Published on November 25th, 2022
Investors are people who want to see a return on their money. They’re looking for innovative ideas that are likely to succeed, but they also want to see that you’re capable of running your business well.
If you can convince them that your startup is one of these rare gems, then they’ll be more likely to give you money. Here are some tips for making yourself more attractive as an entrepreneur:
Use Social Proof
Social proof is a way of showing that your company has already been successful. This is particularly important if you don’t have much experience in the market or aren’t well-known for your product or service yet.
Social proof can take many forms, such as testimonials, case studies, endorsements, and awards.
In marketing materials (including your website), make sure social proof is prominently displayed so investors will notice it when they visit your site or read through all the material you send them to convince them of your business’s viability and worthiness as an investment opportunity.
Show Traction
You have to show investors that you’re making money and that you can continue to do so in the future.
You should be able to answer questions like: How many users do you have? What percentage of those are active each month? How much revenue are they producing for the company? Is this number growing over time?
If a product is mature and has been around for some time, one way to demonstrate traction is through customer acquisition costs (CAC), or how much it costs per customer acquired.
You might also consider relying on metrics like customer lifetime value (LTV) or average revenue per user (ARPU) as an indicator of healthy growth potential.
Improve Your Website
A website with a strong brand, clear value proposition, and a strong call to action is critical in capturing the interest of investors.
If your site is hard to navigate or too basic looking, it will turn off investors and make them think that you’re not ready for prime time.*
- Here are a few things you can do:
- Add a “Contact Us” page on your website that gives investors an easy way to reach out and talk about their interest in investing. This allows you to build relationships with potential investors before they even have access to your pitch deck or presentation.*
Test Your Ideas Before Writing A Business Plan
Before writing a business plan, you should test your idea to see whether it’s viable. It’s better to conduct this type of testing before spending time and money on a full-blown business plan.
You can find out whether there is demand for your product or service by doing interviews, surveys and focus groups with potential customers.
You may also want to consider running a small feasibility study in which you interview potential investors and ask them how they would respond if they were presented with the opportunity to invest in your company (or not).
This is an excellent way of finding out whether the market thinks that your idea has value.
Run A Pre-Launch Campaign
Running a pre-launch campaign is an excellent way to get your startup in front of potential customers and build buzz around the product.
The goal is to tell people about what you’re building and get them excited about it before it launches, so they’ll be waiting for it with bated breath when it does.
You can use social media and email marketing campaigns to generate excitement for your new project.
You might also want to offer some kind of incentive for people who sign up early—free swag or access to exclusive content are both good ideas here.
If you have a mailing list already (from any other business ventures), that would be a great place to start building your audience.
One example of a successful pre-launch campaign comes from Kickstarter darling Pebble Technology, which raised $10 million in funding through an aggressive PR blitz ahead of its Kickstarter launch in 2012—and then went on to raise $20 million within weeks after launching its crowdfunding campaign!
Investors Will Be More Likely To Take You Seriously If You’ve Done These Things
Having a well-designed website, a solid business plan, and social proof all make it more likely that investors will be interested in your startup.
- Social Proof – Investors want to invest in things that other people are also investing in. If you can show that other companies are using your product or service and they are happy with the results, then investors may think they’ll get similar results.
- Traction – Investors want to know what your company has accomplished so far. Have you generated any revenue? How many customers do you have? How much money do you make per month (or year)? How much traffic does your website receive each week/month/year?
- Design – The design of your site is important because if it looks good, then people will be more likely to visit it and stay on longer than if the design were ugly or confusing (this helps increase engagement). A great example of this is Basecamp’s website which is extremely simple yet effective in getting information across quickly while also looking good!
Conclusion
We hope these tips have helped you to make your startup more attractive to investors.
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, check out our other blog posts on how to find investors and raise money online.
Image Source: unsplash.com
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