Most investors, customers, vendors, and supporters never visit an investee company in person. Most never will. And yet if they did, they’ve have more trust as an investee, customer, or vendor. Startups can address this oversight by 80% with a site visit video.
Quick and simple
Most viewers of online videos only watch the first 5 minutes (or so) of a video, no matter how long it is. Thus these videos just need to be 5-10 minutes long.
This video doesn’t need to be fancy. It doesn’t need professional cameras and lighting. It doesn’t need a tripod, dollies, or a boom. It doesn’t even need a script. It just needs a smartphone, a camera operator, and a host, plus some editing to keep the action flowing.
Raw video and editing
The following three videos are from Luni’s visit to Chicken Basket in Kisumu, Kenya. As you’ll see, the visit begins at the airport and quickly gets to the point walking through the Chicken Basket headquarters, with the founder providing a guided tour.
This was Luni’s first visit to the facility and it was shot exactly as shown, with no previous tour or discussion of what to include or skip. The result is thus an authentic video tour that feels like a first-time tour and real-life personal explanation, as that is what is was. Plus a lot of editing to keep the interest of the audience and to make the narration simpler and clearer.
The (Edited) Site Visit
The above How To skips a few sections of the tour, as the patterns of those repeats. In total almost an hour of raw video was shot, and the final edit is just 16 minutes. (Yes, 16 minutes is more than 5-10 minutes as suggested, but this is a three-sided business of farmers, chicken buyers, and a restaurant).
This video has been viewed hundreds of times. Hundreds of viewers, few of which would ever get to see behind the scenes at your company.
More Site Visit Videos
Many more site visit videos are available below. A few feel more like commercials than walk-through site visits. Do those make you like the businesses more or less than the videos hosted by the founder?