7 digital advertising strategies to optimize your IR website and attract investors

Once you’ve crafted a unique visual brand, compiled all your IR materials, and poured hours of hard work into your IR website, you need to make sure that investors will see it. There are plenty of ways to increase website traffic, like paying for ads, but there are additional creative and organic ways to drive more activity and engagement. Read through these 7 digital advertising strategies and ask yourself if your IR website is taking advantage of these channels.

1. Focus on keywords to increase search traffic

Before you get too deep into digital advertising, and your own pockets, it’s important to understand the ways companies can organically grow their search traffic through SEO. First, understand the type of content and search terms that investors in your industry are using online. Then create a list of every keyword you’d ideally want to show up for on Google when someone is searching online. For example, as a gold mining company, you might consider ‘best gold stocks’ ‘gold mining investment’, ‘Canadian gold companies,’ etc.

Next, analyze the content you’ve already written online, especially your IR site, and see where you can add some of those important keywords. The more keywords you can place in main headings and page titles, the better. Make sure you don’t overdo it, however, because it can negatively impact your website if Google knows you’re abusing this tactic.

2. Have a targeted content strategy and develop content people want to read

The more quality content you have, the more likely people will value your perspective and want to revisit your site. The same goes for search engines. A common mistake companies make is thinking they can develop lots of content quickly for clicks and lead generation. Badly planned and quickly generated content, however, will reduce your website credibility rather than help it. Always remember that search engines like Google are on the side of the consumer. They work to make the best possible experience for them–as should you. Take your time developing a good content strategy that will directly target specific audiences. Conduct research. Gather as much information as you can on your ideal target audience. People will enter their email for impeccably designed, thoughtfully presented, and well researched digital reports. Some other good examples of high quality content can include industry articles on trending topics, shareable and informative videos, whitepapers, and helpful blog posts. Make sure you remember those keywords and include them clearly in titles, headings, and body of your content.

3. Set up Google Analytics to track campaigns

If you don’t have Google Analytics running on your corporate or IR website, go set up an account right now. It’s impossible to understand the best ways to optimize your website and your content if you don’t have actual data supporting your decisions. With Google Analytics, you don’t have to guess which keywords or ad campaigns are working best for you, and which aren’t performing as well. Using this tool, you can easily track what keywords or ads are driving the most traffic to your website, who is reading your content, where they are located geographically, and what device and browser they’re visiting from. The more information you can gather, the more you can understand the user journey, and the faster you can optimize your website experience.

4. A/B test different ad variants for the same campaign

You might have a very strong indication on who your typical investor would be, but why not confirm that knowledge with supporting data and facts? Test one version of an ad campaign against another to see which gets more impressions and clicks. This strategy is called A/B testing. Facebook has 10 different types of ads to choose from, including carousel ads, regular image ads, and text-only ads. If your strategy is to use social ads, we suggest testing a few different types to see what data you get back. You can also create variants of the same type of ad and change up where you place the call-to-action, what color the button is, as well as what headline is more engaging. Use the data to analyze and gather the most beneficial information for your company. Just make sure when you’re A/B testing ads you only make one crucial change per set, such as placement of title. If you make multiple changes, you won’t be able to tell why one ad is performing better than the other. You can also use ad testing to serve different ads to different audiences to see what type of language sticks to different demographics.

5. Use landing pages for lead generation

Rather than pushing people to a page where you sell a product and service, create well-designed landing pages with the specific purpose of capturing information from a prospective lead. Discuss what info is the most important to gain for your company. Typically it’s their Name and Email Address, as well as Industry (especially for public companies) and potentially Business Phone Number. The three keys of a good lead generation landing page are: A) it’s well designed B) it’s minimal and straightforward and C) it has a clear call-to-action. Just as we discussed above, landing pages are also a great thing to test. You can A/B test one landing page with a Name, Email, and Industry form, another with just email, and a third with the option to add a phone number or subscribe to your newsletter. You would be surprised at what discoveries people have had by understanding who their audience is what information they prefer to offer.

6. Get 3rd party endorsements about projects for ad campaigns

Investors like to see that you have a good track record, and 3rd party endorsements in ads work to build trust. Experiment with different visual techniques in ads to include endorsements from reputable companies that will directly appeal to your target audience.

7. Create waiting lists for content you haven’t written yet to generate advance interest

If you’ve generated a long form report, ebook, whitepaper, or research study and want to create a little buzz around it, try creating an advanced ‘release’ landing page where people can sign up to receive notifications in their emails once the content is published. From these leads, you’ll have the ability to build targeted email lists based on who signed up for what and create more tailored content around what they’re interested in.

Conclusion:

Digital advertising is a big topic, and we know it can get overwhelming to try to choose a path that’s best, whether it’s organically growing traffic through SEO, researching PPC strategies, or focusing on creating great content. At the end of the day, all these can work, but the most important thing is to determine what your company’s goals and objectives are in order to fine-tune a digital marketing strategy. We recommend working with partners who are experts in digital marketing and advertising and who can take a deeper look at your company’s specific needs and create a step-by-step digital marketing plan. Reach out to us at any time at [email protected] to learn more.


Marika Hirsch
Marika Hirsch

As Blender’s Content Manager (aka ‘Resident Wordsmith’) Marika enjoys bringing readers the latest and greatest in both digital trends and IR tips. Follow along on Twitter: