We’ve made quite a few fundraising announcement videos over the years and in this article I want to share some of our learnings about what works (and what doesn’t!).

Step 1: Concept Development

First, before you even put pen to paper, you should ask yourself the following 3 questions: 

1. Who am I making this video for?

2. Where will people watch this video?

3. What are the objectives of this project?

Answering these basic questions will give you clarity about the kind video you should make and how to make it (Steps 2 and 3). 

Here’s what typical answers for an early stage company could look like:

1. Who am I making this video for?  

   1. New customers

   2. Employees 

   3. Potential investors 

2. Where will my audience watch this video?

   1. LinkedIn 

   2. Homepage

   3. Youtube 

   4. Paid ads 

   5. Sales collateral

3. What are my objectives?

   1. Attract new customers

   2. Attract new employees 

   3. Build brand awareness 

   4. Raise investor interest for next round

   5. Differentiation 

Step 2: Choose a format

Unless you have an unlimited budget, it’ll be difficult to achieve all of these objectives with a single video so I’d recommend narrowing it to 1 or 2 core objectives such as 1) attract new customers and 2) differentiate from the competition. 

Somewhat relatedly, it’s also important to factor in where and how people will be watching your video as this will have a bearing on its content and the deliverables. 

For example, if people will be mainly watching your video on LinkedIn then it will be important to have square or vertical versions of it and you’ll probably also want to have a strong visual hook at the beginning that gets people to stop scrolling. 

On the other hand, if the video is going to live on your homepage then viewers have probably already heard of your company, so it will be better to focus on showing the product and explaining differentiation. You’d also want the video in the standard horizontal format (16:9) in order to have extra room on the screen to show animations. 

It’s generally not too much effort to create tailored versions of your video for each platform so I’d recommend 1) filming slightly different versions of your video on the day and 2) making sure additional versions and formats (e.g. vertical) of your video are included in the list of deliverables you agree with your agency.

Step 3: Script writing

If you’ve spent enough time thinking about who the audience for your video will be (Step 1), then preparing a script will be straightforward. 

For a 60-90 second video that’s going on LinkedIn and where the primary objective is to bring in new leads, you need to ensure that every section in your script speaks directly to the needs of your target audience. Most potential customers for example will want to see a demo of your product, they’ll want to understand how you’re different from other solutions out there and maybe hear a few words from one of your customers about how they use it day to day. 

Unfortunately a lot of marketing teams set out to make a video targeted at potential customers but end up making something to please their internal stakeholders instead. That’s fine too just bear in mind that the audience of internal stakeholders is probably a lot smaller than the audience of potential buyers and you might not end up meeting the objectives you set out at the beginning of your project (e.g. generate leads) 

Anyway, I digress. 

There are two ways to prepare your script.

One, write it down word for word and have your talent read it from a teleprompter on the day of the shoot. 

Two, structure your script like a conversation between you and your talent. This means you prepare a list of 8-10 questions and some suggested answers in bullet point form. On the day of the shoot, you then film the conversation for 20-30 min with the talent in front of the camera and the interviewer off-screen. Your editor will then choose the best clips from that conversation. 

Each approach has its advantages. My two cents is that the interview format comes across as much more natural and therefore connects better with audiences compared to somebody staring into the camera and reading from a script. 

I would therefore recommend preparing a word for word script first – so you know which exact points you want your talent to hit in the video – and then turning that into bullet points.

Step 4: Storyboarding

Once you’re settled on the script, you’ll need to work with your video agency to come up with a storyboard which is basically a visual blueprint for how the video will look. 

Our storyboards are normally made up of 1) a shot list and 2) animation storyboard.

The shot list is a list of every camera shot, transition, sequences that you’ll want to film on the day. 

The animation storyboard is a list of static designs that will be animated in the editing phase. These animations will be overlaid in your video to show your product UI for example or to illustrate a key point visually (e.g. a chart) 

Storyboards are useful because they allow the client to get a sense for what the final video would look like and course correct if necessary. 

They also make the filming day more efficient and increase the chances of you actually getting all the footage you need. 

Step 5: Filming day

The biggest cost to making a fundraising announcement video is the shoot itself, so in order to make the most of your investment I have 3 pieces of advice:

1. Film more content than you need: this doesn’t just mean doing lots of takes but also filming different versions of your video in case you want to create additional pieces of content later on (e.g. standalone customer case study, thought leadership clips etc.)

2. Run through the script with your talent the day before: Most people won’t look at the script until they’re actually sat in the interview chair on filming day. That’s why having a quick call the day before to familiarise them with the content and get them comfortable is really important. 

3. Choose a good location: if you have a nice office, it’s possible to get away with doing the film shoot there but in most cases you’ll want to rent a separate venue. They can be expensive (£1000-£2000 per day) but they do really make a big difference to the overall look and feel of your video. 

Step 6: Editing

If you’ve done everything correctly up to this stage, you should hopefully have all the raw footage you need to make a great fundraising announcement video. 

The editor’s task will now be to take that raw material and turn it into a polished, coherent story. 

At its most basic a fundraising announcement video is made up of 1-3 interviews with founders/employees/customers, overlaid with some appropriate b-roll and/or animations. 

In some cases you might find that you haven’t shot enough b-roll in which case you can use stock footage. If you do decide to do use it, I’d recommend using it sparingly and applying a colour grade on it to ensure that it looks consistent with the rest of your video. 

At the time of writing (October 2025) AI generated footage is not good enough to use in these kinds of videos, unless you’re not particularly brand conscious. 

Step 7: launch strategy

Most clients will want to publish their video on LinkedIn. A good video with a well executed launch strategy can get lots of free organic distribution (+100k impressions) so here’s my advice on how to pull that off: 

1. Create a list of ~50 people you know personally that you can share the video with as soon as it’s live. This list can be investors, potential customers, friends, employees etc. 

2. Publish the video from your personal LinkedIn, not your company LinkedIn 

3. As soon as the video goes live, message each person on your list asking them to 1) watch the video to the very end 2) leave a non-generic comment and 3) like the video

4. If the LinkedIn algorithm sees strong engagement in the first 30 mins, it will organically distribute it to a mass audience

5. Reply to each comment as soon as it comes in 

6. After ~ 1 week and once the video has reached as many people organically as it ever will, turn it into a paid ad and use it to run ABM campaigns 

If you’d like to discuss an upcoming video project – feel free book a call with me here.