Most potential investors will go on a similar journey from first engagement to becoming an investor in your offer. There are three main stages in the journey:

Stage 1: Consideration

• In this stage the user will see initial communications, from Abundance or the council, promoting the investment
• The goal in this stage is to get the resident to visit your landing page on the Abundance website, which will start the engagement process
  • You can see the information the user can view at this stage here.
• It is likely that the resident will spend a little while in the consideration stage of the process, as financial decisions tend to be considered decisions. This is why repeated communications is an important element of the comms planning, to keep reminding the potential investor of the benefits of the opportunity

What steps can a resident take at this stage?

• We have a soft option that lets a resident sign up for email updates. This is an easy way for them to get more basic information about investing and how it works, to encourage them to invest. There is a link from your landing page to let them do this, and a small pop up appears on pages around out website to offer this
• If the resident is ready to invest, they will need to create an Abundance account, which takes them into the next stage of the process

Stage 2: Registration

• To enter the investment process, the user must create an account on Abundance
• This is free, and just requires a few details. It is at this point the user indicates where they heard about Abundance, and we store their tracking details - if they exist. More details here
• The user will have to verify their email address before they can proceed. There is 2FA in place as well to ensure the security of user data, so users must provide a mobile number for this purpose

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Not everyone who signs up for an account goes on to invest. Your communications will help prompt investors who have started the process to continue and make an investment.

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Stage 3: Buying the investment

• The first step of the process is to complete a short questionnaire - known as an appropriateness test. This is to ensure the user understands the nature of the investment they are making before they proceed
  • This is a very simple short process of a couple of questions, 90%+ of people will pass this test
• Once they pass, we will then do an identity check. This is to comply with money laundering regulations. The user must supply documents to prove their identity and address. This is done via an online process, and is instant if there are no issues with the documents they provide
• At this point, the user can select the amount they wish to invest, and choose to open an ISA if they wish to do so
• Then they pay for the investment, either by bank transfer or Open Banking, which is an instant bank deposit
• The investment is now complete, and can be viewed in the investor’s account
• They have a 14 day cooling off period to change their minds, if they wish