4 Marketing Hacks to Help You Attract the Right Investors

How to use marketing to attract investors

Marketing is about pinpointing your target audience, understanding their needs and communicating how your business can solve their problems. Most businesses create marketing campaigns to find potential customers, but you can also use marketing to convince people or organizations to invest money in your company. 

“Marketing to investors is more about clarity and credibility than hype,” explained Alfredo Granados, co-founder of The Trade Co., a part of Garda Group Consulting, and creator of The Marketing Sense. “It’s the art of demonstrating, not proclaiming, why your company is a sound, scalable investment opportunity.”

Here are four investment marketing steps to take if you want to market your business to investors. 

1. Discover investor needs.

The first step is to determine what potential investors need or want in a business investment, so you can focus your marketing efforts accordingly.

“Some investors are looking for a sustainable, profitable business, others are looking for long-term growth with a profitable exit, while others are looking for operational efficiency or presence in specific markets,” said Jill Wassil, chief marketing officer of miraDry. “Promoting your company’s value proposition can attract investors that are likely to be a good partner if you are sharing your strengths in public.”

Investors tend to focus on a few crucial factors: 

• Is the company profitable?
• Is it in an industry on the upswing?
• Will the executive team be able to take it to the next level?
• Is it offering a unique product or service difficult for competitors to replicate?

Depending on your specific business, product or industry, investors may consider other factors, such as strategic partnerships, technical expertise, a critical mass of customers or intellectual property.

2. Ensure your business is strong in areas critical to investors.

When you’re ready to sell your house, you’ll probably enhance the landscaping and declutter the interior to make the property more appealing to potential buyers. You should go through a similar exercise with your business when trying to secure private investors. 

“The most important thing to remember is that your first priority should be running a good business,” Wassil advised. “This requires a solid business strategy that identifies what your business values are and what challenges you are overcoming and why.”

Follow these steps to shore up your business and make it a more attractive proposition:

1. Analyze your business performance: Make changes to strengthen your profit margin, grow your customer base and increase sales.
2. Hire the experts you need: If you don’t already have the right expertise on your team, bring on professionals who can fill the gaps. For example, consider hiring a digital marketing expert or a social media manager to help you keep up with marketing trends. If you need help with accounting, you may want to hire a bookkeeper.
3. Invest in your team: It’s also essential to give your employees professional growth opportunities through mentorship and training. A thriving, engaged team reflects well on your company culture. “This is critical, as investors don’t just invest in a product; they invest in the right people,” Wassil noted.
4. Protect your intellectual property: Take steps to secure your intellectual property legally with patents and trademarks, if applicable. Consider obtaining intellectual property insurance to further protect these assets.
5. Improve your website: Ensure your website design is visually appealing and that the site functions smoothly, featuring high-quality content. (See more on this below.)
6. Improve your existing marketing materials: Make sure your general and specialized marketing materials and strategies are effective. For example, your email marketing campaigns must be targeted correctly to be effective.

In addition to the above, focus on specific areas that might particularly appeal to the investors you’re targeting. Once you understand what your potential investors are looking for, you must ensure your business excels in those areas. 

3. Create investor-focused marketing materials.

Next, create a marketing campaign that communicates how your product or service is exactly what investors are looking for. To create investor-focused marketing materials that can help close the deal, consider the following tips.

1. Create a business growth plan: A business growth plan should detail your organization’s specifics, why your company is a good investment and what kind of investment you’re seeking. “Ensure your business plan and marketing materials clearly articulate what problem your business solves, your competitive advantage, and your scalability potential,” advised Erin James, founder, CEO and marketing strategist at GoodForYou (GFY) Creative, a full-service marketing agency. “Investors want to see that your business has growth opportunities.”
2. Develop your brand narrative: The best way to get investors on board is by telling a compelling brand story. “This is more than what the business sells,” said Granados. “Investors want to see big vision, a great team, evident traction and market potential.”
3. Lead with proof, not plans: Investors want to know they’re making a safe bet, so highlight your successes. “Point out customer affection, initial growth and user engagement to demonstrate you’ve created something people want, rather than a good concept,” Granados recommended. 
4. Generate content: Whether it’s blogs, videos, PowerPoint presentations or one-page company overviews, all your marketing materials should be well-written and professionally designed. “Use content to keep investors engaged, informed and inspired to take the next step, whether it’s subscribing to your newsletter, downloading a pitch deck or booking a meeting,” said Jesse Farley, chief strategy officer at CSP, an SEO and digital marketing agency. 

4. Find and communicate with likely investors.

The next step is to find your ideal investors, so you can meet with them and present your business plan and pitch. This process is similar to advertising or participating in trade shows to find customers. 

There are two primary ways to find and interact with investors: online investing platforms and in-person events.

• Online investing platforms: James recommended joining relevant platforms where investors actively seek investment opportunities, such as AngelList, StartEngine, Crowdcube and Wefunder. “Ensure your profiles and pitches are optimized to attract serious investment interest,” James advised. Even if you don’t secure an investment through these platforms, you can use them to attract attention and build awareness of your company among the investor community.
• In-person events: Wassil emphasized the importance of relationship-building and word-of-mouth buzz via in-person events. “Attending shows, conferences and webinars can help foster relationships and start building credibility,” Wassil noted. Various events provide business owners with opportunities to pitch investors on their ventures, including Money20/20 USA for fintech companies, TechCrunch for technology companies and ACA for a range of companies.

4 Marketing hacks for attracting the right investors

While the steps described above will help you identify, appeal to and connect with investors in general, you’ll need more than that to seal the deal. These four investment marketing hacks will help you attract your ideal investment partner.

1. Identify investors within your niche.

One of the biggest mistakes budding entrepreneurs make is seeking funding from any investor who will listen. When desperate for capital, some business owners will market their businesses or ideas without identifying the type of investor they want. However, it’s much more effective to focus on the investors who make the most sense for your business.

“Make sure there’s real alignment,” advised Christy Owenby, CEO of the marketing agency MOXY Company. “Just because someone is interested doesn’t mean they’re the right fit or that they’re legitimate. Protect your business and take your time.”

Here are some tips for identifying investors in your niche:

• Understand your ideal investor: It’s important to determine your ideal investor. What niches do they invest in? Where do they invest? What’s their investment potential? If you’re planning to pitch to venture capital or private equity firms, learn about their decision-makers. For example, some investors are interested in a company’s social impact, while others only care about its financials. Find out if potential investors have a history or interest in your industry, product or niche. After characterizing your ideal investor, you can begin incorporating that insight into your marketing plan.
• Ensure you’re all on the same page: As many growing companies learn down the line, the right business matched with the wrong investor or investment platform is almost always destined to fail. This is especially true when ideological differences between the founder and investors emerge. Do thorough research to confirm that your goals and perspectives align.

2. Redesign your public relations (PR) strategy for maximum investor exposure.

Ensure your PR strategy is carefully coordinated and conveys the right message about your business to potential investors. To accomplish this, back your PR campaigns with a solid digital marketing strategy. A well-managed content amplification plan, designed to generate widespread shares and referral traffic, is one of the best ways to ensure PR campaigns achieve maximum reach and engagement. (See more about digital strategies and social media tactics below.)

Here are some tips for creating a PR strategy optimized for investor attention:

• Get more value for your PR spend: Value doesn’t necessarily equate to how much you spend on a campaign — it’s all about measuring and improving marketing ROI. An effective paid ad strategy on social media is vital, but approaching and using influencers in the right way is equally essential for achieving organic reach. By covering all your bases — or, in this case, digital channels — your PR campaign has a higher chance of reaching investors who want to learn more.
• Show you’re at the leading edge: Your PR strategy must show potential investors within your industry that you’re ahead of the curve. Your press releases, email newsletters, social media content and speaking engagements should focus on current and expected trending topics in your industry. This focus establishes your business as a thought leader and can lead to press coverage. “Media coverage in trade publications, industry blogs and relevant news outlets can catch the eye of investors who are monitoring the market for opportunities,” James said.
• Establish your expertise: Since investors want to invest in companies with expertise, innovation and strong leadership, use PR to showcase these strengths. For example, consider participating in a podcast or television interview, giving a presentation at a trade show, or writing an article for an industry publication or blog. Focus on the problems your company solves and the unique ways it addresses them. For maximum impact, capture all mentions, interviews and content and feature them on your website and social media. You can even include published articles in the materials you share with potential investors to boost your credibility.
• Highlight your success: People want to get behind a winning team, so use your PR strategy to celebrate your wins. “Dedicate space on your website or blog to showcase awards, funding rounds, partnerships and media mentions,” Farley suggested. “This creates a sense of momentum and social proof.”
• Time it right: Remember to time your PR campaigns appropriately. Schedule press releases, emails and other PR elements in advance to lay the groundwork for productive conversations when seeking funding. 

3. Solidify your digital presence.

Your digital presence should be front and center, allowing potential investors to easily find and interact with your brand. The last thing you want is to make a successful pitch to a potential investor, only for them to spend a whole afternoon wandering through the internet looking for the slightest glimpse of your brand.

Here’s what we recommend.

Optimize your business website.

Your company website is a significant element of your business’s online identity. Your site is usually the first place potential investors go for additional information. Despite its importance, a surprisingly large number of businesses neglect their websites — if they have one at all.

Ensure your website, especially your landing page, is easy on the eyes. It should also:

• Be a mobile-friendly website.
• Have fast page load speeds. 
• Clearly state your industry.
• Be free of grammar and spelling mistakes, missing images and broken links.
• Outline what makes your product or service unique.
• Have an About page that explains your company’s mission.
• Identify the problem your product or service solves and why it’s the best possible solution.
• Identify the executive team and key employees, with bios that showcase each person’s experience and expertise.

A well-thought-out SEO strategy is also essential. “SEO is the foundation of digital visibility,” said Farley. “A well-optimized website with targeted keywords ensures that your business appears when investors research industries, opportunities or innovative solutions.”

Granados recommends adding a password-protected page for investors or creating a separate website for them that links to your primary site. “Add your pitch video, team bios, metrics and media mentions to manage your narrative and indicate preparedness,” Granados said.

Optimize your social media presence.

Here are some expert tips for optimizing your social media presence: 

• Use social media marketing strategically: Your digital strategy should also include social media marketing, another essential element that will solidify your online presence and bring your brand closer to potential investors. However, instead of using every social channel available, focus on platforms truly relevant to your business and investors. For instance, if you’re an online fashion retailer, you’ll get more brand visibility via platforms like Pinterest and Instagram than X (formerly Twitter) because of your products’ visual nature. 
• Get your employees on social: It’s also important to encourage your employees to establish a social media presence, which helps promote your brand and showcase your strong company culture. “A lot of investors are quietly watching on platforms like LinkedIn and X,” Owenby noted. “If your company and your employees are active and engaged — sharing updates, growth wins and insights into your work — you start to build trust without even realizing it.”
• Use social media to reach investors: While most social media outreach is designed to build brand awareness and promote your products or services to potential customers, you can also use social media to reach out to potential investors. LinkedIn is the best social platform for investor outreach because you can directly message business contacts, participate in industry or investor groups and ask people in your network for introductions. 

Use your blog to tell your story.

Business blogs can be an effective way to attract investors. Feature high-quality blog posts or guest posts on industry influencer blogs that tell your story and highlight your company’s unique attributes and selling points. Engage with the blogs and social media profiles of investors on your radar by commenting on their posts to start forging a relationship with them.

4. Engage in smart networking.

One of the best ways to find investors is by rubbing elbows with other people. For instance, hosting or attending a business networking event can lead to a one-on-one conversation with a potential investor who may be a future business partner. 

Here are some tips for engaging in smart networking:

• Join reputable organizations: Owenby noted that an affiliation with credible, nationally recognized organizations can help you attract high-value investors. “These groups offer access to powerful networks and signal that you’re a serious, vetted leader in your space,” Owenby explained. “Being aligned with respected names adds credibility and visibility, two things investors always look for when evaluating potential opportunities.”
• Research event attendees: If you’re attending an industry trade show or investment event, try to get a list of attendees in advance. Research the individuals and firms that will be there, investigate potential investors and connect with them on LinkedIn. The right investor may not look the way you expect. They could be a current competitor or the producer of a complementary product. If you’re knowledgeable about their background and have already attempted to establish a connection, you can tailor your in-person pitch more effectively.
• Talk and listen: When networking, have your elevator pitch ready if the opportunity presents itself — but it’s just as important to listen. By listening actively, you’ll build rapport and create relationships with people who can help you, as well as gather crucial information about who is investing in what and what is important to them. Use that information to refine your efforts.

What to do after attracting an investor

By combining digital and traditional marketing elements, you stand a much greater chance of catching the interest of that one person who could make the difference between funding success and financial disappointment. 

After you’ve found the right investor who wants to fund your business, your next step is to determine if the investor is offering a good deal. Evaluate the terms, get advice from trusted experts or advisors, and ensure the partnership works for you and your company before signing an agreement. Doing your due diligence will set you up for a successful working relationship.

Tom Anziano and Skye Schooley contributed to this article.