Video is a powerful tool to engage your audience, tell your story, and inspire action. But how can you use video effectively in your fundraising campaign? In this article, you will learn some best practices and tips to create and share videos that will help you reach your fundraising goals.
Before you start making your video, you need to have a clear idea of who you are trying to reach and what you want them to do. Your audience may include potential donors, existing supporters, partners, media, or the general public. Depending on your audience, you may need to tailor your message, tone, style, and length of your video. For example, if you are targeting young people, you may want to use more humor, music, and visuals, while if you are targeting corporate sponsors, you may want to use more facts, testimonials, and professionalism.
Create emotional videos that tell the tales of people or communities your organisation has helped, to connect with funders. Include clear visuals showing how contributions will be used to create supporter trust. Explain what you want viewers to do, such as donate, share the video, or attend campaign events. Live video updates on the campaign's progress create urgency and community involvement. Create personalised video messages for donors to show their immediate impact and show gratitude.
Your video should not just be a list of facts and figures, but a story that captures the attention, emotion, and imagination of your viewers. A good story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and follows a simple structure: problem, solution, impact. You should introduce the problem that your organization is trying to solve, show how your organization is providing a solution, and demonstrate the impact that your solution is having or will have. You should also include a call to action that tells your viewers what you want them to do next, such as donate, share, or sign up.
The quality of your video can make a big difference in how your audience perceives your organization and your message. You don't need to have a professional camera or equipment, but you should make sure that your video is clear, well-lit, and stable. You should also use good audio quality, either by using a microphone or by recording in a quiet place. Avoid background noise, music, or sound effects that may distract or annoy your viewers. You can also use subtitles or captions to make your video more accessible and understandable.
Your video should be concise and focused on your main message. You don't want to bore or overwhelm your viewers with too much information or too long of a video. Ideally, your video should be between 1 to 3 minutes long, depending on your platform and purpose. You should also use simple and clear language that your audience can easily follow and relate to. Avoid jargon, acronyms, or technical terms that may confuse or alienate your viewers. You can also use bullet points, graphics, or animations to highlight your key points and make your video more engaging.
Video is effective to say a lot more in the same amount of time you typically get with a consumer with scrolling. Video allows time for some to slow down their scroll and listen to far more than what they would read before dismissing a post. When we can capture people with our goals and visions - they are more interested in being a part of it. This can be the beginning of establishing new donors. Video can also be used to maintain high donors as well. When you utilize a big name in your philanthropic community that is well known, others seeing them actively participate in your mission will get others to see the value in their funding to go towards your organization.
Once you have created your video, you need to share it with your audience and beyond. You can use different platforms and channels, such as social media, email, website, or blog, to distribute your video and reach more people. You should also optimize your video for each platform, by using appropriate formats, sizes, and descriptions. You should also encourage your viewers to share your video with their networks, by using hashtags, tags, or incentives. You should also monitor and measure the performance of your video, by using analytics, feedback, or surveys, to see how your video is helping you achieve your fundraising objectives.