Everything you need to know about producing a crowdfunding video

A professional and slick video is critical to the success of a crowdfunding campaign. Based on data from Raising Partners campaigns, 40% of funding on the platforms comes from the video.

It’s worth bearing in mind that when you’re crowdfunding you’re also fundraising alongside as many as 30 other businesses simultaneously (and all are vying for the attention of investors!) your video can make all the difference to capturing their attention and ultimately investment.

So what do you need to do to get it right?
Decide what kind of content you want to produce>
Engage a professional>
Tell your story>
Nail your script>
Get experts to comment>
Export a variety of edits>

Decide what kind of content you want to produce.

Firstly you need to decide what kind of content you want to produce. For example, do you want to repurpose your video for marketing in the future? What level of production value are you looking for? A crowdfunding video like this one our friends at The Bear produced for Chilango comes with a significantly higher price tag than a purely animated video where there are no ‘Talking Heads’. Only you know what is best for you and your brand.

Our advice is to always go with the best you can possibly afford from a production perspective. In our experience the detail really matters, good quality audio, slick visual animations and professional colour grading all make a significant difference to the end result.

Engage a professional.

Once you’ve decided on the kind of content you’d like to produce, it’s time to engage a professional. Depending on budget, the scope of work will vary so think about whether you’re paying for a one-person production where the same person shoots the footage, does the lighting, sound and edit or you’re working with an agency who brings in multiple experts in each area. Inevitably more people means greater cost but this often leads to a better end result. Ball park costs are £4-£10k+ and we pinky promise it’s worth it!

Here are some agencies we love, know and trust, and in our opinion, make some of the best videos in the business:

The Bear Creative – The Bear have produced videos for the likes of Chilango and BlueBella. It’s not cheap, (think close to £10K, if not more depending on length of shoot) but it’s worth it. Pete has produced our best performing videos in terms of investment conversion ROI. If you’re also looking for something that will effectively represent your brand and can also be cut for marketing this is our top choice. It helps that The Bear also make music videos, commercials and movie trailers so the production quality is always outstanding.

Speeding Films – Speeding Films have written and produced videos for GUNNA drinks, Airsorted, Equipsme and Hiyacar. The Speeding Films team are experienced, efficient and great at taking your vision and creating a compelling narrative that engages investors. Pricing varies depending on length of shoot, animations, size of crew, travel required etc but ball-park, you’re looking at £4,000-£5,000 and up. Still an investment and still a worthy one!

Pangea TV – Pangea TV have produced videos for Heights, Spoon Cereals and even Crowdcube themselves. Their reviews speak for themselves and we hear nothing but five star feedback from the people they work with. Experienced, reliable and work tirelessly until you are happy. What more can you ask for?!

Tell your story.

Now that you’re engaged with a professional video production agency, it’s time to work with them to hone and craft your story and messaging. Videographers tend to work best when this is a collaborative process and you let them bring their own creative flair to the shoot. The best videos are ones that connect on an emotional level – production agencies know this so trust your professional partners (after all they are doing this every day!) and work with them until you have a storyboard you’re happy with.

Remember the goal with this video is to get people to jump on your bandwagon and invest. Whether it’s funny and relatable or powerful and emotive, consider how your video will make people feel.

Nail your script (and have it approved).

Now you have an overall storyboard you can begin to craft your script. Crowdfunding assets in the public domain are financial promotions, subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This means that everything you say needs to be clear, fair and not misleading. If you mention financial traction you’ll need to prove it. Likewise if you share stats on your customer growth, the experience of your team or market statistics. Needless to say you should be sharing these things!

Crafting an effective crowdfunding video script is an art which is another reason why we recommend you work with a professional to help you do this.

Get experts to comment.

We all love a good review! There’s no substitute for the evangelical words of another person, especially if that person is also investing in your business, is a customer or an expert in your industry. Remember that Bandwagon Effect you may have read about in other Runway articles? Yep, it applies here too. Us humans eh? We just love to see what other people think!

Export a variety of edits.

Finally, we recommend you get a variety of edits. Typically, Raising Partners get a 3-4minute long form cut which sits as the main video on the crowdfunding platform.

We then ask for a shorter 20 second cut in all sizes for all social media channels; a series of 15 second cuts for Instagram stories and depending on the visuals of the campaign we might throw in a couple of animations for good measure!

If you’re investing the time and money in producing a video, make sure you get the most bang for your buck!