6 Ways Startups Can Promote Through Equity Crowdfunding

by Startacus Admin

6 of the best methods to get in front of your target investors - the people who will be backing your startup's grand vision via your equity crowdfunding campaign. Nathan Rose, author of Equity Crowdfunding: The Complete Guide For Startups & Growing Companies, shares his advice.

Equity crowdfunding for startups is, above all else, an exercise in self-promotion. There are several ways how to crowdfund a business - ranging from focusing on marketing to hundreds, or even thousands of tiny investors, to adopting more of a venture-capital-like approach. But whatever your intention, this article introduces six of the best methods to get in front of your target investors - the people who will be backing your company’s grand vision with their hard-earned money. 

1. E-Mail Marketing

The best success rate for equity crowdfunding promotion comes through your own, existing crowd. If someone has been connected to you for a while, receiving your e-mails, then they should already know a lot about you and what you are about. The best way to do e-mail marketing is to use it to co-create your campaign - for example, ask the people on your list to watch two versions of your promotional video, and ask them which one they most prefer. That way, you will end up with a better video (through getting their feedback), and you will make them feel a degree of ownership over the success of your campaign.

2. Media Outreach

Media outreach allows a crowdfunding company to gain the attention of many potential investors, by forming a connection with just one person - the editor or content manager of the publication. These media professionals are the gatekeepers, so it’s them you need to impress. Before doing media outreach, it is essential to understand the audience of the publication, so that you can form an effective pitch which is easy for the editor to say “yes” to. Editors get dozens of pitches every day, so you need to think of a unique or interesting angle. Make their life easy, and they can help you get the word out.

3. Social Media

Most crowdfunding campaigns blast out social media posts in a kind of carpet-bombing campaign. But social media is much better for crowdbuilding well in advance of actually launching your equity crowdfunding campaign. Try to imagine - what would your response be if someone asked you to invest in some company you had never heard of, when it showed up on your Facebook or Instagram timeline? Social media is better used to build awareness, rather than achieve conversion. Get them on your email list first. Don’t make asking for investment the very first communication that someone receives from you.

4. Live Events

Just because equity crowdfunding is hosted on an online fundraising platform doesn’t mean that you need to conduct your entire promotion effort from behind your computer screen. Yes, tinder has revolutionized dating, but it’s still possible to go and meet people in the real world! Equity crowdfunding is the same. Yes, this is time-consuming, but people tend to trust those they have met in-person far more than Internet avatars.

5. Reaching Out To Large Investors

One investor can invest the same as 100 investors, if they are the kind of person with the sort of income or net worth that justifies it. So, while you will probably need to reach out to “crowd” investors using mostly electronic methods in order to be scalable, spending time trying to land the big fish with a more personalized outreach can be worth it. Get invited to investor meetings, pick up the phone, and even travel to go and meet them. The payback can be immense. 

6. Video

Saving the best for last - most startup founders say that their video was the most important piece of promotion collateral in their equity crowdfunding arsenal. We see everywhere that media is shifting away from the written word, towards pictures and video, in keeping with people’s shorter attention spans. An equity crowdfunding video (of a few minutes, at most) is like the cover of a book. The purpose is to entice the viewer to want to learn more. Video can be used to get the gist of an equity crowdfunding offer quickly. And, if the video is well-produced and entertaining, it also boosts the chances of it being shared across social media.

Summary

All of these tactics are best used in combination with each other - using a one tends to amplify the effect of the others. So, don’t make equity crowdfunding promotion an ”either or” affair - use them all at the same time for maximum results!

 

Nathan Rose is the bestselling author of Equity Crowdfunding: The Complete Guide For Startups & Growing Companies. He has appeared at crowdfunding events around the globe, including in Toronto, Amsterdam, London and Paris, and has written for Crowdfund Insider, the world’s most prominent crowdfunding news site. Today, he runs the website www.startupfundingsecrets.io, as a way of helping startups from all over the world use equity crowdfunding to gain marketing exposure and raise money at the same time.

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Published on: 18th February 2019