Top Shelf: Building anticipation with FrontFundr's 'coming soon'

Top Shelf Distillers, an emerging craft distillery in Ontario, is revolutionizing the craft spirits industry with their commitment to quality and sustainability. Known for their artisanal spirits and #MoreTrees initiative, Top Shelf Distillers has captured Canadians' hearts and taste buds.

To fuel expansion, they turned to equity crowdfunding on FrontFundr to engage their loyal customers and attract new investors. Their goal of $400,000 was to augment their production, further their experience-based storytelling, and open up new markets.

The Top Shelf campaign was one of the most successful ‘Coming Soon’ deals on FrontFundr. They launched a teaser campaign to build anticipation amongst potential investors by capturing pledges before launching the full investment opportunity. With strong personalized messaging and a robust marketing effort, they successfully hit their target, hitting close to 50% to target in just pledges before even launching.

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Top Shelf Distillers’ raise in a snapshot

• Exceeded their target, raising $406,680 from 285 investors in two 90-day campaigns, with a 60-day pre-raise period being in ‘Coming Soon.’
• They received 116 reservations in the ‘Coming Soon’ phase totaling $175,700 in the 2-month teaser campaign. From this, they saw about a 40% conversion from pledges into investments from this phase.
• The team leveraged a strong social media presence and a dedicated email list of 45,000 readers. With pre-promotions, the team also gathered a list of 700 individuals who specifically expressed interest in investing.
• The leadership team led several successful investor events, both online and in-person with 30-40% of attendees investing post-event.
• Maintained a cost of around $30 per investor through targeted advertising, with a minimum investment of $250.

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Personalized outreach and high conversion

Before launching their campaign, Top Shelf Distillers built a list of 700 potential investors from their 45K mailing list and personal and professional connections. When the campaign launched into ‘Coming Soon,’ each person received a personalized email, highlighting the ease of the investment process and reasons to invest. This tailored approach resulted in a 40% conversion rate, demonstrating the power of personalized communication in investor engagement.

The ‘Coming Soon’ phase was ideal in building excitement while gauging interest from the community. Top Shelf was able to test different messaging strategies to see what investors responded well to and used the findings to mold the marketing strategy once the raise was open. A huge finding for them was the benefit of re-positioning themselves as a startup again despite being in business for several years. The raise highlighted quick growth and the vision for the future, rekindling excitement and loyalty among their customer base. They found that many investors enjoyed the ‘bragging rights’ of owning a piece of a popular whisky distillery, further enhancing their engagement with the brand, and word of mouth amongst other investors.

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Leveraging strong social media and marketing presence

Top Shelf Distillers already had a robust social media following and high engagement rates. They capitalized on this by running ads on Facebook to collect more potential investor emails. Rather than directing these CTAs straight to the campaign page, they found a more personalized approach of collecting emails and following up with these individuals with a personalized message was more effective. Their consistent and authentic online presence played a crucial role in nurturing and converting leads.

They also closely monitored their advertising spend, maintaining a cost per investor acquisition of around $30. This careful budget management ensured a high return on investment for their marketing efforts, driving significant interest and engagement throughout the campaign.

Investor events were a significant part of Top Shelf Distillers’ strategy. These events not only provided valuable information but also created a sense of community and belonging among potential investors. The events saw a high conversion rate, with 30-40% of attendees investing afterward. Even those who didn’t attend were influenced by the event marketing, showing strong interest and engagement.

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Scarcity and incentives to drive urgency

To create a sense of urgency and incentivize early investments, Top Shelf Distillers offered an exclusive perk: a free bottle of their product to the first 100 investors. This scarcity effect, coupled with the time-limited nature of the campaign, drove quick and decisive action from potential investors, leading to $166K in investments completed within the first month of launch.

Top Shelf Distillers’ successful raise on FrontFundr highlights the effectiveness of personalized outreach, strong social media engagement, strategic use of investor events, and careful budget management. Their experience showcases how equity crowdfunding can not only provide necessary capital but also deepen customer loyalty and drive significant growth. For other founders considering equity crowdfunding and a ‘Coming Soon’ teaser campaign, Top Shelf Distillers’ journey offers valuable insights into the benefits of testing a campaign and strategies for success.