Agoracom Blog

Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Use Search Engines To Find AND Be Found

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:40 AM on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

This edition of Small-Cap CEO Lessons is quite simple:

“You already use search engines to find things, now start using search engines to be found!

It is amazing to see the look on a CEO’s face when I put search engine marketing into this simple context. You use search engines at Google/Yahoo/MSN to find important, mission-critical items for your business such as data, research, articles, definitions, experts, etc.  You do so because search engines have proven to be a fast and reliable way to find things you are looking for.

And yet …

… you still continue to rely on old fashioned, outdated, expensive and slow moving marketing methods such as conferences, printed materials, print advertising, road shows and buying drinks at local broker watering holes to find new investors.

Does this make sense to you?  I’ve underlined “find” to illustrate the real disconnect between how you find important things for yourself (search engines) vs. how you allow other people to find you (same old, same old).

OVER 35,000,000 ONLINE INVESTORS

With over 10,000,000 North American households now trading online and more than 35,000,000 online traders around the world, you can bet that search engines and the web play a huge role in how investors find new small-cap investments.  In fact, an AGORACOM survey of more than 850 investors earlier this year revealed the following:

  • 73% of Investors Conduct the Majority of their Research (75%+) into New Stocks Online. This is a dramatic 18.65% increase over 67% of respondents in 2007 and serves as proof positive that an online investor relations program is critical if you want to reach new investors.
  • 48% of Investors Conduct All of their Research (95%+) into New Stocks Online. No online IR program means you immediately miss out on 48% of all investors.
  • 60% of Investors Use Discussion Forums For Information and/or Research.

CONCLUSION

You already use search engines and the web to find things.  With over 35,000,000 investors now trading online, start using search engines and the web to be found.

Regards,
George

One Response to “Small-Cap CEO Lesson: Use Search Engines To Find AND Be Found”

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