Crowdfunding has been around, in one form or another, since the early noughties. Since then, it’s become a very popular way to engage fans and finance projects, particularly those that appeal to niche communities.

Why Video for Crowdfunding

It’s very possible to get great quality video now for a much lower cost than in the past, so it’s no surprise that groups, individuals and businesses are making use of video for their crowdfunding goals – in fact, it’s expected that when you go to a crowdfunding page, you’ll see some video content.

Video is a great way to engage people and it’s been proven to be very effective when it comes to raising money online for projects, with those projects including video shown to be more successful by a rate of 50% compared to 30% with no video.

Making a crowdfunding video lets you tell a story your way, and that can range from the unusual and funny, to something earnest and from the heart. Your video, or "pitch", should reflect both the product or service you’re looking to raise funds for, but it also needs to catch and hold the imagination of your audience. There’s no better way to communicate your ideas than with video, so let’s take a look at how you might do that.

How to Use Video for Successful Crowdfunding

Make Connections

The most successful campaigns tend to use video that strikes a chord with its target audience. That doesn’t mean that every plea has to be emotional or serious, but it should aim to be ‘honest’ and by that, I mean not looking like you’re trying too hard or being insincere. You can aim for this happy balance by doing things like:

• Scripting and/or storyboarding your video narrative. It should be well-planned, but try to keep it natural, rather than read.
• Keep your pitch only the length it needs to be, get to the point quickly and don’t go on too long.
• If you’re ‘cashing in’ on personality, then make sure that personality can build trust and is likeable – we often buy into people before ideas.

Keep Your Technical Quality High

It goes without saying that if you’re asking people to invest their hard-earned cash, your offering should look professional and be of a high-standard – people need to trust that you can deliver what you’re promising. If your video is of good quality, nobody should really notice, and that’s what you want! Bad video and perhaps more so, bad audio, will stick out like a sore thumb and you’ll lose your audience.

• Keep cameras steady by using a tripod. If you must hand-hold, use good technique.
• Mic up your host separately, avoid the in-camera mic if you can.
• If you’re using music, make sure it’s properly licensed and choose something appropriate to the tone of your film.

Have Goals and a Call to Action

If you don’t tell people to donate, chances are they won’t, so although you’ll be building up to it in your pitch, you’ll need to actually say that you need people to give money. Having realistic goals and stages along your campaign will help you with this, and it can be wise to lay those out early on if you can, so that people can follow your journey and also know that you’re doing what you said you will do.

Offering rewards can also be a great way of encouraging viewers to donate. A popular way to do that is to have donation ‘tiers’ with the rewards increasing the more someone donates, but with less of those rewards available so they become more desirable.

Try a Template

When it comes to putting your video together, you might find it easier to use a template as a starting point. There are lots of great templates to choose from, whether you prefer to pay for a subscription and use as many as you like from Envato Elements, or buy templates individually from Envato Market. Here’s a great example of one that’s available:

Crowdfunding Campaign – For Adobe After Effects

This crowdfunding video template has a choice of 15 animated icons in a variety of categories, and you can change the colours quickly and easily to suit your brand or campaign. This template focuses on a goals-driven campaign, so it’s a good one if you’re looking to show your intentions or your progress through a project.

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