What if we told you that the secret ingredient behind nearly every successful Seedrs raise is a list?
For the 1,000+ deals that have funded on Seedrs, there are typically three stages to achieving your fundraising target:
Validation
The first step to get under your belt when planning an equity crowdfunding campaign is to think about how you can validate your proposition so it’s perceived as concrete by others. A way to help with this is to put together an investment deck (template here) and seek the advice of any experienced contacts in your circle of contacts.
Getting feedback will prove absolutely essential in securing some initial funds in your campaign, which is incredibly important when crowdfunding. Nobody wants to publicly launch at 0% so you want to relay some security in the form of some anchor investment.
Create Hype
Once you have proven your model with the help of some professional guidance (backed by some initial funds hopefully) it’s time to start testing the water with your wider network. Now is your opportunity to begin creating your own army of ambassadors! Inevitably, by doing this, you are likely to excite platform investors and entice them to click on your campaign from the get-go. Social validation is key to success and we like to coin the term “empty restaurant syndrome” to relay the importance of this further. In short, no one wants to be the first person to enter a restaurant as you may feel slightly reserved about the experience up ahead. However, if you find yourself walking past a vibrant, busy spot nearby, then you might just want to drop in and join the party. Exactly the same concept can be said for a crowdfunding round – create hype!
Fund
After validating your proposition and demonstrating you can build hype, this is where our dedicated team will work closely with you on perfecting your pitch. The objective here is to appeal to Seedrs investors in the most effective way possible based on historical data and our team’s combined years of experience. In 2019 our success rate for funding campaigns was an industry-leading 75%, so you’re sure to be in good hands here.
But where do I start?
The first thing to do in order to validate and create hype around your campaign is to start building a list of friends, family and contacts in your personal network who has the ability to invest anything from £10 (technically anyone!). Even if you’re not planning on launching a campaign just yet, this can act as a useful exercise to learn more about who truly believes in your product/mission and to keep them up to date with your progress. To get started, you can use the template at the bottom of this form.
So grab that pen (or laptop) and get hustling! Here are some top tips from our campaigns team to help with the task at hand:
First: Creating your list
- Take some time to think about your current network and how you communicate with these different types of people
- Collate one main form of contact information for each person
- Once you have built up a chunky list (at least 50 names) it’s time to start categorising these individuals. Are these connections friends, family, old colleagues, or LinkedIn contacts? Segmenting your list into these profiles will allow you to craft and send personalised messaging later on when you’ve been in correspondence with our team.
- Include in your list an estimate for the amount each person could potentially invest. This will allow you to set a realistic target for your campaign based on your current community base.
- Finally, we advise making a note of your investment confidence level (out of 10) for each person as this will help us develop a strategy of how to approach each potential investor
- Keep this list in a safe place as when the time comes, these people will act as the momentum in your campaign!
Second: Building your audience
- Get creative and join groups or social media forums with interests that could be aligned to the problem you’re trying to solve
- Collect attendee details at events (this should be even easier now given virtual meetups are on the rise)
- Start a newsletter so you can inform people about what you’re up to – but do ensure your updates are worthwhile and fresh! A subscriber base can act as a perfect breeding ground for feedback and new product development too.
And don’t just take it from us…
- Check out this guide from Manilife’s Stuart MacDonald on how he aced his first and second crowdfunding campaign. Building a truly engaged community played a pivotal role in their funding success as well as contributing to quarterly income growth (see pt.1 and pt.2)
- Ruzbeh the CEO of Seedrs Alumni, City Falcon breaks down his crowdfunding experience into 7 succinct phases which you can look at more closely here.
We hope this article has given you the extra confidence needed in building a passionate following around you and your business. Download our free pre-commitment tracker template here to get crowdfunding ready:
Interested in raising funds from the crowd on Seedrs?
We have helped hundreds of businesses raise the funds they need to support their growth. Apply to raise funds from the crowd now or get in touch to discuss your fundraising plans in more detail.
