioning Statement is the Key
There are thousands of crowdfunding campaigns happening every day, so its vital that you can grab your audience’s attention and have them immediately understand why your offer is suited to them. If you don’t get their attention your campaign will fail. In this blog we at wowyourcrowd will help you learn how to create a product positioning statement that will set your campaign up for success.
Positioning is the act of defining why your product is the best at doing a particular thing and why the defined target audience cares a lot about it. Get your positioning statement right and you will knock the competition for six, making more sales and increasing revenues faster. Positioning is fundamental to all forms of marketing, from content written, to campaigns launched and sales pitches made.
Your product positioning statement lays the foundations to all of your crowdfunding, advertising, marketing and selling activities. Most businesses and start ups fail to develop a positioning statement and if they do make one, you can bet the attempt is fairly generic and doesn’t deliver what a well thought out and developed positioning statement should do.
The following 6 steps will help you to create an effective positioning statement which you can use for your crowdfunding campaign and beyond.
1. Competitive Alternatives
The competitive alternatives is what your audience would do if your product didn’t exist, what would they use or do instead? When developing your product its vital you are an expert on the different solutions on the market – list all of the advantages and disadvantages to the alternatives. Remember not all alternatives to your product will be another product – it may be the user doesn’t do anything or instead hires a student to carry out the arduous work.
Really understand what your customers compare your solution with.
2. Unique Attributes
Your products unique attributes are the capabilities or features that your offering has, that the competitive alternatives don’t have. They are your secret sauce; what differentiates you from the competition. The attributes can range from the features you offer, to the materials you use, the process used to produce the product, your team’s experience, a particular skill set, technology involved etc. List down all of your products attributes. When developing a product particularly for crowdfunding its important your product is completely different and unique to what has come before.
3. Value
Value is formed from your products attributes and the benefits those attributes provide. Value is the reason your audience will care about your products attributes. Be sure to explain the physical and emotional benefits your product provides and then back this up with proof. For example your product is a camera, which films in 20 mega pixels (feature) that provides sharp photo images (benefit). The value is how this relates to the user’s goals, i.e. images can be zoomed in or printed in large format and still look sharp.
4. Target market characteristics
Generally the value your product provides is relevant to a large amount of people but as a start-up particularly when crowdfunding your advertising budget is likely to be minimal, so its vital you target an audience who are ready and hungry to buy your product straight away. Your positioning statement should clearly identify who these people are. Your ideal audience are the customers who buy quickly, rarely ask for discounts and tell their friends about your product.
5. Market Category
Market categories help users to understand what they don’t know about your product as they will naturally associate your product with other leading products on the market. For example you say your product is a luxury men’s sports watch – people automatically think of a brand like Tag Heuer. The positive (or negative) connotations of Tag Heuer’s brand will automatically help the user to position your product in their mind. Choose your category wisely and this will have a very positive effect on your brand.
6. Relevant Trends
Positioning your product with a certain market category is very beneficial, however what is even better is also associating a ‘relevant trend’ to the product. This has the effect of making your product relevant now in your customer’s mind. Use Google trends to research what trends are in fashion and see if one fits with your product.
We at wowyourcrowd believe that a well thought out product positioning statement will help you with your crowdfunding campaign whether you are making a crowdfunding video or planning the marketing for your project. Use the above tips to help create the best positioning statement and skyrocket your product’s success!
Wowyourcrowd - Crowdfunding Marketing Agency
The foundations to any product launch or crowdfunding campaign is built upon a well defined ‘communications plan’. Your ‘comms plan’ outlines a number of key areas about your product and forms the strategy for which your campaign will follow. With this blog, Wowyourcrowd will help you to develop your campaign’s strategy.
When launching a new product or running a campaign for a new offer, It’s vital that you have a strategy and create a plan before you start any marketing. This holds true for any type of marketing, for example, whether you are using social media, print, TV, or picking up the phone to call people. The companies that achieve great results from their marketing efforts do so because they leave no stone unturned in their quest to achieve their marketing goal. They put in place a strategy, which is based on research and analysis, and then stick to it across the campaign, testing and measuring as they see results come in. Improving their campaign as they move forward.
We at wowyourcrowd have experienced that when using Facebook to launch your product and boost your crowdfunding campaign is no different, you’ll need a strategy in place and follow it to a tee. Your marketing strategy doesn’t need to be complicated or require you to spend too much time creating it. It can simply be a few slides from a presentation or a document that includes the following:
- Your Product Positioning Statement
- Your Target Market – and the different Ideal Customer Personas.
- List the Value your product provides users.
Your product positioning statement - is a one liner, your elevator pitch, which clearly explains in a nutshell what your product is, what it does, who it helps and the benefits it provides. The 1 liner shouldn’t be longer than a paragraph and be deliverable in 15 – 30 seconds – the amount of time you would have in an elevator lift! The positioning statement will be used as the foundation to all of your marketing and sales messaging now and in the future.
Your target market - clearly defines who your key customers are likely to be. For example you are selling a new ebike – so the overall target market is white and ethnic males from 25 – 55 years old, who live in major cities and enjoy cycling. This target market although is slightly defined it is still very broad, with a wide range of different types of personalities. So, we need to funnel down more and go more niche by creating Ideal Customer Personas from the target market. A well-thought out buyer persona can really help you find that type of person on Facebook due to the platform’s extensive collection of personalised data on users.
Try to visualise your ideal user, you can give each persona you create a name, note what job they have, where they live, how much they earn, what are their interests, what do they like, dislike, their life experiences, education, family etc.
By creating a number of personas it is not just a good way to take advantage of Facebook’s excellent targeting system (and not waste your ad spend budget targeting the wrong people) but it also makes it a lot easier to create and write marketing content to target that particular type of user.
For example you are selling an ebike and an example of your ideal persona is:
David, 55 years old, Lives in London, is an IT Director who earns 60k a year. He Is married and father of two children who have now left home. David enjoys cycling at weekends as a hobby and cycles to work in the week. He’s a fan of the Tour de France and likes motorcycles. He used to ride a motorcycle but struggled to park it in central London so stopped.
How do you get the right information to create a buying persona? Research competitor companies, speak to your target market in focus group meetings, find out about them and then build your personas.
This will take a bit of work but understanding this is the type of person who will be best suited to buying your ebike makes it so much easier to target them on Facebook and get the sale rather than go after people who will never be suited to your product offer. Its worth the work!
Understanding the ‘value’ your product provides users is vital if you want to make the sale and out muscle your competition. Value is formed from 2 areas the ‘features’ of your product and the benefits the user receives when they use the product. Benefits come in two forms – physical benefits and emotional benefits.
We at wowyourcrowd believe that when launching your product or crowdfunding campaign your crowdfunding marketing agency will require information about your product. So use the information outlined above to create a strong ‘comms plan’ and form the strategy for your campaign.
Facebook - Super Powerful Marketing Tool
Wowyourcrowd believes that launching your product successfully or attracting interest in your business is vital if you want to run a profitable business. Facebook is one of the best places to advertise what you are doing and attract traffic to your campaign. In this blog we at wowyourcrowd will outline the best practices on how to set up your Facebook Business page and attract customers to your project.
Use it or not, Facebook is a super powerful marketing tool. With 2.4 billion people from across the world using the platform, it’s where businesses small and large fight it out to get your attention every single day of the week. However understanding how to use Facebook effectively can be challenging with many people not knowing where to start and even if you manage to start, things can turn to disappointment very quickly, with wasted time and no results to show for the outlay.
The best way to avoid disappointment is to have a clear goal and objective before starting. Carry out the necessary research and put a plan in place. The following information will outline the best practice to setting up your Facebook business page and running promotions to target your ideal audience and attract them to interact with your brand achieving your end marketing goals.
As with any advertising or marketing campaign it’s important to have a solid strategy in place. This is where your ‘comm’s plan’ comes into action. If you don’t have a comm’s plan then you will need to create one before starting your Facebook campaign. A comm’s plan is the foundation to your campaign, the bedrock your big idea will sit on. Having a strong well researched and thought out comm’s plan will give you the best results when you build your campaign on top of it.
For example, your comm’s plan should clearly define who your target audience is – e.g White males, 22 – 35 years old, living in major cities, university background, like cycling and keeping fit. As well as information about your brand – e.g. tone of voice, colour values, typography font. All of these areas will play a part in building your Facebook campaign.
To start your Facebook campaign first you will need to set up a business page for your company.
Step 1: Go to ‘Create’ on Your Personal Profile. Login to your personal profile, on the right side of the page you’ll see a CREATE option. Click on this and select the Page.
Step 2: Choose Your Category. Are you a business/ brand or a community? If you’re launching a product or a service, then you are a business. If you are a community, a social service or a non-profit, then select the second available option .
Step 3: Create Your Page Name. Something to remember, its difficult to change your page name once chosen, so think carefully about what you would like to call it. Your page name will also work as your page URL so its best to make sure the name makes sense and reflects your business. Oh and that spellings are all correct. If you already have a website for your business, it make sense to name your Facebook page as your business name.
Step 4: Upload a Cover Photo and Profile Photo. The most efficient size for a Facebook cover photo is 828 x 465 pixels. Make the profile photo your business logo. The profile cover can be a video, an animated GIF or a photo that reflects your brand. Add a strong tagline graphic that explains what you are about.
Step 5: Start Posting. Now that your page is ready, click on the Publish Page button and start creating posts about your business, your team, service, products any events you are hosting etc. It’s best to create posts with a personal tone, the same method as on your personal profile.
Types of posts your can make:
- Standard text/image post, which people reply to.
- Create a poll for your audience – ask them for their opinion on a topic
- Tag a new product or topic that you already have in your posts.
- Create a watch party and interact with your live audience.
- Share interesting video content.
Step 6: Invite People to Like the Page. Once your page is published Facebook allows you to send invites to contacts from your personal profile to like your business page. If you add other team members from your business to the page as ‘admins’ they can invite more people to like your page, which will help increase the ‘page likes’ quickly giving your more ‘social authority’.
We at wowyourcrowd feel that using Facebook is a vital piece of any crowdfunding marketing or product launch campaign. When used properly Facebook is a super powerful tool that will help to promote your business and attract huge amounts of traffic, helping you to achieve your marketing goals.
How To Raise Money For Your Start-up With Crowdfunding
As an entrepreneur with an idea for a new product or service, one of the biggest problems you will face is raising funding to launch your start-up. In years gone by, you would take your idea and a prototype to your bank manager and ask for a loan. The manager would assess your idea and would often be able to make his own decision. If you required a large amount of funding, he may refer it to head office.
Today, there is a smarter way to raise money for your start-up
Today, there is a smarter way to raise money for your start-up and build a crowd of loyal customers in the process, and that way is… crowdfunding. Crowdfunding provides you with the perfect way to validate your start-up idea, raise funding and build a crowd of early adopters and Investors; and you don’t have to worry about paying any loans back to the bank.
‘Rewards’ & ‘Equity’ Crowdfunding
The two main areas of crowdfunding are ‘Rewards’ and ‘Equity’.
Rewards crowdfunding lets start-ups raise funding for a project by giving backers of the campaign a reward. Generally the start-up has designed a new innovative product, which they pre-sell at a discount. The start-up uses the money to manufacture the product and the backer waits for the product to be made and delivered. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the main crowdfunding platforms to use when planning a ‘rewards’ campaign.
Equity crowdfunding allows start-ups to raise funding by releasing shares (equity) in the company for a fixed amount of investment. Investors who back a start-up are hoping the business does well increasing the value of their shares which they can sell at a later date. In the UK platforms such as Crowdcube and Seedrs are the places to run your equity crowdfunding campaign.
Not all crowdfunding projects are successful
It has to be said that not all crowdfunding projects are successful and a start-up will need to invest a reasonable amount of money into running their campaign. However, running a successful campaign can be the difference between launching your start-up and it never getting off the ground at all. So the investment is generally worth the risk if you believe you have a great product or service that people need.
How to increase your chances of success?
Successful rewards and equity campaigns follow a few common practices, which you can model:
- They have a strong and unique product/service offer
- Are presented in an appealing and engaging way – with a pitch video, creative copy and images
- Implement a marketing strategy to help build attention about the campaign and mobalise your crowd.
- Have a team in place to manage the campaign workload.
Planning and implementing a crowdfunding campaign takes time and can be a lot of hard work. To increase your chances of successfully funding your campaign you should research past campaigns and gain a good understanding of what is required to run a successful campaign. Speaking with other start-ups who have crowdfunded is a good idea and hiring a crowdfunding marketing agency such as Wow Your Crowd, will help guide you on your crowdfunding journey and improve your chances of launching your start-up and realising your business dreams.
To learn more about Crowdfunding and how you can kick-start your campaign contact us today.
5 Steps to Create a Crowdfunding Campaign for your Charity or Social Cause
All good causes need money and crowdfunding has been exceptionally useful to many social causes throughout recent years. The rise of social media has made it easier than ever to share your message and reach a large number of people. The problem? You only have one chance to hook your audience. That’s why you need to develop the best sales pitch possible. Here’s 5 steps on how to create an incredible sales pitch for your charity or social cause crowdfunding campaign.
Know your hook
People need to feel emotionally invested in your campaign in order to dig into their pockets so important to know and understand your message and how to use it.
The most successful crowdfunding campaigns have an emotional, ethical or political undertone, so work out what your best angle is and put your message out there. It’s important not to sound too perfect otherwise your audience will wonder why you need investment. Also be careful about humour – people need to take the cause seriously enough to donate.
Write a good narrative
Remember that your sales pitch has to get people invested enough in your cause in order to donate – write clear but persuasive copy in your sales pitch, which will help your campaign to spread. Throughout your sales pitch, explain the problem and solution, include quotable narrative, from facts and statistics to the campaigns purpose and how you’re going to make a difference. Write copy that is inclusive – make readers feel a part of it and readers will become donors to fight the cause with you!
Create an engaging video
As you are ‘crowdfunding’ online, it’s good to understand people’s social media habits. The best crowdfunding campaigns know that people have short attention spans. Create a short but engaging video that quickly and easily explains what your campaign is about, why you are doing it, what it is that you need and when and where the results will take place. People will be more inclined watch a quick video rather than read a long essay.
Translate to multiple languages
A lot of crowdfunding campaigns will affect and appeal to a large group of people from different cultures and countries. If that sounds like your campaign, it’s important to be able to communicate with everybody so be sure to get your sales pitch translated into as many languages as is necessary. This shows thought and intent. It says ‘this applies to you too!’
Reward your crowdfunders donations
Some people like to receive a little something for their donation. Whether this is something small like a mention of their name or something bigger like a tangible item. Rewards are a great way for you to repay donors for their donation. Popular rewards for charity campaigns include token offering such as key-rings, tee shirts and mugs to bigger items such as sponsored gifts, event tickets, vouchers and first reveals.
Raising money for your charity of choice or social cause is a brilliant thing to do and will provide much help for those in need. By taking action and implementing the steps listed above you will be in the right place to create a clear and persuasive pitch, which will help you to run a successful crowdfunding campaign for your charity or social cause.
For all your crowdfunding needs get in touch here and good luck!
How To Create A Successful Equity Crowdfunding Video
Having a captivating crowdfunding video is one of the most important aspects of a successful equity crowdfunding campaign. It’s an extremely powerful marketing tool that can convince investors that your campaign is the one to back. Recent research has proven that a campaign supported by video is 85% more likely to achieve its funding goals.
Your equity crowdfunding video’s message should be tailored to its intended audience. It’s important to remember, you are selling an investment opportunity in your business and not promoting your products or services. All too often crowdfunding videos make this mistake and end up losing the interest of investors.
Tips For Creating A Successful Equity Crowdfunding Video
Now that we know the importance of a compelling equity crowdfunding video, and how it should be targeted, we can look into the finer details that will set your video up for success:
Plan Out The Video Carefully
Detail every aspect of the video prior to shooting. This is one of the most important steps to creating a successful equity crowdfunding video. Know your audience, know what you want to say and say it as effectively as possible. Be personable and tell potential investors about your business opportunity and why they should back your project. Identify the key investment benefits of your campaign and compel your potential investors to give you their backing. Before you start filming, create a script and be sure to include these points:
- Your elevator pitch – a short introduction explaining who you are and what your company does. Talk about the issue you are solving and why it will transform the lives of others.
- Tell your story and explain why the business exists. Explain your goals and your mission.
- Show the market opportunity – use industry data to show the gap in the market and the need for your business.
- Highlight your strategy - explain how your company generates its revenue, what your plans are and how the investment will be used to achieve them. Explain how investors can make a return on their investment.
Make It Personal
Your video acts as a brilliant opportunity for you to introduce yourself and your team to potential investors. So don’t miss this chance, star in your video be personable and show your passion for your business. Many investors may not meet you face to face so your video is the only chance to help them know, like and trust you.
Make Your Video Stand Out
If your equity crowdfunding video isn’t engaging and doesn’t stand out, it, and your project, have a good chance of failing. Placing your hopes and dreams firmly in the gutter. Don’t leave your business success to chance. Hire a professional video production company, that specialises in equity crowdfunding videos. Tap into their wealth of industry knowledge and reap the benefits of a professional high-quality video production. Although this approach may cost more, it will be worth it in the end with a stand out video that makes you look professional and keeps investors focused on your message long after the video has finished.
Another top tip is to create a selection of ultra-shareable cut-down video edits, which you can use across your social media channels to generate a buzz and build awareness of your cowdfunding campaign.
Testimonials
It’s a great idea to feature testimonials in your pitch video from current customers, partners and investors who support your business and endorse it. Their positive experiences about your service and team will help to influence potential investors thoughts and feelings about your business.
Don’t Overdo It
Keep your equity crowdfunding video as short and to the point as possible. Ideally, your video should be around 3 minutes long with the first 20-30 seconds making a real impact. Right away, grab the viewers attention. Hook them and make them excited about your project. This will entice investors to continue watching the rest of the video and hopefully invest.
Call To Action
Be sure to end your equity crowdfunding video with a clear call to action. Summarise your campaign, and provide a final reminder on why your project is the perfect opportunity to invest in. Tell investors what they should do next in order to be part of your business success.
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Harness The Power Of Video & Successfully Market Your Business!
With more businesses than ever before competing against each other, trying to attract the attention of consumers. It’s really important you market your business in the right way. Get it wrong and it could be the difference between success or failure.
The key to marketing is to engage your audience and influence their decision making. There are many ways to do this. However, using video to market your business is fast becoming the preferred way and has risen by 80% over the past 3 years.
Video is great for:
- Turning leads into paying customers
- Building brand awareness
- Attracting more traffic to your website
A crucial element when marketing your business is to let your customers know how you can help them and why they should choose you . With a few simple videos you can do this…
Successfully market your business with these three videos:
Promotional video - Showcase your business and the products and services you provide.
FAQ videos - Short videos to answer those questions you're always asked by clients. Imagine the time you could save!
About us video – Explain who you are and why you do what you do. Show behind the scenes of your company to the customers you help and the successes you have achieved. Show what makes you and your team special.
At Wow Your Crowd we specialise in producing video content that will engage and influence your customers, whilst developing a strong lasting relationship with them.
Our videos will help to position your company as a leader in your local industry, and build your brand identity.
Get in touch today and hear how we can help you to WOW your crowd.
11 Great Promo Video Ideas to Promote Your Business
As you are probably aware. Video is blowing up everywhere! Video is now the No. 1 way to communicate with your customers online. But what promo video is right for your business? Where should you start? We’ve compiled a list of 11 great promo video ideas your business should create. Add these to your marketing arsenal and you will transform how you promote your business and the relationships you build with leads and customers. (The following are in no particular order of importance).
1) Brand Promo - Introduce your company to the world. Explain who you are, what you do and most of all why you do it. Showcase your products, introduce your staff and highlight the passion you have for your business and your customers. You can also include the company’s history, future goals and highlight any awards or successes.
2) Video Testimonial, 'Trustimonial' - Testimonial's are incredibly powerful and help to build trust with potential clients. Showcase a happy client's experience with you and let them sell for you by explaining how pleased they are with your service and the results you have helped them achieve.
3) Case Study - Showcase a clients experience with your business. Case study's are similar to a client testimonial but more in-depth. Let your client explain the issue they faced, why they chose you and how you helped them achieve their goals. This type of video gives authenticity and believability to your communication, as the message is coming directly from the customer, rather than from your business.
4) Product Demo - Showcase a service or product in operation. HubSpot say that: "After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online". Meaning that over half of your potential customers, will engage with and trust your product after seeing it in action. Seeing a product's benefits first hand is incredibly powerful.
5) Animated Explainer - An Animation which highlights a problem people face and then introduces the solution to that problem - your company's product or service. These videos are fun, with clear and concise message points and generally feature animated characters. Creating an animated explainer can be time consuming. As the artwork has to be created and then animated, which can make them expensive to make.
6) Whiteboard - Sketch illustration on a whiteboard of a companies product or services. This style of video is very similar to an animated explainer. Although the illustration is less complex. A hand will 'sketch' on the artwork as the story is told.
7) CEO Message - Talking head interview by a company's CEO or management delivering important news and messages to clients and staff. Educate and inform employees about a company's vision and strategic developments.
8) F.A.Q. Series - Your brand champion (staff member or hired presenter) discussing and answering your company's most frequently asked questions. Have a simple and concise video to answer those questions which customers frequently need answering. These videos are great for building rapport and moving leads and customers further along the 'buying cycle'.
9) Achievements & Awards - Use either animation or live action video. Feature your company's achievements and any awards you have won. Your successes will position you as a market leader and can influence your audience into using your product or service.
10) Social Media - Create short pieces of content - to promote your brand, deliver company news and inform and educate. Short videos are more engaging and will entice viewers to watch in full. A video marketing campaign across a variety of social media platforms such as: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn will help promote your brand and build awareness.
11) Sales Video - A sales video structure is very much similar to an animated explainer. Introduce a problem people face, then introduce the solution to the problem and the benefits of the solution. Finish off with a call to action. The main difference is that a Sales video is live action video and you'll put a 'face to the brand' (CEO, staff member or even hired presenters). Adding a face to the brand is highly effective and will help engage viewers. People buy people. Showing a friendly face will help the public to know, like and trust your company and your service offering.
So there you have it. 11 great promo videos to help promote your business. There are many other videos that you can create, but we recommend you start with some of the above. We'd love to hear about your promo video exploits, so please get in touch and let us know how you are progressing.
Before getting your camera kit out and putting on your director's hat we recommend developing a video strategy first, (be that 1 video or a series). This will help you confirm the result you'd like to achieve and the best video(s) needed to achieve it.
If you would like some help with developing a video strategy or creating a video then take advantage of our free 1-1 video consultation. Contact us and we can book a time to discuss your promo video ideas and create a video plan to accelerate your business success.
