Crowdfunding Videos London

How to Simplify Your Brand Story for Your Crowdfunding Video

If you want people to spread the word about your project and truly buy into your dream, you need to ensure your Kickstarter video and brand pitch are both simple and memorable.

We don’t mean you need to dumb things down so that you’re not conveying the nuance or unique nature of your project, but rather that you must do your best to condense all your key information and messages into something relatively short and sweet.

Most videos and Kickstarter pitches fall flat because they haven’t been thoughtfully distilled into something that is easily digestible. And this is a tragedy when you’ve actually got a great idea that people will love, underneath it all.

We’ve created a simple guide to help you make sure your crowdfunding video is short and memorable.

Why Does Simple Matter?

• You’ll make more money - simple means more memorable and easier to process, which translates to a wider dispersal of your messages to a greater number of potential investors and future customers.
• You’ll look better - videos that are too long and complicated make projects and founders look bad, even if their ideas are innovative and simple. If your first impression is “clunky” what kind of impression are strangers going to have of you?
• You’ll generate more loyalty - simplicity is a core component of all brand experiences, that extends far beyond the crowdfunding video you’re making. If you start off well here, people will be more likely to respond well to your brand experiences and products across multiple touchpoints, including your promotional social media output.

Focus on the First 10-Seconds

Most people have short attention spans these days, especially when it comes to digital content like videos. Most viewers aren’t going to sit through a 5 minute Kickstarter video to figure out if they want to back you or not. You’ll be lucky if they last 15 seconds so making the most of the start of your video is crucial.

Just try browsing several crowdfunding videos yourself from other brands and see how long it takes for you to feel that all too familiar content fatigue. Your first 10 seconds should be a concise introduction of who you are and why people should keep watching. Going straight into complex data or explanations will deter new users from staying tuned.

Establish Your “Face”

To be memorable, you must have a kind of brand “face” that makes it simple for people to establish a connection with you. This includes things like your company name, logo, colours and possibly a jingle or slogan. It can also include the actual faces of your founders, which will help people to develop a more personal connection with your project.

All of this will develop visual associations that will help users to recognise you in the future, and simplify their interactions with you. If you have a vague or confusing “face”, perhaps with inconsistent colour choices, shapes, icons, or other motifs, people will find it harder to remember you and your project.

Speak Directly to Your Audience

One effective tip is to avoid language that doesn’t speak directly to your audience. People will always respond better to messages that are addressed to them rather than statements or questions that are targeted at an abstract audience.

Assuming you already know who your core audience is, make sure you tap into their core motivations and shared context to speak directly to them. This will help you to simplify your crowdfunding video and increase overall engagement.

Make Your CTAs Clear and Obvious

What happens when your audience is completely on board after making their way through 50% of your video? To ensure that you don’t lose followers and investors during the second half, make sure you tell them clearly what you want them to do.

For example, are you looking for immediate contributions or to direct interested parties to more information about your brand. You’ll be surprised how many brands don’t do this and lose out because they didn’t create simple and effective CTAs.

Keep It Grounded

While long-term visions of how you are going to change the world are great, you must always ground your Kickstarter in the real world. This includes explaining how you are tangibly going to achieve your goals and the practical steps you have already taken to launching your brand.

If you want more tips on making your Kickstarter video simple and memorable, or want help with producing one of the most crucial assets of your entire crowdfunding campaign, get in touch with us at Wow Your Crowd.

by Adam

10 Ways to Promote Your Crowdfunding Campaign and Build Your Crowd

You have been working on your crowdfunding campaign for months. You created your prototype, shot a film, written your pitch, and designed your website. Finally, the campaign goes live, and your friends and family back you immediately. But after a fast start, how do you continue the momentum and attract more backers to your campaign?

Here are ten ways to boost and promote your crowdfunding campaign.

Websites to Promote

There are hundreds of different sites across the internet that you can use to host and promote your crowdfunding campaign, making it compulsory but also difficult to choose which is the best for your specific campaign. When it comes to choosing a Crowdfunding platform, select a site that relates to your project and the type of person you are targeting. For example, launching a new tech product with a global audience - choose Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Raising funding for a local cause in the UK choose Crowdfunder, or for a global cause choose, Go Fund Me.

For additional reach and building awareness about your campaign, approach review and news sites to gain additional coverage and support.

Create a website or landing page

In order to build trust with backers, it's important to have a digital footprint online. The first place to start is with a website or landing page. To keep things quick and easy, populate your site with the same messaging and imagery/videos, which you use for your campaign page (on the crowdfunding platform). Be sure to add relevant keywords to your site, to help with SEO and people finding you via Internet search engines. Your only expense will be choosing a hosting package from a web host provider.

You need a strong social media strategy

This, of course, is a time-consuming task. But your social media plan determines whether your crowdfunding campaign will work or die. Many campaign owners believe their campaign will be found by people searching on a crowdfunding platform, but this rarely happens unless you are featured in a platform’s newsletter. You will need to find backers and attract them to your campaign. A well-planned marketing campaign is the best way to do this.

Build a team who can share your posts across their social media channels and build up more exposure for your campaign. Talk to people on Facebook and Twitter directly. And don’t worry about making the campaign go ‘viral’, just concentrate on what you and your team can manage. Be cooperative with your audience, and keep on updating your social content each day.

Use "Phrases,"

The Georgia Tech analysts took nine million sentences from 45,000 Kickstarter campaigns and found some of the most widely used sentences from fully-funded campaigns against more ineffective campaigns. Many successful campaigns used compelling sentences, as you possibly would expect. The following are some of the common phrases used: 'positive karma,' 'got you,' 'given a chance,' 'future is,' and, of course, 'cats.' Phrases that didn’t work so well, "Hope to have," "need one," "we have more.” A rule of thumb to follow is to be ‘personal and friendly’ and not ‘salesy’.

Keep it alive! Update regularly

Projects that post at least three updates to backers during their campaign raise 239 percent more funds than those who don't post updates, according to Indiegogo. Evidence suggests the more updates you give, the more funds you collect. Post updates related to your project every couple of days or at least once a week. Also, thank your contributors, tell them news about your product, share your milestones, and tell them if there is any change. Keep the audience involved and encourage them to tell their friends and contacts about the campaign as well.

Grow your email list

Your email list is probably the most important marketing strategy your crowdfunding campaign has. As the famous quotes state “the money is in the list”. It's not by coincidence that projects that have built a successful email list, full of leads who are interested in your offer, generate more donations to your cause. So focus on building an email list full of quality leads before launching your campaign by using a landing page with email capture. Launch an email nurturing campaign to your list of contact during your pre-launch phase and throughout the ‘live ‘ campaign enticing your list to back you.

Join relevant forums

You want to increase awareness about your crowdfunding campaign as soon as possible. Go ahead and join as many online communities related to your topic as you can! Do this months in advance of launching your campaign so you have time to build up relationships in the forums and become a known contributor.

There are also widely popular web platforms for crowdfunding projects. These interactive forums are great for discovering marketing initiatives, engaging with future fans, gaining tips, welcoming new team members, and more.

Use press

The use of media channels that your target audience use can be a perfect way to build awareness of your campaign and create trust with supporters. Creating a press release for your crowdfunding project and syndicating it across major news platform’s will be a critical part of the campaign's start, as it helps to spread the story about your cause and why you are seeking funding. Release additional press releases as and when you have more news to promote e.g. hitting your funding goal or various milestones.

Host live events

Do you know that a live event can be a perfect way to build interest in your project, as you can meet potential supporters face to face? Live events allow you to link to potential and current supporters quickly and directly. You can tell your story in your own words and connect on a personal level. Explaining what your idea entails and inspire them with personal experiences. You can answer questions and provide feedback and get a feel for the appreciation people have for your campaign.

A live event could be hosted locally to where you are based or online for example with a Facebook Live stream.

Video marketing for your campaign

Along with your main campaign video, additional videos are a great way to promote your campaign across social channels and build trust. Think about what additional content people will want to see in order to help them make a decision to back your campaign. For example testimonial videos, behind the scenes videos, product demo videos, meet the team videos are just some of the quick and easy ways to add validity to your project.

For help and advice with campaign marketing and Crowdfunding Videos London reach out to us here at Wow Your Crowd, we’d love to help you launch your big idea.

by Adam