Your campaign page is the place to tell the story of your business, your achievements to date and present a clear understanding of how your business will grow. It should give investors a sense of who you are, where your passion lies, why you started the business, and why you think it will succeed. There is a specific structure you should look to follow:
- Introduction.
- Your intended impact.
- Accomplishments, progression and evolution of your journey so far.
- Your monetisation strategy.
- How you’re going to use the money to get to the next stage of growth.
Throughout all of this, you need to weave information that engages and satiates the four different motivations of those looking to invest. In a nutshell, there are four reasons why investors will invest, the weight of each reason varying in influence from person to person:
- Business rationale – e.g. there is evident business growth and market, any awards won, established partnerships, a dedicated team. This is key material for all investors, especially larger ticket investors. If you are working closely with a well-established brand, this validates that they see a value to your product, which helps build the picture for the investor of the total value of the business. Awards or press is another great way to include third party sources of validation for your business.
- Emotional connection – the reason why you started the business, and the cause pulls on heartstrings and establishes an emotional connection. This connection could be impulsive in the form of valuing and appreciating ice cream. Or, for instance, seeing the great impact that you have on the wider community. This typically helps appeal to smaller ticket investors which are crucial for a successful crowdfunding campaign.
- Passion for the cause – your business sits within an industry or trade they are passionate about – from veganism and the environment to fintech. By demonstrating the areas that you and your business believe in, this is likely to resonate with pools of investors on slightly deeper levels.
- Social validation – you have the evident support of others; for example, you have lots of customers, followers, investors, or backers. Validation comes in all shapes and sizes, but in essence, you want to demonstrate that other people understand and value your business as much as you do.
By threading details that hit those four motives throughout the pitch text, you will maximise your campaign’s investment potential.
Your supporting campaign pitch video is slightly different and should focus more on enticing the emotional and passionate motivations. People connect with people; it is far more emotive to use video to tell your story and appeal to a wider array of senses. By visually demonstrating your team, your passion and dedication, it will hit home far more powerfully than the words on a screen ever could. More detail about perfecting your campaign video can be found here.
Also important to note, for both your video and campaign, your introduction must be punchy and capture people’s attention immediately. You have a five-second window to make a make-or-break impact, so don’t underestimate how significant this opportunity is.
Once you have set the scene, the aim is to make the investor’s decision to invest in your business as quick and simple as possible by providing an overwhelming amount of evidence that it is on a successful trajectory, built on the right foundations, with a strong and compelling vision.
The final element also needs careful consideration – the use of proceeds. With the funds you raise here, where are you going to get to, and when are you going to get there? It’s very important to be realistic but keep it fairly specific. It’s incredibly likely that you’ll be raising follow-on rounds in the future, whether that’s through Seedrs or other means, therefore it’s vitally important to have a body of happy shareholders you can call upon to help.
By setting the expectations here and then meeting them (or hopefully exceeding), you’ll keep them on your side, and they’ll be more than willing to help you achieve your goals. You’ll want to consider:
- What the business is looking to achieve, and how is that different to now? (i.e. how many users/how much revenue/other key metrics have increased in the time frame you set?)
- Explain about the bigger picture. Set the expectation that your business has the opportunity to scale and where that fits in your plan.
- How the business is going to split up the use of proceeds across different areas?
When you’re talking to shareholders following your campaign, you can refer back to these goals in your communications to them. How close are you to achieving them? If they are not relevant anymore, why not? This lays the foundation for a great relationship with your shareholders, and that will allow you to get far more from them than just funding.
Overall, with having the investor in mind when crafting your pitch, you can look to align all the key parts of your investment proposition with their investment criteria, and resonate with potential investors from all angles, building a stronger case towards investing in your business
