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Prior to launching your campaign, you should build out a robust marketing plan to help ensure you can successfully reach your funding goals.
Marketing strategies
Prior to launching your campaign, you should build out a robust marketing plan to help ensure you can successfully reach your funding goals. 
Gauging Interest
Prior to your Investment Campaign going live, you should start building a list of potential investors to find out how much investment interest exists in your community. Keep in mind that communications made before the Form C filing will require a disclaimer. See our compliance guide for more detail.
We strongly encourage all of our founders to engage in some interest-gauging activity before they launch their Investment Campaign.Get personal with people in your network
Start your outreach early and get buy-in from family, friends, and people in your professional network.
Some founders may host office hours or small group events to give potential investors a chance to ask questions.
Send out a TypeForm
Once you've had some initial conversations, a TypeForm can be a great way to start getting a sense of investor interest.
Here's an example.
Use our Investor Hit List
Once you have a sense of who your first movers might be, you should be sure to track them in a spreadsheet. Consistent communication is key and you'll need a place to keep your notes organized.
Here's the template.
Build a Teaser page
Teaser pages are a simple way to collect email addresses and potential investment amounts.
Build your teaser here. It only takes 5 minutes!
Run a Reservation Campaign
When you're closer to filing your Form C and launching your Investment Campaign, you can consider running a Reservation Campaign to start building traction.
Once your Investment Campaign is live, individuals that make a reservation will have 7 days to confirm their investment. Conversion rates range from 60-80% on average.
Social media
Social media can be a great way to engage your fans and educate your community about your investment campaign.Be authentic
Your campaign marketing should look and feel like the brand your community already loves and engages with. Stick with the type of content that already works for you and tweak the CTA or messaging.
Celebrate your investors
Everyone wants to be the hero. Celebrate your investors by sharing their reviews and thanking them. Social proof is an important element to show the rest of your community that this is a bandwagon worth jumping on.
Be mission forward
Your community is invested for a reason. Stay true to your mission and your fans will continue to support you.
Educate your fans
How familiar is your audience with private investing? Most audiences need a basic primer on what it means, how to do it, and what to expect afterward. Build trust with your community by ensuring they're as informed as possible.
Emphasize community ownership
Wealth is created through ownership. Help your investors brag about their new "part-owner" badge. Also brag about being a company that's sharing their success with their community - it doesn't get much better than that.
Running paid ad campaigns
Implementing paid advertising can be an effective way to increase visibility for your campaign.
Leverage your community and personal networks to get you to your initial milestones and then use social media advertising to bring things to the next level. If you're interested in an introduction to a performance marketing agency, reach out to your campaign manager. The RoAS for paid ad campaigns can be anywhere from 2-10x, so pay attention to performance and budget accordingly.
- Our best practices
Take a data-driven approach and set clear KPIs
Take a balanced approach to objectives (awareness, traffic, conversions) as well as targeting (prospecting, retargeting)
Use Facebook Pixels, implemented in line with best practices, to optimize campaigns and report
Run 6 ad sets per campaign, run 6 ads per ad set
Run vertical 16:9, and square 1:1 aspect ratio creative to appear in both Stories and Feeds appropriately
Have varying copy options in every ad
Run a mix of Link, Video and Carousel ads
Tag ads with UTMs to compare click and view-based attribution
Limit budget changes to 20%, every 48 hours to avoid resuming the learning mode
Avoid publishing targeting and creative until all changes are configured into sprints to minimize the time in learning mode
Email outreach templates
A strong email outreach plan can drive success for your Republic campaign. Check out our templates below. - Nurture campaign email templates
- An email nurture campaign is one way to start building trust with your community. Nurture campaigns should be leveraged prior to the launch of your Investment Campaign to educate your potential investors on your company and the upcoming offering. We suggest you use this email flow to follow up with people who responded to your Investment Interest Typeform, Reservation Campaign, or teaser page. Check it out here.
- Live campaign email templates
- While you're live, you'll need to keep the momentum going. A steady cadence of emails over the course of your campaign will keep your community interested and help you convert as many people as possible. Check it out here.
- Personal network outreach templates
- People you know personally should receive their own outreach prior to launch. Email is a great place to start, but don't be afraid to send a text or jump on a phone call. These are your biggest supporters so don't be shy!
Check it out here.
- Angel investor outreach templates
- Much like your friends and family, angel investors should receive dedicated outreach with a personal touch. You may need to reach out more than once to get a response. Angel Investors will be more familiar with investing than other members of your community, so make sure you are prepared to answer the tough questions. Check out our Angel Investor Outreach List. Check out our Angel Investor Outreach Email Template.
- Deal term summary sheet
- When you launch your offering, you'll file a document called the Form C. The Form C contains all of the relevant disclosures for the offerings and has all of the information an investor would need to know. That said, the Form C is a long document! While you're doing outreach, it may be helpful to give investors a summary sheet so they can get the details they need and refer to the Form C as needed. Check it out here.
Media & PR
Raising awareness is critical if your fundraising strategy involves activating a large community of small check writers. Every campaign page has a quantifiable conversion rate. The average conversion rate for Reg CF campaigns on Republic is ~3.5%.
Some visitors will be more inclined to convert than others. For example, an audience that arrives at your campaign page from an investment-focused email newsletter will generally produce more investment volume than visitors from a non-finance based publication feature.
Some visitors will be more inclined to convert than others. For example, an audience that arrives at your campaign page from an investment-focused email newsletter will generally produce more investment volume than visitors from a non-finance based publication feature.
The more visitors you can get to your page, the more investment volume you can expect. Here are a few ways to drive more people to your campaign.
- Media Outreach
- Raising awareness is an essential part of running a successful campaign. You should aim to get as many eyeballs on your deal page as possible. The larger the top of the funnel, the more people you can expect to ultimately convert. Check out our media outreach list and our media outreach template. When reaching out to these media outlets, spend a few minutes to understand their audience and what stories they may be interested in telling. Your pitch may vary by publication.
- Press Release Guidance
- A press release is an easy way to start getting the word out and announce to the world that you’re launching on Republic. Review our press release guidance and examples to get a sense of best practices. Examples: TipSnaps, Fishbrain, Lexi Devices
- Website Banner
- Adding a banner to your company website is a great way to drive your community to the Republic deal page. Here is a quick overview of how to set up a banner. You can also find instructions in your onboarding dashboard.
- Live Events
- Events like industry conferences can be a great way to find prospective investors. If you have a booth or are making a presentation, be sure to create a QR code that links to your Investment Campaign or Reservation Campaign. Alternatively, if you’ll be speaking with people one-on-one, a quick sign-up form on an iPad can help generate leads for an email campaign.
Influencers
It sometimes only takes 1 influencer to drive significant investment volume to your campaign. It doesn’t need to be a celebrity – just a person who has a network that trusts them. 
Communication
When promoting and/or linking to the Republic campaign, influencers are not expected to be able to answer questions about the campaign. All questions should be directed to the campaign page.
Your pitch: This is a way for their
followers and customers to build wealth
by investing in private companies. It is
also a unique opportunity for them to
advocate for a company or mission they
are passionate about.
Your pitch: This is a way for their
followers and customers to build wealth
by investing in private companies. It is
also a unique opportunity for them to
advocate for a company or mission they
are passionate about.
Connecting
Reach out to leaders in your space and introduce them to your campaign.
LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for this. Depending on your industry, other platforms like YouTube or Twitter may also be relevant.
Make sure to leverage your existing investors, advisors and friends who can share your campaign with their communities.
LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for this. Depending on your industry, other platforms like YouTube or Twitter may also be relevant.
Make sure to leverage your existing investors, advisors and friends who can share your campaign with their communities.
Compensating
You may not compensate influencers based on the investment volume they drive to your campaign.
You can compensate influencers based on metrics that aren't tied to investment volume (Ex: the traffic they drive, how many clicks their posts get, etc.) You can track traffic using UTM links.
If an influencer is being compensated, they must disclose this in their posts and follow the same Ad Regulations as your team.
You can compensate influencers based on metrics that aren't tied to investment volume (Ex: the traffic they drive, how many clicks their posts get, etc.) You can track traffic using UTM links.
If an influencer is being compensated, they must disclose this in their posts and follow the same Ad Regulations as your team.
Webinars
Webinars and other online events are a great way to further engage both your Republic followers/investors as well as members of your own community during your campaign. We generally suggest hosting at least 1 webinar while your campaign is live. Most founders choose to do this in week 3 or 4. Some founders will also do an additional “Last Chance to Invest” Webinar. You can even host webinars before your campaign as long as you include the relevant disclosure.Steps to hosting a successful webinar:
1. Use a reliable webinar hosting service like GoToWebinar, EasyWebinar, or Zoom's Video Webinar to facilitate your event
2. Advertise the webinar across your channels starting from about two weeks out (email, social media, Republic's update section, etc.)
3. If you plan on doing a Q+A portion, encourage participants to submit questions ahead of time
4. Structure the webinar in a way where your attendees will get the most value. An example is a 10-20 minute introductory presentation to your company, the campaign, and recent accomplishments, followed by 10-20 minutes of Q+A (including answering the questions that may have been submitted ahead of time)
2. Advertise the webinar across your channels starting from about two weeks out (email, social media, Republic's update section, etc.)
3. If you plan on doing a Q+A portion, encourage participants to submit questions ahead of time
4. Structure the webinar in a way where your attendees will get the most value. An example is a 10-20 minute introductory presentation to your company, the campaign, and recent accomplishments, followed by 10-20 minutes of Q+A (including answering the questions that may have been submitted ahead of time)
- Compliance Guidelines
Confirm with your securities counsel whether or not an amendment to the Offering Documents is required. Be sure to review the structure & content of the webinar with your securities counsel to ensure compliance.
Send an invitation to the webinar through your "updates" section.
Record the webinar and post the video to your "updates" section.
Get a transcript of the webinar to post to your "updates" section. Rev.com is a great transcription tool!
If you are hosting a webinar prior to launch, be sure to include the TTW disclaimer.
Perks: The basics
Perks aren't the reason why most investors will invest, but they can be a great way to incentivize investors to commit more capital and toconvert investors into customers or users. Check out our perk examples below!
Your perk strategy:
• We recommend keeping the perk tiers low and approachable. For example: $250, $500, $1,000, $2,500, $5,000, $10,000, $25,000.
• Make sure that your first perk level is slightly above your minimum investment amount ($50-100 higher than the minimum). We suggest setting your investment minimum somewhere between of $150-$300.
• Think about introducing some perks in limited quantities to boost demand.
• Make sure that your first perk level is slightly above your minimum investment amount ($50-100 higher than the minimum). We suggest setting your investment minimum somewhere between of $150-$300.
• Think about introducing some perks in limited quantities to boost demand.
Our top tips:
• If you have a B2C company, offering a discount on your products (in the form of a promo-code) can be a great way to introduce them to your investors, leading to new customers.
• If you don’t have a B2C company but still would like to offer physical rewards like swag, we suggest that you only offer these if you have experience doing so because fulfillment can be onerous. Product previews, office tours, and meetings with team leadership can be a great substitute for physical perks.
• Investors often find significant value in being able to engage with the founders and leaders of the companies that they invest in. Consider offering video calls (group or 1-on-1) with investors as perks as well.
• Make sure your perks are easy to understand and have high perceived value.
• Note that you cannot offer different deal terms as a perk of the campaign.
• If you don’t have a B2C company but still would like to offer physical rewards like swag, we suggest that you only offer these if you have experience doing so because fulfillment can be onerous. Product previews, office tours, and meetings with team leadership can be a great substitute for physical perks.
• Investors often find significant value in being able to engage with the founders and leaders of the companies that they invest in. Consider offering video calls (group or 1-on-1) with investors as perks as well.
• Make sure your perks are easy to understand and have high perceived value.
• Note that you cannot offer different deal terms as a perk of the campaign.
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