The Dos & Don’ts of Elevator Pitch Videos 

Elevator pitch videos can be incredibly powerful tools if they’re produced in a way in which they actually perform their job of attracting the attention of your audience, explaining your business or brand and why it matters, and compelling the viewer to seek additional detail. As long as you can do all of this in a short period of time in which you don’t inconvenience the audience, you’ll probably be successful. However, with just seconds to work with, it’s easy to make mistakes with elevator pitch videos and even the tiniest mistake can be a huge loss for your brand.

Because elevator pitch videos can really be produced in a number of potential ways, it’s easy to find yourself lost in a list of limitless ideas, templates, and potential opportunities to produce the perfect pitch. Ranging from short and simple to incredibly complex, the elevator pitch video has capacity to demonstrate the value of your business or brand with absolute intensity. Just make sure you don’t make any common mistakes and that you follow best practices when deciding what to include in your pitch! 

What Goes Into an Elevator Pitch Video?

A great elevator pitch video actually has a lot of work to achieve in a short period of time. You’ve got to explain to your audience who you are, what you do, why you’re an expert, and the value you can offer – and all of this has to happen with a quickness! Too many words will make any elevator pitch video seem overwhelming and complicated, but if you don’t have enough information your audience might not fully understand where you’re coming from.

Since you don’t always know who you’re pitching to, hitting the right level of background detail and information without being overwhelming can be particularly challenging. Particularly because your elevator pitch must achieve all of this in about a minute! This means you’ve really got to think and plan what you’re going to say and that it will be equally important to carefully plan your visuals as they can offer significant support in backing up your pitch.

Great elevator pitch videos include:

• A brief introduction of the business, or brand and who you are.
• A quick overview of what your company does.
• Your value proposition.
• Attention grabbing details.
• A call to action.

Now let’s take a look at some of the things that you should, or should not, do when producing elevator pitch videos to represent your business, brand, products, services or other projects.

Elevator Pitch Video Do’s

As you probably realize, there are a lot of things that you can do to produce elevator pitch videos that represent your business in the most positive light. Since you’ve only got a minute to work with, sometimes even less, planning is essential! Practice is also important. Although, you won’t be pitching in person if you’re creating a pitch video, it’s still very important to practice your pitch so that you can figure out what details are most important and whether or not you might be missing anything. Consider practicing in front of friends, family, or business partners to get a feel for any questions that you might not be answering which would need to be covered by your pitch.

In addition to practice, consider doing these important tasks in producing elevator pitch videos:

• DO take time to learn and understand your audience. The more information you have about your audience the better you will be able to prepare your pitch!
• DO aim for an emotional connection with your audience. Even simple tips or tactics to help your audience resonate with you will help them to feel more compelled to follow through with your call to action.
• DO create a professionally produced pitch video to show off your desire for professional content. A poorly produced video can give the wrong impression.
• DO lead with a strong introduction to give a great first impression.
• DO keep your pitch short and engaging. After your intro, you really only have about 30 seconds to pitch the facts!
• DO highlight value proposition. Do your homework, know your competition, and explain to your audience how you are better than the competitor!
• DO incorporate strong use of visuals, graphics, animations and audible sounds that will support your pitch in addition to your narration. Put video to work for you!

While this all may seem easy enough, it’s important to understand that elevator pitch videos can quickly become overly long and complicated which is exactly what you DON’T want! Make sure that you have plenty of time to revise your content down so that you can fit everything in the 1 minute marker and you’re not overwhelming your audience or going too fast!

Elevator Pitch Video Don’ts

As much as there are a laundry list of things that you can do right with elevator pitch videos, there’s probably an equally long list of things that can go wrong! As you’re working on the planning and production of your video, make sure that you’re prepared for the potential mistakes that people commonly make when producing elevator pitch videos.

Don’t overwhelm your audience, and make sure that you also:

• DON’T wing it! You must practice your pitch, even for video. Practice several times before recording.
• DON’T go too fast or include too much information. You really need to keep it short and engaging, include only what’s absolutely necessary.
• DON’T assume your audience already knows the details of your business or brand. Do your homework and know your audience.
• DON’T go over the 1 minute timeframe that is average for elevator pitch videos. You’ll likely lose interest and be wasting resources.
• DON’T forget to let video work for you! Visuals are key to delivering the details in such a short time. Don’t forget it!

Producing elevator pitch videos is our specialty at Beverly Boy Productions! Give us a call to learn more and to find out what we can do for your brand!