You have a sales marketing plan. Do you have an investor marketing plan? In the next 3 minutes, I will explain why you need one.
I talk with multiple founders every week seeking funding for their companies or funds. Most have no real plan on how to raise the capital they need.
The extent of the plan is a pitch deck. No time has been spent on how many people need to hear that pitch or how to follow up in a way that converts the most leads to investors. With no plan you end up scrambling to shove that pitch deck in front of anyone you can find in the hopes that someone will send you money.
Your company is cutting edge. It’s time your investor marketing strategy was too.
It’s time for an INVESTOR marketing plan.
Your sales marketing plan takes leads on a journey to become customers. Investors also need to go on a journey. (BTW – The sales marketing plan and the investor marketing plan are not the same. They share some elements, but the desired outcomes are different. Naturally your marketing approach needs to be different to find and convert them.)
Key elements of an Investor Marketing Plan:
- Creating a Winning Offer – You need to be legal with the SEC, but you also need to tell your story. Do you have the docs, bank account, and processes to take a check tomorrow? Are there essential holes that would scare off an investor? Is this something an investor would get excited about learning more?
- Drawing in investor contacts – Where are you going to find investor leads? How are they going to learn about your raise and contact you?
- Nurturing your leads – I know you want to think investors are going to hear your pitch and you’ll be batting them away with your great opportunity. If you’re lucky you will have a few investors come that way. Odds are you will need to reach out multiple times. You need a way to capture those leads and to engage them in different ways over time to get them to start the due diligence process.
- Increasing your conversions – Raising can be a long slog. That long slog can eat up a lot of time you need to spend on improving your product and gaining new customers. Systems ensure you devote enough time to converting leads but also not get trapped into following dead end leads. When you create a plan before there are leads you know where to double down on what works and when to cut what isn’t fruitful.
HOW TO USE THIS RIGHT NOW
I created an Investor Marketing Plan template so you could assess where you are. The answers to these questions have helped 100+ investments get funding. It can help you too.
Download the Investor Marketing Plan template
Use our template to ask yourself key questions about your capital raise process. Kudos if you go through the tabs and validate you have done everything. But my guess is most of you are going to find some holes. That’s ok. In the words of fellow vet GI Joe, “Knowing is half the battle.”
This is not a script of everything you need. Consider it a series of prompts to find glaring issues keeping your capital raise from being the best it can be.
If you need help, contact us!
– Jake Dulle
