Campaign Marketing Toolkit
We have pulled together all the tools you need to put your campaign marketing strategy into practice, so you can inspire your customers, fans, and supporters to come aboard as shareholders, and raise a successful round on Republic Europe.
What’s in this toolkit:
1. Compliance overview
2. Email marketing templates
3. Visual templates
Realise the power of crowdfunding with an effective marketing strategy
Acquire customers
For those who already know, love, and trust your brand, your raise is an opportunity to become financially invested in its future. For newer audiences, it boosts brand awareness that may extend long after your investment round is complete.
Engage your fans
A raise with Republic Europe will help you build and engage with a loyal tribe of followers and brand ambassadors. Customers become investors and investors become customers. That’s the power of crowdfunding done properly.
Secure the funds you need
Inspire your customers, fans, and supporters to come aboard as shareholders, whether they bring £10 or £10,000 to the table. Secure the funds you need right now, as well as the brand exposure you need for the future.
A successful campaign is a compliant one
You should be aware that your marketing of the campaign may involve financial promotions. We have prepared some frequently asked questions that you should be aware of to help you run an engaging and compliant campaign.
This guidance is largely based on our interpretation of the financial promotions regulations published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), including rules requiring enhanced risk warnings that apply to both campaign pages and all external promotions (explained below).
The FCA rules apply to financial promotions made in the UK only. If you’re marketing your campaign outside of the UK, you should check the local financial promotions regulations. Your campaign manager will also be able to provide you with guidance.
What is a financial promotion and why does it matter?
A financial promotion is an ‘invitation or inducement to engage in an investment activity that’s made in the course of business’. Every financial promotion must be made or approved by an FCA-authorised firm like Seedrs (trading as Republic Europe). Your pitch on the Republic Europe platform is a financial promotion, which is why we must verify and approve it. But you should be aware that your marketing of the campaign may also involve financial promotions.
Unless you’re an authorised financial services business it’s unlikely that you or your business can make or approve financial promotions. Doing so is contrary to FCA rules and you risk facing legal action or a fine.
When do these rules apply?
Financial promotions can be oral or written and made in numerous ways. Information provided through emails, social media posts, paid advertising or discussed at events could all be considered financial promotions, if they invite or induce investments.
How can I make sure my campaign marketing is compliant?
Your Republic Europe campaign manager can work with you to ensure your marketing content is compliant. After preparing the content with us, using the templates provided, you can submit it to your campaign manager for approval (please allow 24 hours for a response). We can then approve it as a financial promotion or assist you with making it compliant.
If you don’t use the templates, then any content you send to your campaign manager must include the following FCA specified risk warning:
Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.
The risk warning must follow specific FCA, the CBI Consumer Protection code and the ECSP transparency requirements around design including it must be at the top of the image, contained in its own border, in bold and underlined text, the same font size as the rest of the page, and it must be prominent (which means it cannot be obscured in any way). Please also ensure that the “Take 2 mins to learn more” text correctly links to the Republic Europe website, where we explain the risks in more detail.
Emails
Emails are the most effective way to inform your crowd that you are raising investment. We’ve created a series of email templates below for you to copy and edit. These are based on best practice and our experience. They include suggested copy so that you just need to add your company name, add visuals and customise to fit your brand guidelines. They also include the required risk warning. Using these templates will streamline the financial approval process to ensure you can send your emails out in a timely manner. Once you have adapted these templates, please send over to your campaign manager for final approval before sending them out.
Social media
If your posts on social channels to promote your campaign include any persuasion to invest, then you MUST include the above risk warning, and the reader must ALWAYS see it before the text gets truncated (character length restrictions vary by social channel, so please adapt your copy for each). Where the social media platform does not allow you to include links in the copy text, you can remove the “Take 2 mins to learn more” text from the risk warning. Please send your draft over to your campaign manager for final approval before posting.
Images
You will probably want to use images to pair with your social posts or a banner on your website. If any text is included that is a persuasion to invest, it is also considered a financial promotion and the same guidelines as above apply. We encourage you to work with your campaign manager for best practice.
Approval text
In addition to the above risk warning, your email or social media post also needs to include the following approval text:
“Approved by Republic Europe on dd/mm/yy”
This is an FCA requirement to ensure that Seedrs (Republic Europe) retains responsibility for all of our financial promotions.
This sounds like a lot of work! Is there another option?
For any communications that aren’t approved by Seedrs (trading as Republic Europe), you should ensure that your marketing activity does not fall into the FCA’s definition of a financial promotion. Your communications should not ‘invite’ or ‘induce’ investment into your campaign, but you can still generate interest in your business and let your community know that you’re ‘crowdfunding on R Europe’, directing them to the platform.
Here are some strategies you may want to consider:
- Use phrases that encourage readers to learn more about the campaign such as ‘Find out more’, ‘Check out our campaign page’ or ‘Join our journey’ however do not include a link to your Republic Europe campaign page (as this will turn the page into a financial promotion). Phrases such as ‘Invest now’ or ‘Click here to buy shares’ should not be used.
- Purely factual information about your business, such as news, achievements, or even the fact that you are crowdfunding are unlikely to be considered a financial promotion (provided there is no element of investment persuasion).
Keeping the message about your business, rather than the investment opportunity, will help ensure that you aren’t making a financial promotion. Avoid using terms such as “Invest here” and opt for phrases such as “Join or journey” or “Find out more about our campaign”.
What happens if I send out an unapproved financial promotion?
Making an unapproved financial promotion is against FCA regulation and in doing so you risk legal action or a fine. Do not use the Republic Europe or Seedrs logo, disclaimer or approval copy for marketing that we have not approved as a financial promotion. If you do so, Republic Europe reserves the right to cancel your campaign immediately and/or charge you a damages fee of £10,000 +VAT for breaking our terms.
How can I use the Republic Europe brand name?
In July, Seedrs began trading as Republic Europe, part of Republic – the world’s largest private investing platform. Whilst Republic branding will start to appear across the company’s website and emails, some legacy of the Seedrs brand will still remain, such as our legal entity licenced name, Seedrs Limited, or its investment infrastructure, for example, the Seedrs Nominee.
Can I still refer to Seedrs in my campaign marketing?
Yes you can – although as your audience will end up on the URL europe.republic.com it may be a good idea to let them know these are one and the same brand! An example of communicating the transition could be:
“We are launching a fundraising campaign soon on Seedrs, now part of Republic”
Or
“We are launching a fundraising campaign soon on Republic Europe, formerly Seedrs”
When can I not use Republic Europe?
Please follow the following guidelines for using our new brand name:
Please note that Republic Europe does not provide legal advice of any kind, and nothing in this guide constitutes such advice. If you have any questions with respect to financial promotions compliance, you should consult a professional adviser.
Light up their inboxes
When it comes to promoting your raise, email marketing is your secret weapon. Your email touchpoints will be your strongest for conversion during your campaign. Inspire them with your mission and help them navigate the Republic Europe signup process so they can invest in your success.
The Republic Europe email templates
We’ve included five email templates, each tailored to the stages of your round. These templates will allow you capitalise on your campaign’s milestones to help convert your community.
- Crafted in-house by our Republic Europe marketing pros
- They can be customised to fit your brand guidelines – just add your company name!
- Streamline the financial promotion approval process… the closer you stick to these templates, the faster your financial promotion review will be.
Using the templates
You can simply download and adjust the HTML, or, if you’re a Mailchimp user and you’d like to use the drag-and-drop builder, open the templates in Mailchimp directly.
Always make sure to send any communications to your campaign manager to sign off before distributing to your community.
Investor Education
This email template is designed to guide your fans through the process of becoming an investor. It includes useful details about how to set up an account and get ready to invest.
Pre-launch
This email template is designed for your pre-launch phase. You should reach out to your network multiple times with different versions of this email in order to drive traffic to your pre-registration landing page.Let your audience know that you’re crowdfunding, why you’re crowdfunding and why you’re excited to bring them on board as shareholders. Be sure to tailor your messaging depending on the recipient. Potential big tickets will appreciate a little more personalisation, while customers might appreciate something more casual.
By pre-registering for your campaign new users will begin their mandatory 24 hour cooling off period, which means they’ll be ready to invest when your campaign launches.
Countdown to private launch
This email should be sent to all pre-registered users to create excitement prior to the private launch of your campaign. It also gives them the chance to get ready to invest by signing up to Republic Europe and verifying their identity. Feel free to direct any support-related queries to eu-support@republic.com.
Private launch
This email should be sent to all pre-registered users to invite them to invest in your crowdfunding campaign during the private phase. It will drive traffic to your campaign page on Republic Europe and notify them that the campaign is now open for investment, and encourage them to invest before the pitch opens publicly on Republic Europe. You can segment your send, to ensure your warmest investors receive access first.
Pledged investor outreach
This email can be sent to pre-registered users who have pledged to invest smaller amounts in the campaign (for example £20-£10k or more). Reaching out to these investors can ramp up engagement, build momentum and allow you to promote exclusive access to your priority list. Our template includes the Republic Europe support contact to help with any queries.
High ticket investor outreach
This email can be sent to pre-registered users who have pledged to invest higher amounts in the campaign (for example £10k or more). You’ll want to give these prospective investors extra attention, by offering to schedule a call with them, or providing your personal contact for any queries they may have. If you’re using a CRM, ensure to personalise it with merge tags, and sign it with your name and headshot to give a personal touch.
Countdown to public launch
This email should be sent to all pre-registered users to let them know that the campaign will open publicly soon. It’s designed to encourage them to invest while they still have priority access. You can highlight the momentum of your campaign, including how much you’ve raised so far, and how many investors you’ve brought on board.
Public launch
This email should be sent to all your pre-registered users who haven’t invested yet, to let them know that the campaign is now publicly live on Republic Europe. You can also send this email to any of your contacts who didn’t have the chance to pre-register. You should mention campaign milestones, for example how quickly you raised investment, or how many investors have come on board so far.
Investor perks
If you have any perks available to investors in your campaign, this is your chance to advertise them to your users! If your perks include discounts or merchandise, be sure to include visuals. The best perks emails will highlight the benefits at each ticket size, encouraging investors to invest a little more than they normally would to make the most of them.
Funding milestone
This email can be sent to all pre-registered users and other contacts who haven’t yet invested, to let them know that you’ve hit a milestone such as 100% funded, 100 investors or one week live on the platform. You can send emails like this as often as you like – the more the better! It will keep up momentum for the campaign and drum up new investment.
Closing soon
This email can be sent to pre-registered users, friends and contacts to advise them that there is limited time left to invest in the campaign. You can use subject lines like “Our crowdfunding campaign is closing soon” or “Only 5 days left to check out our campaign”. You may want to include those who have already invested as well, to encourage them to invest a little more before close.
Get visual
Any marketer knows that no ad is complete without a visual. Whether you’re using brand aesthetics, product videos or short gifs, your community will always respond better to engaging visuals paired with your copy.
We’ve included the photoshop files we used to create our templates below. Simply drag in your desired brand imagery or colour palette and adjust the wording to create your very own multi-image animation! For your own branded gif, just click file, export, save to web, and save as a gif that loops “forever”. You can compress your gif’s file size here.
Please make sure you send these to your Campaign Manager for financial promotion sign off before sending out to your community.
Social promotion
Leverage your social platforms to publicise your raise! Every time your company hits a funding milestone, or achieves something great, let your audiences know. You can illustrate these posts with the assets provided, or customise them using our Photoshop files. You can share these on paid and organic social, for maximum reach. Make sure to adjust your copy to appeal to retargeting and prospecting audiences respectively.
Email promotion
We’ve pulled together a simple animation you can drag into any one of your email templates. If you’d like to customise it, simply download the Photoshop file and change any of the colours to your brand palette, or drag in brand imagery. You can adjust the text to reflect your campaign’s milestones. You can upload this asset into the Mailchimp builder, or if you’re not a Mailchimp user, you can drag it into gmail to bring a little life to your investor email.