Your business plan and pitch are polished and persuasive. Your genius idea has been validated, or, better yet, you’ve got paying customers. Once investors kick in funding, you’ll be that much closer to making the business you’ve envisioned a reality.
Of course, taking on outside investment ups the ante. Now it’s not just your money on the line. Returns are expected. The pressure is on.
Not to mention that growth presents its own challenges, ones you probably can’t or don’t want to tackle all by yourself. When those challenges arise, sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself (and your investors) is hire good help.
In our experience, most companies grasp the importance of obtaining stand-out branding. But once they have it, they struggle to successfully inject it into their online presence. Developing a robust digital platform is a crucial and often neglected part of preparations to scale your business. But investing in it early can generate the success metrics you need to pave the way for future funding rounds.
To help you laser focus your investment, we’ve broken down exactly which agency services will meet your digital marketing needs at every funding stage, from pre-seed through IPO. Skip what you don’t need right now, so you can get your hands on solutions that’ll move the needle.
Pre-Seed Funding
Aka the stage where founders are trying to get operations off the ground.
Challenges you’re facing:
- Basically, all of them
What you need:
- Product Strategy
- Visual Design
- Branding
- Competitor Research
- Platform Roadmaps
As you’re getting your biz up and running, a savvy digital partner can help you lay a sustainable foundation with services like strategy, branding, and competitor research. They can also collaborate on a roadmap for your online platform, so you know precisely which steps to follow to achieve your short and long-term goals, freeing you up to handle all the thrilling new issues that are bound to crop up in future funding stages. (Heh.)
Seed Funding
Aka the first official equity funding stage. This early financial support helps grow the business, funding things like market research and product development. So-called “angel investors” commonly participate in this funding phase in exchange for an equity stake in the company. Investments usually range from $10K to $2 million.
Challenges you’re facing:
- Scaling your tech to serve a growing user base
- Delivering great user experiences with limited resources
- Distinguishing your brand from competitors
What you need:
- User Research
- Product Strategy
- Data Analytics
- Platform Roadmaps
- Content Creation
- Prototypes
- User Experience
- User Interfaces
- WordPress
Knowing your audience is key to success in the seed funding stage. Any strategist worth their salt will analyze and interpret research you may have done already, then fill in gaps through competitive audits, focus groups, interviews, and user testing.
Additionally, if your startup is dev or engineering-led, you’d likely benefit from a UX prototype. It increases the quality of your product from the jump and potentially saves you a boatload of money in rework.
Series A Funding
Aka the round where businesses with a track record of early successes may go after funding to enhance their user base and product offerings or scale the product across various markets. This is when more traditional venture capital firms come into play. Series A rounds usually raise $2 to $15 million.
Challenges you’re facing:
- Developing a business model that fosters long-term profitability
What you need:
- Taxonomy & Categorization
- Information Architecture
- User Research for New Markets
- Website Localization Strategy
- WordPress
- PHP / Laravel
- React & JavaScript
- Elasticsearch
- Mobile & Native App
- DevOps
- Requirements Definition
- Branding
- User Experience Design
- User Interface Design
- Visual Design
- Design Systems
A pragmatic engineering approach and modular systems lead to flexible digital platforms that are ready to scale with your biz. A dev partner that extends your digital footprint across multiple channels without excess overhead keeps your stack adaptable as needs change.
Series B Funding
Aka the round that takes well-established businesses to the next level, growing them to meet higher demand levels. Most of this funding is put toward talent acquisition. (Teamwork makes the dream work and all that.) In a series B round, you have all the investors you’d encounter in the previous round plus venture capital firms focused on late-stage investments. The median estimated capital raised in a Series B in 2020 was $26 million.
Challenges you’re facing:
- Scaling
- Attracting quality talent, including sales, advertising, tech, and support pros
What you need:
- Content Inventory
- Content Gap Analysis
- Content Governance
- User Research
- Website Localization Strategy
- Engineering
- WordPress
- PHP / Laravel
- React & JavaScript
- Elasticsearch
- Mobile & Native App
- DevOps
- Requirements Definition
- Intranet Platform
- Branding
- User Experience Design
- User Interface Design
- Design Systems
When you’ve had enough success to progress to series B funding (Woo!), you should lean on an innovative partner to create visual impact and digital user experiences that inspire prospective customers and employees to act. High-quality design and content strategy services, in particular, can help you connect with audiences on an emotional level, making each interaction with your brand meaningful.
Series C Funding
Aka the final round of external equity funding a company raises. Businesses that make it to Series C are doing well and looking to develop new products, expand into new markets, or acquire other businesses. Some go on to raise Series D and Series E funding, but a Series C round is often the final push before an Initial Public Offering.
At this stage, businesses are considered less risky, and the scope of investors expands to include hedge funds, private equity firms, and investment banks. The median pre-money valuation for Series C companies in 2021 was about $68 million.
Challenges you’re facing:
- Conducting solid market research
- Planning for expansion
- Basing valuations on hard data instead of expectations for future success
What you need:
- Revisited Platform Roadmaps
- Website / App Redesigns
- Additional User Research
- Additional Competitor Research
- Analytics Analysis
- Content Creation
- Additional Website Localization
- Branding Across Additional Digital Touchpoints
- Design Systems Across Additional Digital Touchpoints
Successful digital strategy demands equilibrium—balancing business goals with user needs, comprehensive scope with edge case realities, and data-informed best practices with innovation-inspired creativity. It’s a lot to juggle, and when you’re a booming business raising Series C funds, you need an experienced partner to keep you reaching for the stars without losing your head in the clouds.
At that pivotal moment, it’s wise to hire an agency to lead redesign efforts, conduct additional research, support website localization, or extend your brand across more digital touchpoints.
IPO
Aka when a private company sells shares of stock to the public for the first time. IPOs not only raise new funding for growth but also provide an opportunity for early investors to make a profit. Most companies undertake an IPO with the help of an investment bank that also gets the shares listed on the stock exchange. An IPO valuation mainly depends on a company’s future growth projections. The median value of U.S. companies before their IPO in 2020 was $577 million.
Challenges you’re facing:
- Positioning the company to be appealing on a mass scale
What you need:
- Website Performance Enhancements
- High-Quality News / PR Website
- Revisited Platform Roadmaps
- Website / App Redesigns
- Content Creation
- Additional Website Localization
- Branding Across Additional Digital Touchpoints
- Design Systems Across Additional Digital Touchpoints
Iteration—in design and development—allows you to compare and contrast approaches that nearly guarantee improvement and the change necessary to grow. So when you’re gearing up for an IPO, thoughtful investment and iteration on your platform is critical. This is the perfect time to ensure your websites are performant, accessible, and looking great, that your content is engaging and discoverable, and that your news / PR site is ready for extra scrutiny.
Money, Money, Money
We hope this blog post has given you a solid understanding of which agency services will meet your digital marketing needs at every funding stage. Now, you’re probably wondering about cost and how much dinero you should set aside for digital efforts. Here are some broad baseline ranges to get you started.
Digital Strategy / Discovery Engagement $50K-$90K
Earlier-Stage Digital Design & Development Engagement $150K-$250K
Later-Stage Digital Design & Development Engagement $200K-$500K
Honing in on the combo of services and budget that’s just right for you calls for a conversation. If you think Modern Tribe could be the agency partner you’re looking for, we’re down to chat. Fill out our contact form, and a member of our sales team will be in touch ASAP.
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