Marketing your Capital programPrivate preview

This guide shows how to build marketing assets for Capital that educate your users and promote the Capital program. Learn how to co-brand your product with Stripe and develop content that adheres to regulatory requirements applicable to Capital.

Financing is a highly regulated space, and all customer-facing material referencing Stripe Capital must be approved by Stripe and its financial partners before publication. Submit material for review and approval using the Change Request Form.

Marketing requirements

Depending on your Capital integration type, additional platform marketing might be optional.

• No-code integration: For no-code integrations, Stripe sends offer emails on your behalf. While this isn’t required, we recommend that you send an announcement email and develop a marketing landing page using our messaging guidelines.
• Embedded components: You can use embedded components to notify users of their offers within your product. If you’re using embedded components, you can either use Stripe’s no-code promotional emails or send your own offer notification to market offers outside of the Dashboard. You must review and comply with the section on sending offer notifications.
• API integration: For API integrations where you’re responsible for notifying users about their Capital offers, you must review and comply with the section on sending offer notifications to build an email campaign or in-Dashboard notifications with the Capital API.

Marketing approval process

To make sure Stripe meets its marketing oversight requirements for platforms offering Stripe Capital, you must maintain records of all marketing materials you use to promote your Capital program. All marketing material must be reviewed, approved, and retained by Stripe and its financial partners to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Items that must be submitted to Stripe for approval include:

• Offer materials regardless of channel
• Email marketing including proposed targeting populations
• Website or UX material referencing the Stripe Capital product
• Blog posts or social media referencing the Stripe Capital product
• In-app or push notifications
• Customer testimonials

You must submit any marketing materials that you create to Stripe’s compliance team for review using the Change Request Form prior to use or publication. Our team of compliance specialists reviews these assets and will respond by email with edits or an approval in a timely manner. The standard turnaround time is 5-7 business days.

To receive approval, the material must align with the requirements and guidelines detailed in this guide. You may not use any marketing assets that don’t pass Stripe review and approval.

When submitting your materials, you must do the following:

1. Read and adhere to the guidelines on this page. Marketing assets aren’t usable until they have been approved by Stripe.
2. Provide your platform name.
3. Provide full screen shots or products that include headings and footers in a legible or high resolution format.
4. The preferable format for materials is an editable Google doc, however a PDF or any other format where all text is legible is acceptable.
5. Describe the type of marketing material you’re submitting (for example, landing pages, web banners, emails, search engine marketing, and whether the asset is text only or includes images and text). If submitting web pages, include the associated URLs.
6. Describe where all CTA links direct to (for example, a landing page URL or log-in screens).

Sending offer notifications

As part of your Capital marketing program, you can set up offer notifications so your connected accounts know when they’re eligible for financing. You must notify all eligible connected accounts about available offers.

With the no-code option, Stripe sends co-branded offer emails on your behalf. If you’re using the API integration, you must build and deploy your own email campaign.

To get started select your integration type below.

Required disclaimers

All marketing collateral must mention our banking partners Celtic and YouLend. You must add the following disclaimer on any user-facing materials wherever you reference Stripe Capital, such as promotional offer emails and marketing pages. The disclaimer doesn’t need to be the same font size as the marketing message, but it must be clear, conspicuous, and in a font color or drop shadow that’s in contrast to its background.

The table below lists the required disclaimer based on the location of your user’s business. For financing offer emails sent by your platform via the Capital API, the API field disclaimer_variant identifies the required disclaimer.

Messaging

Refer to the following copy guidelines when you write marketing copy for Stripe Capital on any marketing assets. You can modify the wording to suit your platform’s voice, as long as it conveys the same message and uses the correct terminology as detailed below. Refer to stripe.com/capital to see how we employ these messages for our direct Capital offering.

Name your Capital program

Keep the name of your Capital program simple. If you already have a payments program such as “Rocket Rides Payments," you can call it “Rocket Rides Capital” or “Rocket Rides Business Financing." If you want to include Stripe in the name, we recommend something like “Rocket Rides + Stripe Capital."

Logos

Follow this format for partnership logos:

• Place your logo on the left with the Stripe logo on the right.
• Join the two logos with a | symbol or + symbol.
• Make both logos the same size. Don’t make one larger or smaller than the other.
• Use the downloadable Stripe logo kit. Don’t use the badge or Connect button.

Main message

In one sentence:

In 100 words:

Benefits and features

Here’s how you could describe the benefits and features of the program:

How it works

Here is a template for explaining how the program works. Modify it as needed for your situation. For example, if your customers may see their eligibility offer in places other than email, like in-app notifications or banner ads, mention them in the description of step one.

Marketing to ineligible users

Not all customers are eligible for a Capital offer. Any marketing material that is available to an audience of both eligible and ineligible users should clearly explain how eligibility is determined, and how customers can learn if they have an offer available. Direct marketing which only targets recipients ineligible for financing isn’t currently supported. Here’s an example of the type of language you can use on marketing content available to a broader audience of both eligible and ineligible users:

Terminology reference

The list of approved and prohibited language isn’t exhaustive. For any questions, contact the Capital team at capital-review@stripe.com.

Promote your Capital program

When your Capital program goes live, you’ll want to share information about it. Because not all of your customers will be eligible for Capital, it’s important to make sure any broader marketing such as a landing page doesn’t promise eligibility. Instead, you can use marketing to explain how the program works, why it’s important, and where customers can check if they’re eligible. Review our messaging guide for help crafting your marketing materials. We also recommend referencing your broader vision for embedded finance if you’re also using Stripe Treasury or Stripe Issuing.

Announcement email

Whether you’re building a stand alone email or adding copy to an existing newsletter, emails are a great way to introduce Capital to your customer base. Try to keep your email short and to the point, but make sure to include these key points:

• A brief introduction to the program
• Where customers will learn about their offer (make sure to touch on eligibility since not all visitors to your page will be eligible)
• Link to a blog post, landing page, or place where they can check their eligibility
• Compliance disclosures
• Opt out/unsubscribe ability so that the customer may exercise their right to not receive Capital marketing or be eligible to receive an offer

Refer to our messaging guide for help crafting your email copy. Refer to our regulatory compliance guide to check that your marketing adheres to the relevant guidelines.

Landing pages and blog posts

Evergreen content like landing pages and blog posts can be a great way to excite prospective customers about your financing program, and educate existing customers about how it works. The following sections provide tips for developing your content. We also recommend reviewing the messaging guide.

Suggested page structure

1. Brief introduction to the program
2. Why financing can help their business
3. How the program works
4. Where customers will learn about their offer (make sure to touch on eligibility since not all visitors to your page will be eligible)
5. Links to FAQs, docs or any other pages you’d created
6. Compliance disclosures (default disclaimer)

Landing page URL and site navigation

Here are a few templates for landing page URL options and site navigation categories. You can also use the name of your program such as “[Platform name] Capital” as the navigation category.

• /capital
• /financing
• /business-financing

An example Lightspeed’s website that features the Capital category name in the product navigation

Blog-post content

We understand that blog posts are a common tool to increase your own company’s organic growth, so you might decide to promote Stripe Capital through such content. Because blog posts are not space constrained, you have some additional things to consider when creating this type of marketing content:

• Comparisons: Due to the additional regulatory complexity of comparing Stripe Capital against other competitors or different loan products, you may not directly compare Stripe Capital against any competitors’ offerings.
• Testimonials: Writing about your customers experiences in a blog post related to Stripe Capital falls under “testimonials” rules. These requirements are found here.
• Substantiating Claims: Blog posts sometimes make large claims about overall successes, such as “Stripe Capital helps our users double their output.” Make sure that you have accurate and verifiable data for any quantifiable claims. You must validate these claims and provide supporting evidence upon request. Every claim must be substantiated and readily available for the duration the content is active, and for up to five years following its last use.

Social posts

Social posts such as organic and paid ads can help drive awareness of your program and tell a broader story about your investment in embedded finance. Because much of this audience might not be eligible for a financing, refer to the section How to market to ineligible users.

Social media is often space constrained. When you create content for this channel, don’t use approved marketing phrases out of context or reduced down to be misleading. Don’t use language that references eligible financing amounts, specific dollar amounts for financing fees, nor specific percentages of sales that go towards payment, because those are dynamically generated fields for formal financing offers.

Press releases

You can use press releases as a way to attract new customers or develop a larger story about your company’s investment in embedded finance. We’re happy to help you develop the right story and support its release. If you’re interested in doing a press release, reach out to capital-review@stripe.com.