Published: January 25, 2023

Author: Joe Kerschbaum

*A previous version of this blog originally appeared on our website. It has been altered and updated by 3Q/DEPT.*

Venture capitalists and private equity firms make huge decisions when they invest, and must assess all risks and opportunities of potential portfolio companies from every possible angle. Diagnosing industry landscapes, competitive threats, and unique selling propositions make the difference between a successful investment or one that costs your firm dearly. This is especially true during times of economic turmoil, when mistakes can be magnified even more than usual.

Investors often have a blind spot when it comes to a company’s digital marketing efforts. That’s a serious oversight, because not only can marketing reveal a treasure trove of data and insights that keep investors from taking unnecessary risk, but it also uncovers latent growth opportunities for a tremendous payoff down the road.

What kind of insights? Consider the most frequent questions we’ve answered for private equity and VC investors:

• How much opportunity is there if the target company tried to scale digital media spend?
• What would happen if Amazon started competing in our target company’s vertical?
• Is the website of the target company optimized for the action we want the user to take?
• Will Google’s innovative product strategy steal traffic from the target company?
• Was the site recently hit with a penalty, and what was the opportunity cost of…