What goes on an offering page, and what makes it convert

An offering page that converts answers four questions in order: what the company does, why it will work, what the investor is buying, and what could go wrong. The pitch, the video, the team, and the traction answer the first two. The use of proceeds, the terms summary, and the risk factors answer the last two. Every word of it has to match the Form C or the offering circular, and part of the page belongs to the platform rather than to you. This post is the content, section by section. Speed and mobile layout are their own subject, covered in offering-landing-page-mobile-speed.

We are marketers, not lawyers. What follows is how we build pages that read well and hold up. It may not fit your offering, and your securities counsel should approve the page before it goes live.

Who controls what on the page?

Start here, because it decides what you can change and how fast.

On a Reg CF raise the page lives on the funding portal or broker-dealer. The issuer writes most of it: the pitch, the video, the team, the narrative sections. The rules put some of the page in the intermediary's hands: it must make the issuer's Form C information publicly available on its platform under Rule 303(a), and it must provide the communication channel under Rule 303(c). Beyond that, the split varies by platform. Most also control the template, the investment flow, the terms panel, and the progress bar, and review your content before it goes up. Ask yours what it controls before you write.

On a Reg A+ raise the issuer often runs its own offering site, with a platform or broker-dealer handling the investment flow behind it. That gives you more control of the page and more responsibility for it. The offering circular still governs every claim.

What it means for the campaign: write the page in a document you own, get counsel's comments there, and submit it to the platform once. Edits made directly in a platform editor, a week into the raise, are how a page drifts away from its filing.

The pitch: what order converts?

The pitch is the long narrative section, and it works best in a fixed order.

1. The one-line summary. What the company does, in plain words, above the fold. Not the mission. The product.
2. The problem. Who has it and how much it costs them. One paragraph, with a number you can source.
3. The solution. What you built, shown rather than described. A photo of the product beats a paragraph about it.
4. Traction. What has already happened. Revenue, customers, units shipped, signed contracts, waitlists.
5. The market. How big the opportunity is, with the source named. A bottom-up estimate reads more honestly than a top-down one.
6. The business model. How the company makes money and what the margins look like.
7. The team. Why these people can do it.
8. The raise. How much, at what terms, and what the money is for.

The order matters because a prospective investor is deciding whether to keep reading at every heading. Traction comes early because it is the section that most often turns a curious reader into a serious one. The terms come late because a reader who reaches them already wants the company to work.

Write each section as an answer. "We have shipped twelve thousand units since launch" beats "Strong market validation." Projections, if you use them at all, need counsel's sign-off and a clear label as estimates. Many issuers leave them out of the page entirely.

The video: what should it do?

The video is the most watched asset on the page and the one most often wasted. Its job is to make the founder real and the product visible in under three minutes.

• Open with the product, not the logo.
• Put the founder on camera, speaking plainly. Investors back people.
• Show traction on screen as it is mentioned.
• Caption it. Most visitors watch on a phone with the sound off.
• End with the raise, not a slogan, and keep any claim about the offering within what the filing says.

The video is offering material. A forward-looking line spoken by the founder is held to the same standard as one written in the pitch. Run the script past counsel before the shoot, not after the edit.

The team: what earns trust?

List the people an investor is betting on: founders, officers, and the directors named in the filing. For each, a photo, a title, and one or two sentences on what they have done that matters to this company. Prior exits, relevant operating roles, and domain experience carry weight. Generic adjectives do not.

Advisors belong on the page only if they are genuinely engaged and have agreed to be named. An advisor list padded with recognizable names is the section prospective investors trust least, and anyone named should match how the filing describes them.

Traction: how do you show it without overstating it?

Traction is evidence, so present it as evidence. Use real numbers, name the period, and say what the number is. Revenue is not bookings. Signups are not customers. Letters of intent are not contracts.

Every figure on the page should trace to the financial statements or another disclosure in the filing. If the page says revenue doubled, the Form C or offering circular should show it. A number that cannot be traced is the number the platform's reviewer will flag first, and the one that causes trouble later if it turns out to be wrong.

Use of proceeds: how specific should it be?

Specific enough that an investor can picture the next eighteen months. A table or a simple chart of where the money goes (product, hiring, marketing, inventory, working capital) with rough percentages is the usual format.

It must match the use of proceeds in the filing. If the filing shows different allocations at the minimum and the maximum raise, the page should either show both or describe the range honestly. Changing the use of proceeds during the raise can be a material change, with the consequences covered in campaign-updates-material-changes.

The terms summary: what does the investor need to see?

The terms summary is the panel that says what is being sold. The type of security, the price per share or the valuation cap, the minimum investment, the target and maximum, the closing date, and any perks or bonus shares. On many Reg CF platforms this panel is generated from the filing and the issuer cannot edit it directly, which is a feature.

Where you write about the terms in your own words, keep them consistent with that panel and the filing to the letter. A rounded valuation, a minimum quoted from an earlier draft, or a closing date that has moved are all small errors that read as large ones to an investor comparing the page to the documents.

Explain the terms rather than just state them. A reader who does not know what a valuation cap is will not invest in one. A short plain-English paragraph, or a link to the definition, removes the reason to leave. For how the escrow and closings work, link to escrow-rolling-closes-missed-target instead of restating it.

Risk factors: why are they required, and why do they help?

Risk factors are required. Both the Form C and the offering circular include them, and the platform will link to them or show them on the page. Many issuers treat them as legal boilerplate to bury. That is a mistake on two counts.

First, they protect the company. A risk that was disclosed is much harder to complain about later than one that was not.

Second, they build trust. A prospective investor who reads a risk section written for this company, rather than copied from a template, learns that management sees the business clearly. "We depend on one supplier for our main component" says more about a team's judgment than any line in the pitch. Investors in these offerings know most early-stage companies fail. A page that admits risk reads as more credible, not less.

What it means for the campaign: make the risk factors easy to find, written in plain language, and specific to the company. Do not argue with them elsewhere on the page. A pitch that says "there is no competition" next to a risk factor about competition undermines both.

Consistency with the filing: the rule over all of it

The offering page is offering material. The filing is the source of truth, and the page has to agree with it. Every figure, every claim, every description of the terms.

A short checklist before launch:

• Every number on the page appears in the filing, or is clearly sourced.
• The terms on the page match the terms panel and the filing exactly.
• The use of proceeds matches.
• The team list matches the officers and directors disclosed.
• Forward-looking statements are labeled and approved by counsel.
• The required legends and links to the filing are present and visible.

Run it again whenever the page changes during the raise. A page edit is easy. A page edit that contradicts the filing is the kind of problem that brings on an amendment, and on a Reg CF raise a material amendment puts every existing commitment at risk, as reg-cf-forms-explained explains.

What does the page need after launch?

The page keeps working after the open. Updates posted through the platform keep the page current and give returning visitors a reason to commit. Comments need answers, carefully, under the rules in moderating-comments-during-a-raise. And everything driving traffic to the page, from ads to emails, has to tell the same story the page tells.

This is general information about offering content under the securities exemptions, not legal advice. Your securities counsel and your intermediary decide what your offering page may say and what it must include.

FAQ

What should an equity crowdfunding offering page include?

A plain one-line summary, the problem and solution, traction, the market, the business model, the team, a short founder video, the use of proceeds, a summary of the terms, and the risk factors. Every claim must be consistent with the Form C or offering circular.

Are risk factors required on an offering page?

Risk factors are required in the offering documents, the Form C for Reg CF and the offering circular for Reg A+, and the platform presents or links to them. Written specifically for the company, they also build trust with prospective investors.

Can the offering page say things that are not in the Form C?

The page may present information in a different format, but nothing on it should contradict or go beyond the filing in a way that misleads. Every figure should trace to the filing or another disclosed source. Counsel and the platform's compliance team review the page before launch.

Who controls the offering page on a Reg CF platform?

The issuer writes most of the content: the pitch, the video, and the team section. The funding portal or broker-dealer controls the template, the investment flow, the terms panel drawn from the filing, and the required disclosures, and it reviews issuer content before it goes live.

How long should an offering video be?

Under three minutes is a good target. Open with the product, put the founder on camera, caption it for silent viewing, and keep every claim within what the filing says.