The online investing market has been growing very fast in the last few years globally. This incredible growth has attracted many newcomers who entered the market spotting an interesting opportunity. The result is that in some parts of the world there is an every-day growing number of online investing platform, that is difficult to keep track of and is becoming a real challenge to emerge from the competition. |
Online investing platforms cater to a huge double sided market, made of investors - both accredited, retail investors and SMEs. This great potential has been recognized by various local authorities over the world that decided to intervene and swiftly modify the existing legal frameworks to embrace this new financing tool and to foster the development of the market. As a consequence, incumbents and newcomers, have invested time and resources to become legally compliant under this new framework.
Once fully operational, online investing platforms have to compete with several competitors in a very promising and growing arena, which sometimes may leave the market over saturated. And thus the question comes up naturally: how can they differentiate from the competition?
While there are of course many answers to this question and many different strategies, here are a few activities and directions that could be taken into account while deciding the way forward:
Specialization. A way to beat the competition is to focus on a specific market segment, such as a particular sector, niche or region. This way one could target its all promoting efforts to a well determined audience and group of investor, while offering added value fundraising tools specifically for a certain sector.
Education. In many cases the market is not large enough yet, because a vast majority of retail investors is unaware of online investing and its functioning. Organizing events or offering educational materials not only could benefit directly the platform, winning new investors, but also support the entire market in its development.
Partnerships and ecosystem. Another way to provide added value in comparison to other players is to form partnerships with relevant actors in the market that, through their services, can help the platform provide a more complete and professional offer to its clients. Signing off new partnership can be a long process, especially if you are completely new to the sector. It may take time to find the right lead and negotiate the terms of the agreement. One shortcut may be to enter a pre-existing ecosystem, for example the one of Crowd Valley’s, which offers to its customers the possibility to exploit a solid and reliable ecosystem of partner providers, offering services like project management resources, advisory, legal, compliance.
Building solid bases and making the right strategic choices is fundamental to guarantee your online platform a competitive advantage over the increasing number of competitors. Get in touch with Crowd Valley’s team for information on its services and its first-class ecosystem of service providers.
Once fully operational, online investing platforms have to compete with several competitors in a very promising and growing arena, which sometimes may leave the market over saturated. And thus the question comes up naturally: how can they differentiate from the competition?
While there are of course many answers to this question and many different strategies, here are a few activities and directions that could be taken into account while deciding the way forward:
Specialization. A way to beat the competition is to focus on a specific market segment, such as a particular sector, niche or region. This way one could target its all promoting efforts to a well determined audience and group of investor, while offering added value fundraising tools specifically for a certain sector.
Education. In many cases the market is not large enough yet, because a vast majority of retail investors is unaware of online investing and its functioning. Organizing events or offering educational materials not only could benefit directly the platform, winning new investors, but also support the entire market in its development.
Partnerships and ecosystem. Another way to provide added value in comparison to other players is to form partnerships with relevant actors in the market that, through their services, can help the platform provide a more complete and professional offer to its clients. Signing off new partnership can be a long process, especially if you are completely new to the sector. It may take time to find the right lead and negotiate the terms of the agreement. One shortcut may be to enter a pre-existing ecosystem, for example the one of Crowd Valley’s, which offers to its customers the possibility to exploit a solid and reliable ecosystem of partner providers, offering services like project management resources, advisory, legal, compliance.
Building solid bases and making the right strategic choices is fundamental to guarantee your online platform a competitive advantage over the increasing number of competitors. Get in touch with Crowd Valley’s team for information on its services and its first-class ecosystem of service providers.
About the author - Irene Tordera Born and raised in Milan, Italy, Irene is an International Business graduate, with a strong interest for innovative ideas that can simplify our lives. During her studies, she co-founded an online community for sportspeople and worked in marketing positions at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising and at the European Business Angel Network, in Brussels. She is a passionate blogger about crowdfunding and the startup ecosystem. |