The last fifteen years have seen the explosion of crowdfunding as a legitimate means to get your idea, product or service off the ground. CrowdCube, Kickstarter, GoFundMe and others provide a fantastic way to raise funds without being beholden to the vision of big backers and gives businesses a chance to introduce themselves to customers directly.

So, it’s pretty great, but with countless campaigns being launched daily and a startling 66% failure rate on major crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter, it can be difficult to understand what separates a successful campaign from a failed one. The answer is, in our experience, video. Here’s my five reasons why video is now essential for successful funding.

• Video now rules the Internet.

A funny thing happened on our way to the present – video began to dominate the internet. It’s not like we’ve suddenly fallen in love though, it’s simply that more than ever before, we’ve got the internet speeds to make video a quick and fun way to absorb information. There’s a reason why Facebook has started to pivot its focus towards live video and why online video now accounts for 50% of all the worlds mobile traffic. Essentially, if you want to communicate your message in 2016, you need to be using video.

• It lends much needed credibility.

There’s no doubt that crowdfunding represents a risk for your backers. They’re being asked to put their money into something which they haven’t seen, tested or even heard about before. It’s a big ask, and so much of what you need to do is give your proposal credibility. Videos are crucial in that because it lets potential backers see a human face, witness a product being tested and see the passion behind a products idea.

• It can help keep a pitch on message.

We’ve all seen pitches go horribly wrong before, and it’s usually because they begin to lose sight of their message. A high quality, professionally produced video can do much of the heavy lifting of a pitch and present your business in a brilliant light. Reflex Vans, one of our crowdfunding clients, were tasked with pitching to a notoriously tough internal investment panel. We created a stunning video pitch that the investors loved. The result? A £5m investment for that company.

• Video can be easily shared.

Your wall of text might say every little thing about your product, but it’s far from easy to share. That’s where video really shines. If you’ve got a great video pitch, it can spread like wildfire over social networks and generate exposure for your campaign that you simply wouldn’t get otherwise. I’m not saying your pitch video is destined for viral fame, but it could find some backers that a text only pitch might not have reached.

• Videos can make the complicated simple.

Is your business pitching a technology product? Try explaining exactly what your product does, how it does it and why that’s valuable in less than 50 words. It’s immensely difficult, and that’s because text alone does a poor job at explaining difficult concepts quickly. We’ve helped many businesses make crowdfunding videos for websites like CrowdCube which explain complicated subjects in fun, accessible ways. However, it’s not just technology companies who benefit from video production. Pretty much every product or service can benefit from the clarity and simplicity of a video, so don’t let your company fall behind.