So you are a new or an existing business, seeking investors so that you can grow your business? I told a potential client today that they can use Internet Marketing to attract investors. He was lost! But he knew about my strong finance background, so he decided to hear me out!

“So what would an investor …be it a venture capitalist or an angel investor look for, when he/she want to invest in a company? The key would be the answer to.. “Can this business make money and give me good returns in the time-frame of my liking, so that I can make money and exit?” I added “So if you have such a business, then getting more exposure and attracting investors attention is Easy…”

He asked “Well we are such a company, but what has it to do with Internet marketing?!” At the end of the conversation, he had liked what he heard!

So let us start again…. Yes you can attract and connect with investors using Internet Marketing and leveraging the power of social media. How can you do that? Let us get into it.

1) Get visible with Search Engine Optimisation in your industry and in your local area.

You got to get ‘found’ by and be visible to the investors and anyone interested in your business, products and services. It will be useful to have a solid presence online, so that people who are interested in investing in your industry can find you as easily as ABC. You can start by running Local Search Engine Optimisation campaigns and then extend it further, depending on the nature of your business.

2) Use your website effectively to pitch to Investors. Have a section on your website called ‘GrowthInvestment Opportunity’ or something similar. Optimise those pages. Did you know that keywords such as ‘need capital’ are searched for about 8,000 times, in Australia and globally around 80,000 times in a year? Do you know that the keyword ‘need investment’ is searched around 5,000 times in Australia and globally for about 80,000 in a year? Let us guess who would use them? You guessed it right!..Potential Investors. There are many other useful keywords that you can use to attract investors.

This section can have videos, PowerPoint presentations, and one or two page fact-sheet and other information. You can give out non confidential information there and for more information, you can have an ‘opt-in’ section and interested investors can get more information or contact can be made. No auto-responder here please!

3) Use Pay-Per-Click Marketing to get found. Similar to the Search Engine

Optimisation, you can use pay-per-click marketing. As you saw, there are many who

are looking to invest, so get found by any means! It does take to rank high in Search Engines, so starting with a Pay-per-click marketing campaign would be an idea as well.

4) Find LinkedIn Groups where you get a ton of Investors looking for opportunities. See the screen-shots below. There are hundreds of similar groups that are on LinkedIn, where you can find willing investors. You will be spoiled for choice there. However, remember… on LinkedIn, you can only be part of 50 groups at a given point of time, so you get into the group, and if you do not find it suitable, you can make some contacts there and move on to other groups.

5) Connect with Investors personally! See the screenshot on how can you search for them on LinkedIn… Go to ‘People Search’, put the keyword, select the location where you want your investor to be from and Search for them! Once you find them, you can connect with them and send messages. Once you establish communication, you can get the ball rolling!

6) Get Noticed with Online Press-Releases. Online press releases are also an excellent way to get noticed. There are paid press releases sites and there are free once. I suggest using both. This creates your online profile. You can use them to highlight achievements and initiatives of your business. When investors are looking for opportunities, your well established online profile will be of help. This will also help you to ‘get found’ by investors and potential customers online. When you use a free press release site, the rule of thumb I use for Online Investor Marketing is to look for sites with Google Page Rank of 5 or above.

7) Pitch to world wide Angel Investors and Venture Capital Firms using YouTube Videos! You may or may not be aware but, some smart businesses are using YouTube to pitch to investors already? See the examples below.