A successful crowdfunding campaign is one that succeeds in persuading as many people as possible to participate with their own capital to invest in the offering company. There are many strategies for doing this and they are part of a broad and structured marketing and communication plan. Part of this plan is the crowdfunding pitch, a concise presentation of the project that has the function of attracting the interest of potential investors and convincing them of the soundness of the investment proposal in a short time.
A crowdfunding pitch can be in text or video form, preferably both: crowdfunding communication must be multichannel, and the message must be conveyed in many different languages for it to take root in the attention of recipients.
On the Web, attention is a scarce and valuable commodity: making an effective pitch is essential to grabbing a portion of it. In this article we find out how to create crowdfunding pitches in video or text format for different target audiences.
What is meant by pitch and how many types there are
A pitch is a succinct and persuasive presentation of a project, designed to attract the interest of a specific audience in a short time. In the context of crowdfunding, it is what allows those watching or reading to quickly understand your company's value proposition, why they should believe and invest in your project, and why they should do so now and through crowdfunding.
There are different types of pitches, depending on the context and channel used:
Elevator pitch: short oral or textual explanation (30-60 seconds) used in informal or networking situations. The name literally means "elevator pitch" and evokes the situation of an elevator ride during which to illustrate in very few sentences a project to the companion of the very short ride.
Pitch deck: slide presentation (usually in PowerPoint or PDF), rich in data and visuals, often used in investor meetings or live webinars.
Video pitch: video presentation designed for the web, for use on social media or a landing page, ideal for creating emotional connection, fixing in the audience's memory and inspiring trust.
Textual pitch: written version of the message, for use on a landing page, in informational materials, or in emails.
In a well-structured crowdfunding strategy, these different pitches do not exclude each other but complement each other: each has a specific role and target audience. The goal is to deliver messages that are consistent but tailored to the medium and target audience.
The role of the crowdfunding pitch
A pitch is the essence of the company's project and value, condensed into a few minutes or paragraphs, able to inform, engage and persuade together. In crowdfunding, the pitch is particularly important because it usually replaces the traditional “face-to-face” meeting with the potential investor. It must therefore be able to convey credibility, enthusiasm and concreteness from a distance, through a screen.
A good first impression is crucial when it comes to asking someone for money: the pitch is the business card that will be found at the top of the campaign page on the crowdfunding platform, among the featured content on the company's social profiles, prominently on the company's landing page, within newsletters and email marketing messages.
The main target audience of a crowdfunding campaign is the company's customers or potential customers, who we know are the best pool of investors. The crowdfunding pitch, therefore, must primarily target them. It is possible, however, that it is necessary to present the company and the crowdfunding campaign to other stakeholders, perhaps of a professional nature, such as partners, suppliers, distributors, and in some cases even institutional investors (although this is rare in the context of online capital raising). Therefore, it is useful to prepare different materials and to know how to adapt the content of a crowdfunding pitch to different audiences.
Each target audience has a different language, level of information and expectations. Investing time in creating differentiated pitches-even from the same script-can make the difference between a campaign that is ignored and one that converts.
The contents of the presentation
Here are the essential information to include in a crowdfunding pitch, in order of priority.
- Who you are: brief description of the company and team.
- What you offer: proposed product or service, with focus on customer value.
- Why crowdfunding: rationale for choice, economic goal, and benefits for participants.
- Why now: elements that make the moment strategic.
- How funds will be used: roadmap and transparency in resource allocation.
The first 3 points are the ones that can never be missed. Crucial, then, in a crowdfunding pitch is to focus more on storytelling than on too many bare-bones numbers: if the story is compelling, the audience will go on to read the numbers independently in the rest of the materials. A good strategy is to choose a particularly relevant and immediately understandable figure on which to focus the narrative.
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The text pitch for crowdfunding
A textual pitch must be short, logical and grammatically impeccable. The writing style should be marked by a mix of informative and persuasive copywriting.
If it is a simple text, it will be in an introductory position on the campaign page on the crowdfunding portal, on the company's landing page dedicated to potential investors, and in emails, so it must catch the attention immediately and convince the interlocutor to continue browsing the content. Better to favor short sentences with regular syntactic structure. The maximum recommended length is 3-5 lines.
If it is a slide presentation, it is in the body of the campaign page on the crowdfunding portal and landing page, in attachments to an email, in a carousel on social media, so it must persuade the reader to scroll all the way down from the first sentence. Walls of text within individual slides should be avoided, favoring short text and a few clear and distinctive graphics. The maximum recommended length is 4-5 slides, with careful prioritization of information according to a bottom-up model.
How to adapt the textual pitch to different types of interlocutors?
- Customers and end users: accessible language, focus on practical and immediate benefits, highlighting the need the product/service meets and the ease of operation.
- Suppliers, distributors, professional partners, B2B customers: emphasis on synergies, market opportunities, technical aspects, mutual benefits.
- Institutional investors: market data, growth strategy, achievements, team.
The crowdfunding video pitch
A video pitch must be short and of high quality.
Its preferred location is the campaign page on the crowdfunding platform, but it is also useful to include it as a welcome on the landing page and as featured content on social pages.
The recommended duration ranges from 1 to 3 minutes and it is smart to structure the video into fairly defined sections so that it can be cut up for use on different channels in fractions, for example, on social media.
To achieve maximum impact in minimum time with a crowdfunding video pitch, a few key elements need to be taken care of:
- High audio-visual quality
- Dynamic rhythm
- Storytelling
- Involvement of the founder or team
- Closure with clear call to action.
Compared to text, there is more room in the video to aim for emotional involvement, and the impression of trustworthiness given by the quality of the material and the first-person exposure of the company founder and/or key team members plays a key role.
How to adapt the video pitch to different types of interlocutors?
- Customers and end users: exposure of the product or service in use, focus on the benefits to be offered, testimonials.
- Suppliers, distributors, professional partners, B2B customers: process or production images, focus on reliability and results, testimonials.
- Institutional investors: market data, long-term view, focus on innovative process elements.
The tools for creating effective pitches
To create an effective crowdfunding pitch, capable of conveying professionalism and content care, the right tools must be used. It is best to avoid improvising with handcrafted solutions, so as not to give the impression of sloppiness and unpreparedness. Even with a low budget it is possible to create quality content: just stick to the watchword of simplicity and don't try to overdo it.
Artificial intelligence for crowdfunding provides great support for creating or optimizing content of all kinds, with tools within everyone's reach.
Here are some affordable AI software and tools that can help you with text and video pitches.
- Canva: the well-known software for creating dynamic visual, video and textual content, which also offers pitch-specific templates.
- Notion: web application for creating and organizing blocks of information and building different versions of a document.
- Jasper AI, a tool for writing optimized persuasive texts.
- Pictory, script to video converter.
- Grammarly: software to correct style, grammar and clarity of a text.
- Lumen5: software for converting text to animated video, useful for quickly turning a text version of a pitch into visual content.
- InVideo: free video generator based on professional templates designed just for pitch.
- Audacity: free audio recording and editing software, useful for creating clean voiceovers.
- Davinci Resolve: software with free basic version for video editing.
- After Effects: software for adding animations, titles and transitions to videos.
- Subly: software specialized in automatic subtitling in different languages.
Do you need support in preparing a successful crowdfunding campaign and seeking potential investors for your project?
Turbo Crowd can accompany you throughout the process, from organizing the precrowd to closing the collection, developing effective and innovative marketing strategies to best promote your campaign.
