Why Send Updates? 🤔
Campaign updates are one of the most effective ways to communicate new and exciting news to your community. The updates section on FrontFundr allows you to present and keep exciting news such as new partnerships, business developments, or exciting press coverage about your company and campaign all in one central location. We find a strong connection between consistent communications with potential investors and the campaign’s overall success. The more frequent, relevant, and engaging your updates are, the more likely a follower will become an investor. As a general guideline, we suggest sending out one update per week
In fact , we find that the email open rate of updates is 60-80% where as traditional email marketing open rates are just 20-30% which tells us that updates are a perfect form of targeted communications!
Foundations for Success 🥳
When sending out an update to your community, there are a few general guidelines that we recommend following. These simple practices will help ensure that the content you intend to deliver is clearly understood by your audience while simultaneously maintaining and promoting a consistent brand image of your company.
- Know Your Audience: Understanding your audience and being able to communicate with them effectively is key to a successful raise.
- Maintain Brand Consistency: Ensuring your campaign messaging and visual content are consistent with your brand image.
- Captivate the Reader: Through exciting introductions, interesting content and the right use of language we can gain the reader’s attention.
- Call to Action: At the end of every update, it is important to guide the reader back to the investment page and ask them to take action and make an investment!
- Engage with Investors: Continually thank investors, followers and fans for their support. Make yourself available to investors for questions. Encourage them to share the campaign with those in their network who might be interested.
01. Know Your Audience 👥
When crafting your campaign updates, it’s beneficial to communicate with your community in a way that is consistent with brand’s ordinary ways of communicating. For example, we recommend addressing your community in the same way that you would through other channels of communication such as social media or email. Note: we suggest that all updates include a personalized sign off from the company’s founder or team members to create a connection with investors.
Note: we suggest that all updates include a personalized sign off from the company’s founder or team members to create a connection with investors.
02. Maintain Brand Consistency 🖥️
Remaining true to your company’s branding when delivering updates is an excellent way to enhance the strength of your company’s brand while engaging with new potential investors. In order to do this effectively, we recommend using colour schemes, logos, and language that are all consistent with your pre-existing branding which includes your email template, social media presence and website.
Note: we only recommend using slang language, emoji’s or other informal forms of communication if your community is used to engaging with the company in that way.
03. Call To Action 📞
One of the most important pieces of an update is the “call to action” which is where the investment opportunity is discussed further. At the end of every update, it is important to guide the reader back to the investment page and ask them to take action and make an investment!
Some companies with in house coding capabilities will insert a button within the campaign page to redirect them back to the investment page, however, a simple call to action statement with text that is linked back to the page will work perfectly.
05. Engage With Investors 🤝
Maintaining a consistent connection with investors is an effective tool to building engagement and interest in your campaign. By continually thanking investors, followers and fans for their support and by making yourself available to investors for questions, you can build a strong connection. As an added bonus, you can encourage them to share the campaign with those in their network who might be interested to drive even more traffic to your campaign page.
Example: ecologyst thanks those who have invested and includes an effective call-to-action for those who have not yet completed their investment.
Ideas for Update Topics 💡
Campaign updates are the perfect place to share exciting news about new partnerships, growth in sales, or any other positive company traction to build excitement among your followers.
We recommend sharing campaign milestones such as funding goals reached, news of events, and any of the following exciting topic ideas:
- New Partnerships
- Founders Story
- Large client and/or investor
- Hit a new revenue target
- Founders Story
- New product release or redesign
- Positive press coverage
Bucha Brew Example Update
Takeaways:
- Friendly opening and close to the update
- Effective use of emojis that align with the company’s branding
- Brief, informative and interesting language used to capture the reader's attention
- Highlighting a strong traction point for the business
Origen Air Example Update
Takeaways:
- Exciting opening and close to the update
- Effective use of emojis that align with the company’s branding
- Brief, informative and interesting language used to capture the reader's attention
- Highlighting a strong traction point for the business
RED Mountain Example Update
Takeaways:
- Personal sign-off from the CEO himself
- Celebrate campaign milestones
- Thank all their supporters and welcome them into the family
- Provide an opportunity for investors to ask questions
MYND Example update
Takeaways:
- Inserted event session link
- Celebrate campaign milestones
- Showcased company mission
- Personal sign off from CEO
Tiptap Example Update 📲
Takeaways:
- Appealing visuals and graphics
- Exciting traction for the business shared in an easy to read way
- Wide, banner style image that effectively supports the update
- Quick Link reference at the bottom directs investors back to the campaign page
How To Add a Campaign Update ⬇️
In order to add an update to your campaign simply choose between two convenient methods. Simply compose an email to your dedicated Campaign Manager. Provide a detailed description and any relevant attachments in the email body. Alternatively, submit an update through our Update Submission form found here.
Post-Raise Updates 📧
Sending post-raise updates is an excellent way to engage with your shareholders on exciting news regarding your company!
Through the updates tab on your draft campaign, you have the ability to reach shareholders and campaign followers through email, posts to the updates tab or a combination of both depending on your audience.
- Audience: When sending post-raise updates, select the “Shareholders” to reach all your investors. You can also select “Shareholders & Followers” to reach those who were interested in your business with exciting updates.
- “Mandatory Update”: Some shareholders may unsubscribe from email communications regarding the raise. If the update is mandatory by securities law, we send it to them regardless of their email preferences by selecting “yes” to this option.
- Category: Select the category that pertains to the content within the update. This will most commonly be news, however we have options updates on financing rounds and events as well.
- “Publish To”: If the update is being send to followers, you can distribute to post, email or both. If the update is for shareholders only, only email can be the mean of distribution.
- Attachments: If you wish to share an updated investor deck, proxy, or any other documents that are relevant to your shareholders you may attach them to your update for distribution.
Thanks so much for reading our guide! We are confident that the tools you now have will help you craft effective campaign updates. As always, reach out to us at any time if you want to chat further about how to best articulate your company for an effective crowdfunding campaign.