Pitching your company or idea to an investor isn’t easy. Between their time constraints and attention spans, and your desire to say just enough without saying too much, the stakes are high and the margin for error is small. So what’s a founder to do?
Answer: Create an explainer video. Here’s why (and what it can do for your growing business):
Marketing + Science
In the early stages of your startup, you’re working hard to attract investors and build relationships. Much of that work involves overcoming the hurdle of anonymity by telling your company story.
That pitch you’ve been polishing and refining has two jobs:
1. To engage your audience
2. And to compel them to act
A good explainer video can demonstrate to an investor that you understand the needs of the market and have a plan to meet those needs. That’s how you build engagement and call people to action.
In a world where TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram dominate the social media landscape, videos have become the primary vehicle for marketing a product or service. A lot of that popularity has to do with retention.
Forbes explains that “viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it on video, compared to 10% when reading it in text.”
The science behind those statistics explains why video has become so popular. They work by combining audio and video stimuli to simplify your message and make it easier for viewers to remember.
The bottom line? Video content is sticky in our brains. We hold onto it.
Three Reasons Your Startup Needs an Explainer Video
- It Breaks the Ice
If you want investors to feel like they know you and your company — including the problem you see in the market and how your company solves it — an explainer video can answer those questions while making a strong first impression.
- It Pushes the Right Buttons
Attracting investors, managing those relationships, and raising capital requires a lot of thinking and strategizing — for founders and investors. That’s a lot of mental effort. An explainer video is a chance for everyone involved to feel something.
- It Elevates Your Brand
Having a well-put-together explainer video is an authority statement. It demonstrates your credibility. It says your pitch is worth listening to. It shows you mean business. In a world where pitch decks are a dime a dozen, a explainer video sets your company apart.
How to Harness the Power of Video for Raising Capital
An explainer video is the easiest way to stand out in a crowded investor market, connect emotionally with your audience, and overcome the hurdle of being relatively unknown. If you’re wondering how to incorporate an explainer video into your next capital raise, we can help.
When traditional pitch decks stopped working, we developed The Main Stage — an intuitive platform that helps companies attract investors, manage relationships, and raise capital easier.
Although including a video isn’t required, we’ve made the ability to embed one a part of our Story Vault since the very beginning — and we encourage every company to utilize that feature, even if it’s a DIY video you make with your iPhone.
In fact, co-founder Brian Smith says that self-made investor update videos are especially effective on The Main Stage. “When a founder picks up their phone, records a quick video, and shares it with their investor network, it really captures attention. They don’t even need to use that moment to ask for more money. It’s enough to say ‘here’s a great thing that happened in our company today.’”
See for Yourself
Right now, you can get started on The Main Stage for free and test it out for yourself. If you’d like to schedule a demo, let us know. We’ll be glad to show you around.
