From Ad Tech to Stock Awareness: Building Digital Programs for Public Companies
With 25 years of experience in ad tech, I've been a digital entrepreneur since the late 90s. My career spans multiple successful ventures, including being part of Zeta Global, now a unicorn company. I've built three different startups, with the first acquired by Zeta Global, the second by a group of investors, and the third went public through a merger.
My expertise covers building ad tech tools ranging from content syndication to audiences, data mining, panel research, email marketing, and audience development.
Current Focus: Digital Programs for Public Companies
Today, I work with issuers and publicly traded companies to build digital programs that create awareness for their stocks. Many new companies listing on NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange—particularly tech and biotech companies—lack institutional support on the investment side and rely heavily on the retail investment community.
Key Takeaway #1: For newly public companies, retail investors are often critical to success when institutional support is limited.
My role involves crafting a simple, compelling story that communicates the value proposition, then running both organic and paid media campaigns to generate awareness. These campaigns typically run for three months with clear KPIs, targeting views from the top 300 financial websites and communities like Reddit, StockTwits, and Benzinga.
Key Takeaway #2: Effective stock awareness campaigns combine organic content, sponsored content, and paid media with clearly defined KPIs.
Organic Marketing and SEO Approach
For organic marketing success, understanding the target audience and their pain points is essential. Organic marketing, whether through SEO or content distribution, hinges on identifying problems that your product or service solves.
Key Takeaway #3: Align your content to specific pain points that potential customers are actively searching for solutions to.
When people search online, they're looking for solutions to specific problems. By aligning your content with these pain points, you increase the likelihood of being found. This is the essence of effective organic marketing.
Organic Growth Implementation Strategy
When implementing organic growth, we analyze how pain points relate to particular industries. For example, with trending topics like AI, we consider what customer pain points AI can address, then create content around those solutions.
Key Takeaway #4: Connect trending topics to your product's capabilities by demonstrating how you solve specific industry problems.
If prospects struggle to find new sales leads, we might create content explaining how our AI solution can set appointments or manage the flow process from initial contact to appointment setting. Alternatively, we leverage trending news to create content highlighting specific features of products or services.
Key Takeaway #5: Use current events and news trends as hooks to demonstrate your product's relevance and establish authority in your space.
Biotech companies, for instance, might create content about their work on solutions for emerging viruses, positioning themselves as authoritative voices on relevant topics.
Challenges in Organic Marketing
The most significant challenge in organic marketing today is content distribution. With the proliferation of tools, influencers, and general noise in the digital space, it's increasingly difficult to achieve visibility.
Key Takeaway #6: Only about 3% of produced content actually receives engagement, making standout content essential in today's crowded digital landscape.
In the past, creating and distributing content would reliably generate decent viewership. Now, with people publishing 20-40 pieces of content daily, standing out requires uniqueness and a distinctive voice. Our research on a content platform for publishers revealed that only about 3% of produced content receives meaningful engagement.
Solutions for Effective Marketing
Success in marketing always returns to fundamentals: delivering the right message to the right audience through the right channel. Understanding your audience, the pain points you're solving, and the appropriate distribution channels is critical.
Key Takeaway #7: Different demographics require different approaches—Gen Z isn't on email but on TikTok, while older audiences rely on specific news channels.
The Quality Imperative
A concerning trend is the pursuit of attention for attention's sake. If we compare content to food, much of today's content is like bubblegum—lacking nutritional value but providing a momentary sugar rush.
Key Takeaway #8: Value-adding content that addresses specific business KPIs is far more effective than clickbait or attention-seeking content that creates noise without delivering results.
Many content creators focus on grabbing attention through outrageous tactics, clickbait, and misleading headlines. While this approach might serve specific attention-seeking purposes, it's ultimately useless in a business setting with clear KPIs.
