Serving up a perfect pitch

Neil Raj, director of Richmond Hill, Ont.-based AdCommunal.com, is trying to reinvent online marketing for big advertisers. So it’s a good thing he knows how to market himself.

Recently, Raj appeared on the Business News Network program The Pitch, a live weekly forum in which start-up entrepreneurs try to “sell” their business plans to three seen-it/done-it investors.

Raj faced a tough challenge: his performance-based ad network, in which advertisers pay only when customers actually take some action, such as ordering or “signing up”, is tough to explain at the best of times. Plus, it includes several different incarnations, such as a Canadian and an Indian division, and there’s a new mobile business that requires explanation.

Nonetheless, Raj overcame the odds and received “thumbs-up” for his 90-second pitch from all three capitalists. How did he do it? He followed his own seven-step plan for creating what he calls the perfect pitch.

Here’s his framework, and how he stuck to it:

Rule #1: Give a clear brief description of your business.
“AdCanadian is a performance-based ad network catering to the Canadian market,” Raj explained. “We also have AdCommunal catering to our US and international markets, and we've got our new ready-to-launch Ad Mobix for the mobile market.”

Rule #2: Show the potential of your business (do you have stats?)
“The online ad market is growing at a rate of 14%,” Raj reported. “Last year it hit $25 billion and actually surpassed print ad spending. The mobile market is another huge vertical that we are looking at, which is actually set to grow at 150%.”

Rule #3: Show how your business is already successful.
Raj said his company has been in business for three years and has grown 100% year over year.

Rule #4: Who are your consumers, and how do they benefit?

Rule #5: Avoid industry jargon that most people don't know; explain these terms clearly if you use them.
Raj fulfilled rules 4 and 5 with his statement, “Advertisers come to us because traditionally advertising online is sold on CPM or CPC metrics, where advertisers are charged per click or per thousand impressions. What we do is cost per acquisition, where the advertiser stipulates the action they require, whether it's entering an email address, completing a form, downloading an application, watching a video, or anything of that sort. Only when that action occurs do we charge the advertiser.”

Rule # 6 - How are you going to use investment dollars to expand your business?
Raj said the next stage is to take the company’s business model to mobile, the platform for reaching owners in the burgeoning smart phone market.

Rule #7 - Know exactly how much investment you require (and make it reasonable).
Raj indicated he’s looking for $500,000 to grow the “mobile vertical.”

Whether your next pitch is for investors, market attention or customers’ dollars, consider Raj’s seven-step plan. Being clear about what you do and what you want is a rare art and a valuable skill.