Regulatory news is a vital tool in investor relations. Also important is generating media interest and coverage. It’s great to excel at these channels – but they’re only part of the picture.
Your wider corporate conversation should be even more value-creating – filling in gaps, injecting emotion, producing an overview – to positively inform investor decision-making in a lively way.
Quoted companies must work for recognition due to restrictions on the production and distribution of broker research under the MiFID II rules (see here). Meanwhile, newspapers have reduced their growth-company coverage.
This brings a big potential advantage for good communicators. Your website will be the first port of call for most buy-side analysts, financial advisers, retail investors and journalists. A Quoted Companies Alliance survey of fund managers found: “Investors see company websites becoming more important as a primary source of information ….”
You need to produce enough information to present an accurate picture of your business – but investors require more. They want to track how you got to where you are now, and an idea of what comes next. Investors want news.
AIM companies, for example, will include all their regulatory news, as required by the AIM Rules. But competition for equity growth capital is hot, so canny boards spread the knowledge where it matters most.
Why not produce an informative corporate blog, with regular posts on your business – enlightening points on your process or technology, news and views to support your strategy?
Clearly you need to avoid price-sensitive data that should be announced to the markets. Interested investors will already have seen that – their next step is to drill down for the telling detail, the human angle they need to inform a ‘buy’ decision. They like leaders who clearly understand their market and are confident enough to sell their strategy to the wider world.
You can go further by illustrating news and views with eye-catching images and video, encouraging followers to sign up for your newsfeed. Spread your investor communications net even wider – and boost your SEO – with a social media campaign.
By adding perspective, you’re helping your brokers market your equity – so make sure they’re followers too. It’s another great reason for potential supporters to pick up the phone to you, their adviser or yours.
Context is key – news and views should go beyond the company to reflect management thinking on industry issues and workplace issues. Just keep investors in mind and don’t stray into content that must first be announced to the market.
Or go even further. Great copy, professionally produced and presented, can be repurposed – for non-regulatory news releases, analyst briefings, corporate collateral and as material for events, presentation packs and public speaking opportunities. So you save time.
Let investors see and hear from the operational team. Involving top managers in the communications process in this way boosts their confidence and promotes consistency of external message. Your website is could be your most important investor-relations platform – use it.
If you’d like to communicate to attract investors, we’d love to hear from you! Please visit our site at www.allertoncomms.co.uk and let us know how we can help.
