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How to Use Videos to Boost Your Digital Fundraising Income

Videos are the way that many charities are reaching their audiences these days. In fact, nearly all charities engage and inspire not only their supporters, but also their stakeholders using video. Today, video is incredibly easy to create, edit and upload, making it available to charities of all levels of technical ability. If your charity is considering the use of video to garner a higher number of donations, or you wish to know how best to use them for better income, you’ll definitely want to read on.

Use Social Media Video Apps

Facebook offers a video app which is ideal for creating short but powerful messages. Like photos, Facebook videos can be tagged for maximum spread through various news feeds. The best and easiest integration for Facebook videos is via Vimeo or YouTube, allowing you to create, produce and share your videos with an audience without having to spend loads of time.

Another way to share short and powerful videos is via Instagram. Their Stories feature, which allows for a series of short-lived chronological stories to be published over the course of 24 hours, will help you reach tech-savvy customers more effectively. Instagram Stories can be used to provide video answers to common questions, inform donors about upcoming events, or share related content for users to share with their contacts.

Effective Video Creation Tips

Videos exist in several styles and lengths. How do you choose the best elements for your own campaigns? The trick is to keep things as simple and as relevant as possible.

Sound Production

Videos with an inspiring soundtrack can do much to enhance the impact of your message. And of course, sound is an absolute must if your video includes an interview. Sound is not always the best solution to getting your message across, however. In fact, it may actually be intrusive if the viewer is unprepared for it.

When producing videos with sound, it is important to ensure that the default video sound is at a comfortable level. That way, when a viewer plays it, they won’t be startled by excessive noise. Instead, they will receive a gentle nudge that your video contains sound, and can then adjust it to their preferred level.

You may also want to consider the impact of using a video with no sound. Gentle fade ins and outs of different images and blocks of text can have just as much impact as videos having sound.

Small Chunks

If you have a lot of information to convey, it may be best to split it into 30-second chunks of video. Why? Because research has shown that viewers pay the most attention to videos that are 30 seconds or less in length. If you plan to produce a single video, then you will want to consider condensing information as much as possible.

Longer Videos

There is no rule against producing a longer video, for example a commercial-length piece of up to two minutes or a long-form three to six minute video. In fact, these can be very effective at garnering the donations you’re after. If you’re considering longer videos like these, you may want to include a piece of text in the video’s description that reveals its length. If uploading your video to share with your social media contacts, you can include a phrase in your status that informs them that the video is long, but is well worth the viewing.

These tips can help to ensure that your contacts will not only be inspired to watch your videos, but will continue to interact with your charity long after your videos have been viewed. The ongoing impact and donation stream can be recorded against each video using your charity CRM.