How To Make A Kickstarter Video That Rocks

Kickstarter is an American crowdfunding platform that funds creative projects.

With a mission to “help bring creative projects to life” the platform, which is also a public benefit corporation, funds projects from around the globe in a range of areas such as music, films, video games, and technology.

Videos are the best way to connect with the emotions, motivations, and objectives of a project.

A good video is, therefore, the best way to achieve your goal.

But how do you make sure your video is a success? 

In this article we are telling you how to make a Kickstarter video that is a success.

And we are also looking at 3 Kickstarter video examples that were a success.

Let’s get to it.

What is a Kickstarter Video?

Kickstarter works by entrepreneurs or teams posting their projects in the platform’s campaign pages to attract investors who will fund their ideas or products.

A Kickstarter video helps showcase your innovation or creative idea to people.

Through the video, you are able to introduce the idea, demonstrate how it works, and appeal to investors to fund it.

A well-created video is a powerful tool to reach and move people to action to support your campaign.

What You Gain by Creating a Kickstarter Video?

Stand out from the crowd

A Kickstarter video helps you to stand out from the crowd considering the popularity of the platform where thousands of people pitch their ideas.

If you look at the statistics from Kickstarter itself, 48 percent of the campaigns pitched using a video were funded whereas only 26 percent of projects without a video attained their minimum goals.

A video enables you to powerfully convey your idea without the need to spell it in so many words.

Wider reach

With quality and compelling Kickstarter video, you are able to scale up awareness creation of your project by sharing the video on multiple platforms.

A wider reach will enable you to convince as many people about your innovation and ultimately contribute to the success of your campaign.

Get Help for your Kickstart Video

 

It is always a good idea to get a team to assist you with your Kickstarter video.

Usually, this would be a video production team or at least a video editing agency.

Get help from professionals in media making if you can. That will save you the stress of making the video entirely on your own.

Plus, you get to delegate to those who know better than you do.

If you are on a super tight budget and you’ll be filming it yourself, make sure you have good lighting and audio.

Don’t worry too much about other technical things at this point. The important thing is that your audience can see and hear you clearly. 

But again, it would be advisable to ask for help or even pay for help. Keep in mind that it is your first and maybe your only chance to make a good and lasting impression.

The point is this. You do not have to produce a Hollywood standard video for your Kickstarter campaign video.

But you should not frustrate your audience with poor video and audio quality either.

 

Keep your Kickstarter Video Real

 

Kickstarter campaigns are usually a success when they can connect to the backers’ emotions and sentiments.

Always keep in mind that the pitch video is most likely your only shot at a one-on-one interaction with your backers. Hence, you must be able to tell your story well and sell it. 

 

Tone is crucial too

 

Keep in mind who your target audience is. Know the way you want your project to be viewed and portrayed, and then proceed accordingly. 

Be true to your project

 

If it is a product that you want to put into production, display the product properly, and explain how you will make it a success.

Remember, it is not only about the words you say or how you say them.

The most successful Kickstarter campaign videos are definitely the ones that fuse products with real-life experience.

A good example is this campaign video for HelloEar. 

HelloEar is a headphone set designed for active use. The video employs the use of sports-related footage, and the music also has a sporty feel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmwmTUTzIR4

All these give the viewer a good feel of what the product is about. 

Imagine if the video made use of classical music and footage of people having a spa session.

It would most definitely have much fewer backers because viewers would have a hard time connecting with the product.

So, choose the right environment and people to properly display your product at its best.

Get to The Point Fast

As much as you may want to include all the basic information about the project, you must keep in mind that people are usually busy.

They are always looking for the next thing on the internet to click on.

No one has the time to wait till the end of a 4-minute Kickstarter video before deciding on whether to back the project or not.

Most times, you only have 10 seconds or even less to engage and convince your audience.

So, you must make it snappy and engaging.

Then again, the question of how long the perfect Kickstarter video should become up.

The answer is simple: as long as is necessary but should not be a second longer.

You want to ensure you tell your story and communicate your idea as thoroughly as possible in order to motivate your audience to invest.

Experts recommend that you should aim for a maximum of 5 minutes.

Crowdfunding.io reports that pitch videos below 5 minutes are 25% more likely to achieve their goal than those that are longer. 

However, keep in mind that no two campaigns are the same. Therefore, there is no hard and fast rule.

So, be scientific. You can use video analytics to keep an eye on how long your users are watching. 

Include all the Basics

While you need to keep your video snappy, bear in mind that every Kickstarter campaign video should capture some vital topics.

First, tell your audience who you are. Then, go ahead and tell your viewers the story or inspiration behind your project. Telling a story might sound like a cliché. 

However, note that it is important to connect to your audience’s emotions.

Crowdfunding videos that get to achieve their goals are the ones that tell a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

At the beginning of your story, you should talk about the problem your viewers are currently facing.

The middle of the story is where you introduce your product. Explain all of its benefits and make sure to sell it. Try to point out how it could solve the problem your viewer is currently facing.

End the story by reminding your viewer that nothing happens without their support. Make them see that they are the heroes of your story. 

Make sure to explain why you need their support and how you intend to use the funds you generate.

Let your audience know what they stand to gain when they support your project. Tell them about how good your rewards are, and ensure to use images to send this message across.

Explain that if you are unable to achieve your goal, you will get nothing, and no one goes home happy.

End the video with a call-to-action requesting that they invest in your project by clicking a button or link to your project.

A Kickstarter video that did an amazing storytelling job is this one for Better Back Therapy’s posture trainer.

While you are at it, show the product. It is important to display an actual product and explain, in detail, how it actually works.

Consumers need to see this before they can invest. Also, it is about having a credible and tangible product to invest in.

This Kickstarter pitch video on Flippr (an innovative improvement on the ironing board) made good use of this technique.

 

Stay Legal

 

Be it a personal project of a business venture that you are making a Kickstarter video for, do not fail to observe copyright law.

That involves copyrighted music, images, videos, and logos (yes, that logo on your laptop counts).

If you want to go for royalty-free content, check out iStockPhoto, TuneFruit, Free Music Archive, and SoundCloud.

Takeaways

 

A good pitch video is not all you need to launch a project or make the project successful 

However, a good campaign video is one of the essential things you need. That’s because it could make all the difference.

Therefore, it is important to be particular about details and finesse while making your Kickstarter campaign video bearing in mind that it could be your only chance at making a good and lasting impression.