Many businesses today want to be able to sell online. However, we caution that before spending ad-dollars, ensure that your product actually sells. That means that someone in your organisation has been successful in selling your product or service to strangers (i.e not friends and family), and that they have used it, and have provided feedback. This provides two crucial pieces of information, namely, 

1. That your product or service is viable and marketable
2. Your ideal customer (you will want to target similar profiles of those people who have bought your product or service and are using it successfully). 

The third thing that this offers is feedback and social proof. Feedback and social proof (case studies, testimonials etc) make it easier to market. To win your first few customers is always the hardest, but once you have had some initial success, then it becomes easier and easier to build a customer pipeline. 

So assuming that you have a great product and service and have now decided to spend on B2B marketing, how do we measure the success of your marketing efforts?

Set clear goals with the SMART framework

Before you start your marketing campaign, you need to define clear goals using the SMART framework. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound. These criteria ensure that your goals are well-defined, trackable, attainable, aligned with your business objectives, and have a defined timeframe for completion. For instance, instead of simply aiming to increase website traffic, a SMART goal would be to increase website traffic by 20% within three months through targeted SEO strategies and social media advertising. Another example of a SMART goal could be to generate 100 new leads per month by implementing a lead magnet and optimizing landing pages for conversions. By setting SMART goals, you establish a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and provide a roadmap for measuring the success of your marketing campaign.

Track results for comprehensive analysis

To measure the ROI of your B2B marketing campaigns, you need to track your results. The metrics you track will depend on your goals. For example, if your goal is to increase website traffic, you can track the number of unique visitors, bounce rate, and time spent on the site. If your goal is to generate leads, you can track the number of leads generated, conversion rate, and cost per lead.

Calculate costs for accurate ROI analysis

To determine the return on investment (ROI) of your B2B marketing campaigns, it’s essential to consider the costs involved and calculate the profitability. Costs may include variables such as advertising costs, employee salaries, marketing software subscriptions, and other relevant expenses. Once you have a clear understanding of your costs, you can calculate the ROI using the following formula:

ROI = (Revenue – Cost) / Cost

For example if your B2B marketing campaigns generated $10,000 in revenue, and the total expenses incurred for the campaigns amounted to $5,000, the ROI can be calculated as follows:

ROI = ($10,000 – $5,000) / $5,000 = 1 or 100%

In this scenario, the ROI of your marketing campaigns would be 100%. This indicates that for every dollar invested, you gained an additional dollar in revenue.

Calculating the ROI helps you evaluate the profitability of your marketing efforts and make informed decisions regarding resource allocation. It allows you to assess the effectiveness of different campaigns, channels, or strategies, and make adjustments accordingly to optimize your marketing activities for better returns.

Use attribution models for campaign analysis

B2B marketing campaigns typically involve complex buyer journeys with multiple touchpoints across various channels. As a result, it can be challenging to accurately attribute revenue to specific campaigns or channels. To solve this problem, you can use attribution models to give credit to each touchpoint. These models can be first-touch attribution, last-touch attribution, or multi-touch attribution.

1. First-Touch Attribution: This model attributes all revenue generated to the first touchpoint or interaction that a customer has with your marketing efforts. It assumes that the initial interaction played the most significant role in influencing the purchase decision. For example, if a prospect initially finds your product through a blog post and later becomes a customer, the revenue generated would be attributed solely to the blog post.
2. Last-Touch Attribution: Conversely, last-touch attribution assigns all revenue to the final touchpoint or interaction before the conversion. This model assumes that the last touchpoint was the most influential in driving the purchase decision. For instance, if a prospect clicks on a retargeting ad and then converts into a customer, all the revenue would be attributed to the retargeting ad.
3. Multi-Touch Attribution: This model acknowledges that multiple touchpoints contribute to the customer’s decision-making process. It distributes the revenue across various touchpoints, recognizing the combined impact of multiple marketing activities. So if a prospect interacts with your content through a blog post, later engages with your social media ads, and finally converts into a customer after attending a webinar, you would allocate a certain percentage of the revenue to each touchpoint, acknowledging their individual contributions to the conversion.

By employing attribution models, you can gain insights into the effectiveness of different touchpoints, channels, or campaigns.

Benchmark results for comparative analysis

To understand the success of your B2B marketing campaigns in the resource sector, it is best practice to benchmark your results. This involves comparing your results to industry standards, your company’s previous campaigns, and your competitors. Benchmarking helps you identify areas where you need to improve and areas where you are excelling.

Adjust your strategy based on ROI analysis

The final step is to analyze your results and adjust your strategy accordingly. By analyzing your ROI, you can determine which marketing campaigns were most effective, and adjust your strategy accordingly. You can also identify areas where you can improve your marketing campaigns to increase your ROI.

Therefore, measuring the ROI of your B2B marketing campaigns is not a one-time task. Rather it should be seen as something you continually need to measure, analyze and adjust your strategy to achieve the best results. Not all marketing strategies will provide the same ROI, so it’s important to use the insights you gain from measuring the ROI to refine your approach and optimize your campaigns.

The post Measuring ROI in marketing campaigns for the resource sector first appeared on PR Republic.

B2B marketing, or business-to-business marketing, is focused on building relationships with other businesses and decision-makers. Unlike B2C marketing, which targets individual consumers, B2B marketing is geared towards addressing the unique needs and challenges of other businesses.

Here are three reasons why B2B marketing is essential to generating high-value leads:

1. Speak directly to the needs of businesses

One of the key advantages of B2B marketing is that it enables you to create targeted and personalized messaging that speaks directly to the needs of businesses. By understanding the unique pain points and challenges that your target audience faces, you can create content and messaging that resonates with them and demonstrates how your products or services can help solve their problems.

For example, resource companies focused on mining critical metals might create blog posts, white papers, and other content that addresses current challenges in the supply chain. By positioning the company as a solution to these challenges, one can attract high-value leads that are actively seeking ways to improve their operations.

2. Establish credibility and build trust over time

Another advantage of B2B marketing is that it can help establish credibility and build trust with potential buyers over time. B2B sales cycles are typically longer and involve multiple touchpoints and interactions with prospects. By engaging in targeted and personalized marketing, you can demonstrate your expertise and thought leadership in your industry. Furthermore, you can build a relationship with potential buyers that is based on trust and credibility.

For example, you might create a series of webinars or thought leadership pieces that address key industry trends and challenges. By doing so, you position your company as a leader in your field. Over time, these efforts can help to build trust with potential buyers, making them more likely to choose your business when they are ready to make a purchasing decision.

3. Higher-value deals and more revenue

Finally, B2B marketing can lead to higher-value deals and more revenue for your business. B2B sales cycles are typically longer and involve higher ticket items than B2C sales, the stakes are higher, and the decision-making process is more complex. By engaging in targeted and personalized marketing, you can build a relationship with potential buyers over time. This positions your business as a trusted partner that can help them achieve their goals.

If, for example, you offer a commodity trading platform, your marketing efforts might focus on how your service is able to save time, money and streamline your customer’s operations, thus helping them to achieve greater efficiency. By positioning your business as a strategic partner that can help other businesses achieve their goals, you can attract high-value leads that are willing to invest in your company’s services.

B2B marketing is essential to generating high-value leads, for companies in the resource sector because it enables them to speak directly to the needs of other businesses. This more personalized communication allows the company to establish credibility, and build trust and rapport over time. If done effectively, B2B marketing is able to help attract high-value leads that are willing to invest in your company’s products or services. By focusing on personalized and targeted marketing that addresses the unique needs and challenges of your target audience, you can position your business for long-term success and growth.

Don’t know where to begin with your company’s B2B marketing campaigns? Our team at PR | Re:public can help you put together and execute a B2B marketing strategy. Get in touch with our team at hello@pr-republic.com.

The post Maximizing lead generation in the resource sector first appeared on PR Republic.

Marketing firms spend a lot of time trying to predict Google’s algorithm changes and produce content that is in line with these new algorithms. 

But what is considered good practice when it comes to developing content for your business?

Google’s advice on  how to handle core updates is to continue to focus on the content. 

Pages that might drop in ranking after the implementation of a Google update do not necessarily have anything wrong with them. It is important to ensure that the content is the best that you can offer, which is what we as PR | Re:public consistently provide our clients. 

In particular we ask key questions when developing quality content, which come directly from Google’s suggested content and quality questions.

When developing quality content, consider these key questions

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
• Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
• Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
• Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?
• If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
• Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
• Does the content have any easily-verified factual errors?
• Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

So what sets PR | Re:public apart from other marketing firms?

PR | Re:public uses subject experts to write quality content on behalf of our clients. At the start of each engagement, our clients are assigned a writer, knowledgeable in their specific sector and who has either an analyst or journalistic background. The key here is sector expertise, coupled with the ability to effectively communicate that expertise to a wide audience.

The next part of our engagement is to help our clients build a brand and reputation among the investor community. We do this by using a combination of native advertising, earned media and sponsored media. In each instance, irrespective of the nature of the publication, the content we produce needs to be factual, well-written, concise and underrated yet engaging. This is to build up our client’s credibility and forge trust between our client and the investor community. 

Finally, the content we produce needs to be written with empathy. What does this mean? It means we recognise that people are overworked and bombarded with different offers and information on a daily basis. Therefore, it is important that we produce content that provides value to investors, because when people receive value, they feel valued. Each piece of content produced by PR | Re:public contains valuable insights about the industry, the economy and the company. Additionally, it is factual, visually appealing and engaging. 

In this way, we look at Google algorithms, as any PR / marketing agency should. But we are not overly concerned about the Pandas, Pigeons, Penguins or any other animal update they bring in the future. 

The post Pigeons, pandas and penguins and what to do about them first appeared on PR Republic.

Competition for capital is fierce. The average venture capital investor looks at more than 100 opportunities for every one they invest in. Given the odds of getting an investment, a winning company presentation is no longer a “nice to have” but an imperative for every company serious about attracting investors. 

For a winning pitch deck, the 10/20/30 rule applies- that is about ten slides, twenty words per slide and no smaller than a font size of thirty. Given these parameters, each slide needs to be relevant, stand out, and the overall deck needs to be highly compelling to prompt investors to want to dig deeper and learn more about the company. 

So what information  needs to be included for a great company presentation?

Beyond the title page and relevant disclaimers which need to be included, we break it down into seven key questions:

1. What is the opportunity?

This is also known as the problem definition slide. This is arguably the most critical slide as it gives legitimacy to the existence of your business. This slide should be clear and concise as any good elevator pitch. Think about if you were trying to explain the opportunity instead of writing it, you’d have about 11 seconds to get your point across. This slide is the written version of that pitch. 

2. What has been accomplished thus far?

It is important to keep this slide focused on the opportunity and the steps that have been taken towards realising this opportunity. If you were a mining company, perhaps you would have already optioned the property and taken some initial samples. A biotech company might have already identified the problem, gone through the discovery phase and received FDA approval. 

3. What still needs to be done?

This slide looks at what the company has already accomplished and what still needs to be done to realise the opportunity. This is an important slide in the sense that this explains why the company needs money, and what management intends to do with the money. 

4. How much is this going to cost and what’s the timeline?

Now in some instances, one cannot speak to costs until certain studies have been completed. Similarly, the timelines are often unclear. However, management should be able to come up with a sensible reason as to why they are raising a particular amount of capital and have at least some broad sense of when they will intend to deploy that capital. 

Understanding this point also provides a sense of the type of capital required. If your stage one is only going to last six months and cost $1million, then how is management justifying asking for $5 million to be raised immediately. While having a buffer is great, no investor wants their cash sitting around idle. 

5. Who is responsible for executing this plan?

This slide is all about management. Who are the people running the company? Is there a panel of experts backing them? Have they done this before? Have they successfully raised money from investors previously and managed to make money for investors. Are they honest? Will they do what they say they are going to do with investor’s money? 

Often companies fail, not through lack of funding or poor ideas, but because of poor execution. Having an experienced team gives investors confidence that the team has done it once, and can do it over and over again. 

6. What is the next milestone?

Another way of phrasing this question is how does an investor objectively know whether the company is achieving its goal of realising the opportunity presented in slide 1. Businesses do not go from zero to a million in a day, rather it is made of several small wins and meeting set milestones. It is important to let investors understand what those milestones are, i.e. what is management doing with the investment and how do they know whether management is achieving their goal? 

7. Upside potential?

This is what we call blue sky potential. It is what occurs when the business not only goes right, but very right. In a mining company, perhaps the idea is to explore what is believed to be the main vein and one realises that the mineralised ore seam is much thicker than initially thought. 

In a company like Zoom – who could have predicted COVID-19 and everyone working from home and widespread adoption rates? Instead of membership uptake following a gradual trajectory, membership skyrocketed almost overnight. This is the slide that allows investors to dream. 

One invests on the basis of a business plan, expecting a certain ROI, but it is those unquantifiable, blue sky opportunities that take an investment to the next level. 

Once those questions have been answered, then other slides are what we call fillers, these may include, inter alia:

Photos of the product or project, peer comparison, the capital structure, any big names that have already invested and any useful market intelligence that backs your investment thesis. 

With the right combination of useful content and visual appeal, your pitch deck will be hard to ignore regardless of your target audience. 

PR | Re:public assists companies to prepare a killer pitch deck. Need help with yours? Get in touch with our team today.

The post How to create a pitch deck that will stand out (and draw investors) first appeared on PR Republic.

We’ve already seen major conferences and trade shows making the decision to go virtual, with customizable exhibitor booths, on-demand content and chat forums. Virtual conferences replicate the feel of a physical event and guide attendees through a captivating, rewarding online experience complete with unique interactive features like keynote speaker panels, instant messaging, and even augmented reality product demos. But what about roadshows and smaller field events?

Benefits of hosting a virtual roadshow:

A virtual platform for roadshows delivers an immersive experience to your interested audience located across the world for a fraction of the cost of a physical event. They allow you to meet your attendees on their terms (at home or at the office, live or on-demand) and do not require the same amount of resources an in-person event may need. Other benefits include:

• Building awareness and driving market value

A virtual roadshow delivers your message to your audience by leveraging the impact of live events with webinar technology. It allows your company to share detailed presentations with interested investors – proactively communicating your story to serious investors.

• Expanding your target audience at a reduction in cost

Your virtual roadshow requires no travel, and even if your event has a regional focus, you can still expand the reach from your original target. 

Typically, costs for physical events include renting event space, hiring staff and caterers, paying for employee travel costs, putting speakers up in hotels.

Your virtual roadshow requires none of this. With a sound planning approach, the right technology in place, and the right way of managing those platforms, the virtual roadshow can be an effective way to mitigate business interruption and keep your audience actively engaged.

• View on-demand

One of the best things about virtual events is their flexibility and ability to be viewed on-demand and provides your attendees with the ability to participate on their schedule.

Virtual events showcase your brand and increases traffic for product demonstrations and one-on-one meetings with the idea that attendees will come back again and again. Consider, for example, there were too many great sessions playing at the same time, or attendees want to grab some collateral to share with their CEOs. Whatever the need, virtual event attendees can revisit the experience on their own terms, and since virtual events can remain live year-round, this means an increase in ROI.

Your company can also leverage on the recording in a variety of ways, including being featured on your website, repurposed in email campaigns, and used as inspiration for future blogs and case studies.

• Better data mining

Virtual events are master data-miners, leaving all kinds of clues into the attendees’ journey – demographics, session attendance, what type of content they’re viewing, marketing analytics (including email clicks and website analytics), survey data, and what resources they’re downloading.

Bottom line, if you want big data, go virtual. Event data can now be leveraged far beyond simply communicating with attendees to customising those communications as well as the attendee experience.

As virtual roadshows continue to use technology to collect more and more relevant information, you’ll be able to make better decisions not just about marketing, but also how to improve your business overall. Call PR | Re:public to help you plan your next virtual roadshow.

The post Virtual roadshows: Creating meaningful connections first appeared on PR Republic.

To successfully take a potential client through the buying journey involves a comprehensive lead generation strategy and multiple departments—from outside lead aggregators to internal marketing departments to sales professionals. Many organizations now even have customer success managers to help with the lead nurturing and retention process.

The key to this process, is to have relevant, targeted content to help nurture prospective leads.

What are the features of quality content?

Content that attracts high quality leads into the sales funnel has four main features, namely;

1. Actionable
2. Informative
3. Accurate
4. Interesting

1. Actionable

Good content tells a story. It draws the reader in. It teaches readers something new, helps solve a problem and leads readers into deciding what to do next. Story telling is a great way to achieve actionability as it allows the business to connect emotionally with their audience, conveys a message in a relatable way and increases engagement rates, ensuring that readers keep wanting more.

2. Informative

Today consumers and investors are smarter, more informed, connected and more educated than they’ve ever been. Social media and the age of the internet and education has given consumers and investors more power than people thirty years ago could ever have imagined.

If you lie or misconstrue the facts, you will get called out. Ensure your content offers value and presents only the facts. Inform your audience with authenticity about your company. Rather than pushing your product or service, allow your content to lead them to the conclusion themselves.

3. Accurate

We’ve touched on this already, but in a connected world it’s easy to fact check just about anything. If something doesn’t make sense to your readers, rest assured they will look for answers. Do not make up statistics, do not misrepresent facts or obfuscate the truth.

Unlike days gone by, where businesses could simply take down a billboard or wait for the next magazine issue to come out, what you put out digitally is there for prosperity. It will come back to bite you.

This touches on the point that authenticity sells. Be authentic, incorporate case studies and reviews as social proof of your product and you will start moving the needle of your engagement. Show yourself as a market leader through offering thought leadership content and whitepapers. People want to engage with leaders in their respective fields.

4. Interesting

The internet is a noisy place. According to Google, there are 1.93 billion websites out there and around 400 million active ones. Businesses used to compete locally, but the internet has changed that on a mega scale. Its accelerated globalization and fostered growth of many companies, but it has also increased the scale of competition. Competition for consumer attention has never been so fierce.

A great writer can even make the dullest topics sound exciting- google “best toilets of 2022” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Integration of this content is key. A multi-faceted approach is key. Don’t ignore thought leadership because you have some product marketing announcements, customer testimonials and third-party generated research reports. Ensure your social media is up to date. Have a mix of content that informs readers, tells them about your product and shorter pieces to generate leads.  They all need to work together for the common good.

PR | Re:public has built its reputation on quality content. Our expert sector-specific writers produce content that is well-researched, informative and engaging. Contact us today to find out how we can assist you with your digital content strategy.

The post Why relevant content is critical to attracting quality leads first appeared on PR Republic.

The post The real value of marketing small cap stocks first appeared on PR Republic.

To an outsider, the mining industry may seem like a vast industry, spanning the entire globe and periodic table. However, as insiders, we understand just how small the industry actually is.

How often have you met someone at a conference only to realise that you started out working on a mine on the opposite side of the world that their former colleague is currently working on? Okay, maybe not that exact scenario, but at least something along those lines.

It is extremely rare that a geologist or a mining engineer works on the same mine for the entire life of that mine, especially when that LOM spans several decades. The fact that mining is highly cyclical, requires a diverse skill set, which changes depending on the mine’s phase of development, and that professionals can be called to work in some of the world’s most remote places anywhere in the world and then move on, fosters relationships. These relationships are nurtured by attending conferences aimed at bringing investors, miners and service companies under one roof.  Attend enough of these networking events and you soon realise just how small the industry is. In general, mining insiders with around a decade of experience under their belts usually have only one or two degrees of separation between them. This makes marketing and networking extremely easy. Add in a couple of roadshows and you are golden.

The value of conferences

Other sectors are not so lucky. While professionals in retail, high-tech, medical, property etc certainly have industry-focused conferences that are well attended, conferencing is usually part of a greater marketing effort, not the whole budget. In fact, people in these industries would generally look at conferencing as something that has its place, but is a relatively antiquated marketing tool. Indeed they are right in this assertion when one compares the capabilities of meeting maybe a few hundred people at a conference as opposed to using the power of the internet to brand and influence thousands.

Make no mistake, conference attendance is a very powerful marketing tool. PR | Re:public built their reputation and made their debut by becoming a keynote speaker at a major conference more than ten years ago. Today we offer clients investor and networking days because we understand the value of getting the right people into a room to listen to your company’s story. Face-to-face meetings is still the gold-standard for doing business. Investors still like to meet the managers of the companies they invest in and vice versa.  It is true that once a company has paid for registration fees, flights, accommodation, their exhibition stand, and beer, the costs of attending a conference could run into thousands of dollars. But most would argue, that generally this is money well spent and companies budget accordingly.

How to market when conferences are getting cancelled?

2020 has been an interesting year. In January, PR | Re:public had committed to being a keynote speaker for six global mining events. To date, the only one we managed to get to was the Mining Indaba in South Africa in February. While these conferences were quick to go online, the experience and efficacy is not the same as the real deal.

Even if companies are paying registration fees to attend these events online, at a minimum they are saving on the flights, exhibition space and beer money. So what can companies do with this spare change to ensure that they are visible to investors and shareholders?

Here are some ideas to suit every budget:

Entry-level marketing budget: $750 – $900 / month

There are a few ways to get noticed on line. Getting referenced on high-traffic websites is a great start. If you could then get these websites with high authority to link back to your website, what we call a “backlink,” then the credibility and traffic of your company website grows.

Mid-level marketing budget: $4,900 – $6,100 / month

If your company is spending between $60,000-75,000 annually on online marketing, then you can begin to see significant online traffic and a tangible increase in interest in your company.

With this budget, one could expect to receive a comprehensive marketing strategy. This would ensure different types of coverage including a video interview, write-ups on a on a higher-authority website, be mentioned in a few newsletters, monthly write ups about your company, sponsored promotions on high-traffic news sites such as BBC, CNN, and The Guardian, and exposure on social media to create.

Below is an image showing a monthly result from one of PR | Re:public’s clients that was promoted on high-traffic news sites.  In this instance, PR | Re:public produced high-quality articles on the company, A/B tested it and then promoted this content on high traffic news websites such as BBC, Fox News, and CNN. The results was that this firm’s write-up was viewed millions of times (“impressions”) and read by over 5,000 people (“clicks”). Undertaking this process on a regular basis helps refine the audience to ensure that your company starts to engage relevant people with a high probability of buying the stock, and also ensures regular coverage of your company.

Comprehensive marketing budget: $10,000 – $20,000 / month

If you are setting aside these kinds of funds to market your company, then your firm is really serious about increasing its stock price, or winning new business.

An online presence requires as many types of engagements as possible, and all aspects of one’s marketing strategy should tie together in a coherent way. The ultimate aim of this type of marketing is to aggressively move readers through your company’s sales funnel. In the case of a junior miner, this ultimately means that you want to start with a wide audience who are interested in reading an article on your company, watch a video interview, or engaging with your marketing material in some way. From there, you want a subset of these people to show continued interest in your firm by leaving their details, downloading a company report and following your stock. After this step, the aim is to move these people through to the last part of the funnel by “making the sale.” In the world of mining, PubCo’s means buying or investing in your company’s stock. 

In order to do this effectively, you can expect a complete overhaul of your company’s communication and marketing strategy, starting at the ground level with your firm’s marketing material by ensuring your company’s presentation, fact sheet, landing pages and marketing material is professional and representative and sparks enough interest to a prospective investor to want to engage further with your firm.

From there, the idea is to apply influencer marketing techniques. Some of the tools used would include video interviews, media relations services, influencer marketing including thought leadership, blog posts and promotion on high-traffic news sites, network meetings, banner ads, social media engagement, PPC marketing and regular newsletters informing prospective investors about the company and it’s potential and then ultimately targeted outreach to offer help to interested parties to purchase the stock.

Summary

Traditionally mining is an “old boys” club where face to face meet ups were the norm. Even in the absence of COVID19,  this landscape was quickly changing. Marketing budgets for mining firms have increased from 3% of revenue in 2014 to 13% in 2019 (The CMO Survey & Delloitte Digital) as company executives have recognised the growing importance of a comprehensive communications strategy to their business.

COVID19 has reduced global travellers and many conferences that facilitated these meetings have been canceled or postponed, accelerating a growing trend in virtual meetings and online marketing.

For as long as mining depends on investors, the need to promote one’s company and executive teams will remain. As more investors choose to receive their research information and ideas online, it is imperative that mining executives expand their online marketing presence and direct their communication efforts so as to ensure that they are seen by the right people.

The competition for capital is intense. Information, opportunities and investment ideas flow freely and constantly across the web. For a mining company to be successful today, management needs to ensure that they are keeping pace with the information age.

What measures will you take to promote your company at a time when you cannot be seen in person?

The post How to promote your mining company without conferences first appeared on PR Republic.

1. Management

Qualified leadership and management teams are crucial to the success of a junior miner, and any company or organisation that does not have a cohesive and qualified management team is often destined to fail.

Just like any other business, investors want to make sure they have all the boxes ticked when it comes to having people that have considerable experience and a proven track record in geology, operations, finance and marketing. In the digitally connected world we live in today, there are many tools that help investors conduct research on professionals. Ensuring that the management team is qualified is an extremely important consideration for a prospective investor.

2. Demand

The price for a product or service is almost always linked directly to supply and demand.

When investing in any company, investors always want to define the market in which they operate and determine the economic fundamentals (supply and demand) of the products and/or services the company provides. There is no doubt about it, the global population is only increasing and the lifestyles of many in developing nations is improving. This creates an increasing demand for metals used in infrastructure, transportation and daily life.

Also, there is a focus on green initiatives such as renewable energy and other technology-based initiatives. If wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars all were to become commonplace worldwide this would require a massive increase of production in the metals used for the manufacture of these technologies.

Demand changes over time and it is known that both metals and subsequently, mining, are cyclical industries. For example, lithium is a good example of the ‘boom and bust’ cycle that metals commonly experience. Since 2015 demand growth for lithium has been increasing at 13% per year and demand is expected to increase six-fold between 2018-2028. Initially, the increasing demand led to what some say was an overshot increase in prices for the different types of lithium supply used in battery technologies (lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide).

Whenever the price of a metal spikes, you can often assume that mining companies are anticipating the upward price movement and will react with increased production of the metal if they have the capability to do so. This can lead to oversupply such as what happened with lithium in 2017 – in the face of a dramatic increase in future demand there was a glut of supply that may take a couple years to clear. A lack of processing facilities has also created a bottleneck for lithium supply, thus the reason for the downturn in prices. This in turn causes producing companies to scale back operations and investment, which ironically may be the main cause of the next boom cycle if supplies become insufficient to meet demand.

Historically, however, depressed prices for a metal do not always indicate the future demand of said metal. Investors will be doing their research on future demand for the metal from each industry the metal is used in, and will try to anticipate demand risks for each industry. By completing this research, investors have a good start on an investment thesis of a company that they may want to invest in.

3. Supply

Obviously, the availability of supply (and associated demand) directly impacts the price of any mined product, and the origin(s) of supply for most commodity types is usually diversified, a by-product of the increasingly globalised world we live in today.

Whenever the industry is struggling, major miners will often reduce their spending on exploration and development to focus on increasing the profitability and efficiency of their operations. When the situation is improving, the majors begin to look at the projects owned and operated by juniors. Junior miners are leaders in identifying minerals deposits and developing them to a point where a major will enter into an agreement to earn-in to a majority interest in the project. This type of agreement is usually referred to as an Option/Joint Venture partnership. These partnerships are lucrative for junior miners in the short term and the majors in the long term once production occurs.

A way for the junior miners to receive longstanding benefit from the deal is to negotiate a ‘royalty’ on the project which essentially means the junior gets a percentage of the profits from the site until the mine is exhausted of all its mineral resources.

To determine what future supply might be, an investor might screen the market to determine the major producers of any particular metal, and where these players are operating in the world. By looking at the actions of the key players like the decisions being made relating to expanding or reducing production they can gain an idea of whether supply is growing or decreasing. A prospective investor should also be aware of the projects in the pipeline that juniors are exploring and developing in order to better predict when new supply will come online for the producing companies in the future. Like demand however, there are always factors not commonly known that can derail the demand or supply of any mineral in question. Investors will be appropriately assessing these risks before investing.

4. Jurisdiction

Some jurisdictions are extremely risky to operate in as a mineral explorer or miner.

A resource might have the right geology for profitable extraction but if political and/or social unrest is occurring in the area, sometimes this creates too much risk to justify commencing operations.

Governments who feel they have not been getting their fair share often react by appropriating assets, introducing or increasing royalties/ownership, and banning exports of a specific ore (forcing miners to refine the metal in the country and/or attract manufacturing, for more value added domestically). Usually these tactics are more frequently used by undeveloped nations that have considerable mineral resources but lack other sources of revenue. It is becoming increasingly common for mining operations to have sophisticated security systems – but this adds to the overhead cost of the mine and reduces profitability.

5. Geology

Without the right geology presenting a business case for investment, there is no way a mine should be built. It is up to a company’s management to accurately dictate the potential of a resource based on what they know and what information is public.

Bringing in a third-party consultant is a common way for a company to confirm the geology that their projects have. These consultants will develop ‘Mineral Resource Estimates’ (MRE), which is essentially the first report in identifying a resource after a considerable amount of exploration work has been completed. Following the MRE in order is a ‘Preliminary Economic Assessment’, a ‘Pre-Feasibility Study’ and finally a ‘Feasibility Study’. These reports are extremely comprehensive and can collectively cost millions of dollars, not including the costs for exploration and development. A positive Feasibility study outlining a mining operation is usually required by most mining companies before they even consider building the extensive infrastructure needed for a mining operation. Investors would want to read these technical reports, available to the public, in order to gain a better understanding of a junior miner’s project(s).

Once juniors have developed a considerable Mineral Resource Estimate or completed a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment for a project, it becomes easier to attract a major mining company as a joint venture partner or get bought out.

Junior miners contribute greatly to the pipeline of projects that will become the mines of tomorrow. Much of the value that investors receive from a junior mining company occurs immediately after a junior makes a significant discovery and again when the project is sold to a major mining company.

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