Pitch
Batter up! Your pitch is the centre piece of your campaign. Itโs the top level information you want people to see when they visit your campaign page on the PledgeMe site. It consists of a video or image, and a body of text about your organisation which explains why youโre seeking a loan and why people should invest, your team, and other important information. Essentially itโs all those high level messages you developed earlier in the planning stage. Your pitch isnโt the right place to go into great detail about the innards of your business, thatโs what your business plan and other documents are for. Cominโ up are some tips on how to make a good pitch so that people are more likely to invest.
Make it Interesting
๐ผ Text & Images
Be sure to keep your text clean and simple. Images can really help bring your pitch to life. Be sure to focus on your organisationโs people, your mission statement, and what you do. Make sure the main messages about why youโre calling on your crowd and why you need their investment are well canvassed. In terms of word count, the shorter the better, but aiming to keep it below 2000 words is an achievable goal.
Break up the text with images of your product, service, or other related photos. This will give people a further sense of what you do. Whether that is brewing beer or making software there are tangible images you can use to communicate positive messages about your organisation. Donโt go too crazy with images either, make sure you use them intelligently. And, for the love of all thatโs good, donโt use bad stock imagery. Check out Canva if you need help.
๐น Video
If a picture paints a thousand words and a youtube video squeezes 30 pictures into every second, thatโs...more words than a Tolstoy novel! Video is king.
Videos are a great way to engage your crowd with the pitch. Itโs the first thing people see on a PledgeMe campaign page. People are more likely to watch a short video that showcases your key messages and is interesting than read a couple of pages of text. Itโs a good way to hook people and get them interested enough in you and your organisation to take the time to read all the other documents and then invest. Videos are beautifully shareable too.
Crowdfunding campaigns with a pitch video are 85% more likely to be funded and they raise an average of four times more than campaigns that have no video.
We suggest aiming for a 90 second pitch video, definitely keeping it under five minutes.
Making your own pitch video doesnโt have to be hard, you can make a video with your phone and a bit of free software online like Magisto or Filelab. Read more about great pitch videos on our blog or read the plan for our equity crowdfunding pitch video. Sound quality is also important. While you can make good videos on an iPhone and free software you may struggle to have decent sound. PledgeMe can also set you up with professional video people if you need help.
๐ Rewards
With PledgeMe.Lend you can offer rewards on top of your loan interest. Rewards are usually tiered, so the more people invest the bigger the value of the reward people will receive, e.g. if you pledge the minimum amount youโll get a mug, but if you lend more youโll get a trip on a hovercraft.
You may keep it simple like pre existing merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs etc) or you may get special rewards made specifically for your campaign or offer exclusive experiences or discounts. This will make it limited and therefore more desirable. Rewards can be things or experiences.
The point of offering rewards is that you give people a little extra incentive to invest. Itโs the cherry on the top for your crowd supporting you.
Examples of great rewards
Chilango, a Mexican food chain in the UK, offered their top lenders a free weekly burrito as part of their Burrito Bond offer.
BrewDog, a brewery in the UK, offered their lenders discounts with an extra discount to push traffic to their online store
Ooooby, offered discounts on their fresh produce to their investors ranging from 5% for those investing $500 to 20% for those investing +$10,000.
Chariot, the ridesharing app, offered plenty of rewards, from go-karting vouchers for those investing +$1,000, to helicopter flight vouchers to those investing +$2,500, to dinner with the Wellington Mayor for those stumping up +5,000, to 5,000 km of free rides through their app for those investing +$20,000.
What PledgeMe can help with?
Weโll help you get your pitch ready during the second half of CrowdfundingU. Having watched hundreds of videos and read thousands of pitches, we know what makes a good pitch and will help you get yours to ping.
We can also put you in touch with professional writers, videographers, and campaigners who can help you with your pitch โ but the real power is going to come from you connecting directly to your crowd.
Once your pitch is in order, documents are uploaded and the video is up weโll work with you to publish the campaign. Then itโs live and time to move onto the next phase: promo.
Next โ4. Promoโ โ
