Playbook: A Step-by-Step guide to nailing funding announcements

First of all, Congrats on raising your latest funding round! ?

Funding round announcements are (almost) free marketing activities that are quite simple to orchestrate and, with the right execution, can drive new business opportunities for your startup.?

I had the privilege to execute several funding round announcements that generated huge awareness and drove traffic to our website, eventually converting into meetings, opportunities, and customers.

In fact, my first funding round announcement generated $400K in qualified pipeline and $150K in revenue (Seed-Stage Startup), and this is the playbook I used.

If I were going to announce a funding round today, I would focus on these activities:?

1. Narrative & Messaging alignment
2. Press Release?
3. Communication with customers, partners, and prospects
4. Video & Creative
5. LinkedIn?& Embargo day?

Bonus: I have added a link to my Funding Announcement Checklist at the bottom of the article.

Narrative, Messaging & Website

Everyone loves a good story, especially reporters. Every piece of messaging and copy is derived from the bigger picture and your company's vision and mission.

As you have probably been preached to many times, the stepping stone of every startup is having a solid strategic narrative that resonates with your audience. Andy Raskin is the master of Strategic Narratives, so I would definitely check out his content on the subject to get inspired.

Once you have your strategic narrative in place, now its time to align your messaging across the website, deck, 1-pager, social media profiles, etc.

Narrative, positioning, and messaging change many times throughout a startup's lifecycle so I would focus on being consistent and not perfect.

Remember, the successful messages that brought home this VC funding round are probably not the same messages that will generate new business opportunities for your startup.

This guide is a great way to begin working on your homepage messaging.

Important Tip#1: Get customer feedback on your story and website messaging.

If you want your ICP to relate to your story and buy your product, what better way to get affirmation on your narrative and messaging than speaking with your customers?

If you don't have enough customers or getting existing customer feedback is challenging, I would try out Wynter . They offer some sort of 'Feedback as a service' directly from your ICP, so you can get that customer feedback pretty fast (In 48 hours) from exactly who you are selling to.

Important Tip#2: Your website is your 24/7 Sales Rep; make sure that it always has the right pitch and messaging and always looks its best. Don't assume that whoever comes to your website is already interested enough to buy; the majority are researching and spend less than 30 seconds on a homepage.

Important Tip #3: Make sure all your open positions are on the careers page and that you have linked a calendar/demo form to your website to make it easy for prospects and potential partners to contact you.

PR (Press Release)

Dreaming of that "Something.ai raised $15M Series A to save the world" headline in TechCrunch?

Every founder wants to get that visibility and recognition, but you have to work hard and smart for it. PR and reporters can be a bit tricky at times.

In order to improve your chances of getting as many PR publications as possible, and with top outlets like TechCrunch, CRN, and VentureBeat, this is what you need to do:

• Identify media outlets and build a wish list comprised of General outlets such as TechCrunch and VentureBeat, Industry-Specific outlets such as CyberMagazine.com for Cyber Security, Devops.com for Cloud and DevOps, and Local Media outlets in the country your startup resides in. Having such a wish list will focus the PR agency, set expectations straight, and avoid any unnecessary disappointments (e.g., if you raised a small seed round, your chances of reaching TechCrunch are low.)
• Develop key messages from your narrative and talking points with reporters. Think of the dream title that will evoke emotion in the reporter or potential reader. Based on your narrative and messaging from Step 1, the dream title will determine the interest level of your funding round. (For example, Startup x raised $15M Series A to automate Cyber bla bla with AI—BORING!)
• Leverage the PR agency that works with the VC that led the funding round. Every VC has a PR agency on retainer exactly for these types of activities. Working with these PR agencies is your only chance of getting effective PR coverage with as many outlets as possible. The best part is that it's completely?free. (-:
• Draft and distribute the press release with a skilled content writer who specializes in Press Releases. (You can also get this service from the PR agency.) You are the owner of the story; don't expect anyone to write the PR out of thin air. The quality of the Press Release article solely depends on your level of involvement; don't neglect this part.
• Prepare the CEO for interviews and media appearances. Most large media outlets' reporters would like to meet the founder over Zoom to learn more about the business. Better be prepared to talk about the vision and mission.

Communication with customers, partners, and prospects

• Send an email to customers and partners on behalf of the CEO a day before the official announcement. Hearing about the funding round directly from the CEO before the rest of the world increases brand affinity by making them feel special.
• On embargo day (the day and time the PR is published), send an email to all leads and prospects in the pipeline. This is a great touchpoint to revive and push existing opportunities toward the finish line.?
• Post a blog on your website (on embargo day) discussing the funding round and its impact on future developments in executing the company's vision and mission.

Video & Creative

I firmly believe that visuals and creativity have a high impact on brand perception and they make or break the success of social posts, so I suggest investing the time and resources to creating some banners and a video for LinkedIn.?

Examples of funding round videos that are light, fun, and not boring:

Zesty Round A announcement

Firebolt Round C announcement?

LinkedIn & Embargo Day

• Post a “Coming Soon” post (Teaser) from the company and founders' profile 1-2 weeks before the official announcement. This will warm up the LinkedIn algorithm and create some excitement with your audience. Embargo Day:
• Post banners and videos from founders', company's, and employees' profiles.
• To increase the reach and make some noise, have your friends, family, and former colleagues like, comment on, and share your post.?
• Post links to the PR articles for the next 7 days after Embargo Day.
• Tip for Embargo Day: Have a modest celebration at the office with your team. It's a great opportunity to bring everyone together and connect them to your vision and mission.

Summary

You worked hard on getting this funding, make sure you capitalize and make the most out of this announcement, it's a huge marketing event that can potentially help you:

• Generate awareness to your target audience and bring high-quality traffic to your website. Traffic that you would usually pay 10's thousands of $$ with paid advertisement.
• Get on top of other VCs' radars and plant the seeds of your next funding round.
• Attract and hire top talent to work at your startup.
• And so much more.

Remember this list for your next funding announcement:

1. Align your story and website
2. Gain as much PR coverage?
3. Communicate to customers, partners, and prospects.
4. Make it Creative and Special?
5. Make some noise on LinkedIn

For your convenience, I summarized everything in this Checklist for easier use and execution. (Duplicate the doc to your environment)

Thanks for reading!

What else should I add to the “Funding Announcement Playbook?”

Please let me know in the comments!