Clean your house before you invite people over: Four marketing and PR essentials before a capital raise

You always clean your house before you invite someone over, right? The same thing goes for a company seeking a capital raise.

By the time you meet with investors, you need your company’s external-facing assets and profile to be professional, conveying your strengths and credibility. This can sometimes be the difference between landing a meeting with an investor in the first place, or missing out.

Let’s delve into four marketing and PR essentials in the lead-up to a capital raise.

1. Clarify your value proposition and key messages

“Scale-ups often involve a highly technical innovation. It can be difficult for the founder to explain it in a simple way, even after working in the business for several years,” Sarah Morgan, Managing Director of Bespoken, said.

“Anyone who has bombed at a pitch-fest will understand how important it is to nail a few easy-to-digest key messages. It’s about selling your story to investors.

“Put more crudely, it’s a situation of ‘just hand me the baby, don’t tell me about the labour pains.’

“People don’t need to know about the journey you have been on. They want to know what problem you solve, what solution you provide and importantly, why should they care.”

It’s helpful to bring together a list of simple key messages in a one- or two-page document and reiterate this messaging consistently across your marketing assets and pitches.

Ensure your key messages succinctly communicate:

• What problem does your product or service solve, and how?
• What sets your product or service apart from competitors, or the status quo?
• Can you demonstrate the potential market size for your innovation?
• Can you quantify the scale of the problem you are addressing? For example, does it cost the Australian health system $2 billion annually?
• Can you quantify the potential impact? For example, will it save farmers $10,000 per hectare of crops? Will it reduce carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to taking 1000 cars off the road?

2. Build your reputation

The first thing many investors will do is Google you and your business name. Results will include your personal LinkedIn profile, your company website and recent media mentions.

“Positive media exposure is very valuable; having a good write up by a well-respected financial journalist, for example, on why your idea is a good one and why there’s a market out there for it, is invaluable,” says Melbourne-based investor Phil Dolan, who has been investing in impact startups and scale-ups for more than a decade.

Build ‘social proof’ and credibility with these tactics:

• Media: Targeted media coverage in the lead-up to a capital raise has definite advantages. Media clippings can be included in your pitch deck when you start discussions with investors.
• Thought Leadership: Write and publish articles on LinkedIn and your website; speak at conferences; and participate in relevant forums and webinars.
• Personal LinkedIn page: Make sure your own profile is up to date with a current photo, description, a decent number of connections, some personal recommendations from former work connections highlighting your expertise, and a link to your website.

3. Get your website in order

Investors are likely to look up your website. Make a good first impression with the following elements.

• Photography: If you haven’t already, pay for professional photography to showcase your team and your product/service. Stock photography is off-putting.
• Clear messaging on homepage: Succinctly convey your mission, impact and value proposition. Your key messages (above) will help here.
• Case studies: This is the most powerful way to build credibility, showing how your solution has positively impacted customers or the environment. Video footage is ideal, but at the very least include written case studies with photography.
• “About Us”: Highlight the founders’ backgrounds, expertise, and passion for the mission.
• News and updates: Regularly update your site with company news, milestones, media mentions and progress. Investors want to see momentum.

4. Pitch Perfect

Claire Rogers, CEO and co-founder of Oho, says you’ll typically have 30 minutes to make your initial pitch to investors and, if it goes well, you’ll be invited back for a more in-depth conversation.

Rogers, who has seen Oho’s child protection software through two successful funding rounds, recommends keeping the pitch deck relatively simple.

“I think for investors in the impact space, there is a focus on the impact [of the solution], and then the commercial evidence of results become important. In other words, do they like what you are doing for the world, and then does it make enough money to be sustainable?” Rogers said.

“And investors want companies that have the capacity to go offshore.”

Dolan agrees an Australian company’s potential to move into international markets is one of the most persuasive factors. He also wants to understand more about the founder, and whether they will be resilient enough to take the business all the way through the scale-up phase.

A final note: When to budget for marketing and PR

For early-stage startups, marketing and PR foundations are less critical. However, as you move towards Series A funding and beyond, positive media coverage and a professional online presence hold significance with potential investors.