What is a Marketer’s Role in a Capital Raise? (And What It’s Not)

Rob Giles
Oct 15
4 min read

“If I hire a marketer, capital will flow in.” Right?

Wrong.

Marketing doesn’t drive commitments; it drives leads.

Marketing is critical to a successful capital raise, but it’s not magic. No amount of emails, social media posts, or ads will convince an investor to wire $50,000. And it’s not a marketer’s job to pick up the phone, qualify investors, and collect commitments. Instead, marketing lays the groundwork—building awareness, credibility, and education at scale so that when IR teams engage with investors, those conversations are smoother, more productive, and more likely to lead to a commitment.

Illustration divided into two panels with the headline ‘What Is (and Isn’t) a Marketer’s Role in a Capital Raise?’. The left panel, labeled ‘Strategic Marketing Responsibilities’, shows a marketer pointing to a funnel with four stages: Awareness, Education, Nurture, and Conversion. The Conversion stage is crossed out to indicate it is not marketing’s responsibility. The right panel, labeled ‘Not Marketing’s Lane’, depicts a group of people in a meeting with charts, contracts labeled ‘TERMS’, and icons of a document and calculator crossed out, representing legal and financial tasks outside of marketing’s role.

Put differently: marketing sets the stage, but it doesn’t close the curtain. In this article, we’ll break down what a marketer’s role really is in a capital raise—and just as importantly, what it’s not.

Messaging, Branding, and Consistency

Before you can market anything—especially an investment—you need a clear story. Marketing owns the firm’s narrative: who you are, what you stand for, and why investors should care.

That story should articulate your:

Value Proposition (What differentiates your firm).
Strategy (How you create value for investors).
Positioning (Why your firm deserves a seat at the table).

This narrative gets translated into every piece of collateral, email, social post, and conversation. Consistency is the key. If your pitch deck says one thing, your website says another, and your social channels are silent, you’re creating friction, not momentum. Marketing ensures the message is clear, cohesive, and repeatable across every touchpoint.

Capital Raise Materials

An investment pitch deck page for “Silverstone Investment” showcasing a real estate investment opportunity. The design includes a modern multifamily property image at the top with bold text reading “Investment Opportunity.” Below, three key metrics are highlighted: projected returns of 15.7%, total equity of $8 million, and a 5-year target hold period.

The right section features an “About Silverstone” paragraph with a line graph trending upward, and a list of investment highlights such as prime location, projected cash flow, experienced management, and value-add opportunities.

The bottom left includes a “Property Overview” image showing a modern multifamily building, while the bottom right presents a “Market Overview” with placeholder text and a bar chart showing steady growth from 2021 to 2023. The layout is clean and professional, using blue and beige tones.

Once the narrative is set, marketing turns it into tangible, professional-grade materials that support the capital raise. This includes:

Collateral: Investor decks, one-pagers, fund overviews, fact sheets.
Timeline alignment: Coordinating campaigns with the capital raise schedule to create a logical flow of information.
Event support: Webinars, roadshows, and investor events that effectively showcase opportunities.

Well-designed materials don’t close capital on their own—but they do make your team look credible, organized, and worthy of investor trust. Sloppy decks or inconsistent messaging can tank a first impression before IR ever gets involved.

Lead Generation

One of marketing’s most visible roles in a capital raise is running lead generation ads. These campaigns are designed to attract new investors into the ecosystem.

We’ve previously written about the difference between lead quality and sales funnel performance, and it’s worth repeating here: the goal of lead generation isn’t to close capital—it’s to generate qualified contacts. If leads have expressed interest and have confirmed their accreditation, then they are qualified (and marketing has done its job).

Marketers optimize for obtaining qualified leads at the lowest possible price. A strong lead generation engine ensures the IR team has a steady flow of prospective investors to engage. What happens after that is a sales function, not a marketing one.

Top-of-Funnel Nurturing

Once a lead enters the ecosystem, marketing shifts to nurturing, keeping those investors warm, informed, and engaged until they’re ready for a conversation. These actions have the most impact on leads who are not in the sales funnel. That means that the lead either hasn’t interacted with an investor relations associate or has chosen not to invest – for now.

Lead nurturing activities include:

CRM and marketing automations that deliver timely, relevant content and build trust with investors over time.
Consistent touchpoints that keep the firm and its investment opportunities top of mind, building familiarity over time without overwhelming prospects.
Segmentation and personalization strategies that ensure investors receive content relevant to their interests, stage in the funnel, and level of sophistication.

Nurturing helps foster familiarity and credibility so that when IR reaches out, the investor isn’t starting from zero. By the time a lead enters (or re-enters), they should already know who you are, what you do, and why you’re credible.

Effective nurturing also keeps the door open for re-engagement, ensuring previously interested investors don’t slip through the cracks but are steadily brought back into the conversation.

What Marketers Don’t Do

Marketers are not investor relations associates or sales representatives. While they may support the capital raise, and in some firms, they may even assist the IR team with reporting through the life of the investment, their actions don’t directly lead to sales.

This is where many GPs misalign expectations. Hiring a great marketer doesn’t mean you’ve outsourced your sales function. Marketing can generate leads, educate at scale, and keep investors engaged, but they don’t run your entire capital raise.

Specifically, marketers don’t:

Qualify investor alignment.
Pitch or sell.
Guide investors through a commitment flow.
Close capital.

Marketers set the stage. IR teams run the show. Conflating the two leads to unrealistic expectations, poor handoffs, and ultimately, slower capital raises.

Turning Strategy Into Capital

Effective marketing is crucial to successfully raising capital for your firm, but it’s not a substitute for investor relations. Your marketing team (or in-house marketer) is responsible for controlling the narrative, generating leads, and keeping investors engaged at scale. But private market investing requires more direct touchpoints than marketing alone can offer; their efforts don’t directly fill a capital raise.

When firms expect marketing to do the job of IR, it usually leads to disaster—failed raises, internal misalignment, staff burnout, and a breakdown in investor trust. The most effective firms understand that marketing and IR are complementary, not interchangeable, functions. Marketing attracts and educates; IR qualifies, aligns, and closes.

At Scale IR, we help GPs and IR teams build the systems, strategies, and alignment needed to scale capital raises effectively. If you’re ready to scale your capital raise with better systems, training, and talent, connect with Scale IR.