Planning Your Investor Strategy

Before deciding to put their money into your campaign, most investors typically goes through a few phases:

To build your strategy around the investor funnel, these are some questions you need to consider:

• Who are your target investors?
• How to reach out to them?
• Why should they invest in you?
• How to funnel and convert interested investors?
• How to encourage earlier payments?
• How to keep investor engaged?
• Which ECF incentives to apply for?

These are your friends, family, business parters, close associates etc. They know who you are and what you are capable of.

Because of that, they are your most likely early investors. Getting them to invest in your campaign is critical to build early momentum.

Reach out to them by:

• Sending them a personal message or email when your campaign launch
• Announcing your campaign launch on your personal social media
• Sending them a personal invitation to your Pitch Session

These are your customers, suppliers, industry peers etc.

They understand the market you are in, the problem you are trying to solve, and the potential of your business.

Because of that, they stand the highest chance to buy into your vision. Finding the best way to spread the news of your campaign is important during the mid-stage of your campaign.

Reach out to them by:

• Announce your campaign on your company website as a banner, landing page or pop-up
• Announcing your campaign launch on your company's social media and mailing list
• Networking in industry events. Build a mailing list and sending out emails to let them know about your campaign
• Working with the right community groups, associations or partners to spread the news of your campaign

Most of the cold investors fall under this category. This includes investors on pitchIN and those who see news of your campaign on social media.

They are motivated by trends and return, and typically come in pretty late during the campaign.

You need a good pitch to close them.

Reach out to them by:

• Being featured on pitchIN's social media and email newsletter
• Networking in investor events. Build a mailing list and sending out emails to let them know about your campaign
• Run social media ads to promote your campaign
• Working with the right community groups to spread the news of your campaign

These are Venture Capital (VC) Firms, Family Offices, Co-investment funds etc.

Each of these investors have their own requirement. Your campaign may or may not be suitable to reach out to these investors.

Closing them requires a more personal touch and a longer lead time.

Reach out to them by:

• Get an introduction. For suitable campaigns, pitchIN can facilitate an introduction.
• Build a mailing list and sending out emails to let them know about your campaign
• Working with the right associations or partners to spread the news of your campaign

When you reach out to your target investors (Prospect), the goal is to identify those that are interested in your campaign and get them to share their contact information with you.

In your message to them, you may consider asking interested investors to:

• Check-out and watchlist your campaign on pitchIN
• Express their interest by filling up an online form
• Sign-up to a mailing list
• Join your campaign WhatsApp Group
• Drop you a message or email to you

 

Once the investor has expressed interest, your should reach out and offer them an opportunity to engage with you or your team. These are some ideas on how to encourage investors to engage with you:

• Post their question on the campaign Q&A page
• Sign-up for a Pitch Session. You can add your upcoming pitch events on your campaign page
• Meet you at an event that you are attending
• Schedule a call with you to learn about the investment
• Drop you a message or email with their questions

  

The final step is to convince them to invest in your campaign. An investment is only confirmed once it has been paid for. For investors that are considering to invest a larger amount, you may be required a more personalised touch.

Some ideas on how to encourage investors to engage with you:

• Offer them a 1-one-1 call to answer their questions
• Send personalised messages to investors that has engaged with you
• Send reminder emails to investors that have have not paid
• Run incentives program to encourage earlier payment from investors