The post CRM for Investor Relations: Top 5 Best Solutions appeared first on Agile IR.
]]>And no, MailChimp IS NOT A CRM.
The reality is that you need a CRM for investor relations, it is just a basic requirement.
There are some simple, basic materials that every IR professional needs when for each company; a simple corporate snapshot, an effective powerpoint presentation, well-designed investor website, a CEO interview, and of course, a CRM
So why is a CRM so critically important to good investor relations?
The role of the IR professional is to provide communications to the investment public (investors, media, etc.), on the latest news and updates that affect the company. This job is simply far to complex without in the current digital age, with the help of technology.
A CRM allows the IR professional to track their communications, document conversations, and keep all critical parties updated in a timely manner. This is an absolute necessity for every company that hopes to develop a positive relationship with their investors and the investment media.
There are some basic requirements for all CRM platforms, and then there are specific requirements for investor relations. Here are our top 5 CRM’s for Investor Relations.
There are very few CRM solutions on the market as advanced as Salesforce. When it comes to features then Salesforce has got to be on your shortlist. While Salesforce is vastly more than a CRM suite now,
Here at Agile IR, the data-driven decision-making model is a core belief, and that is one of the primary reasons we have such a high opinion of Salesforce. There is a lot of data that is collected natively by Salesforce, and the reports are exceptional.
Few IR professionals are comfortable identifying with marketing models for the industry, but that is precisely where investor relations are heading.
One of the main reasons that we like HubSpot CRM is that it is free… well… kinda.
And that is not really why we like HubSpot, rather, the company offers a variety of marketing solutions, and many are well suited for the investor relations space. The advanced features of the HubSpot marketing or CRM are premium services, but that should be expected.
But in terms of just the Hubspot CRM, the platform is highly versatile and customizable without any of the premium features.
As digital marketing advocates for investor relations, we believe that Hubspot is a go-to resource for all IR professionals. But there are lots of features built into Hubspot CRM that will allow both small and mid-sized IR teams to be highly effective.
One thing that I personally like about HubSpot’s CRM solution is that is fairly scaled-down, but has all the major features that are needed when communicating with the investment pubic.
There is a very slick mobile app for both iPhone and Android devices, but the Android app integrates far better than the iPhone version. This is largely due to the security protocols for Apple devices, but in terms of convenience, Android gets the nod here.
While I have placed Salesforce higher on the list, my personal preference is HubSpot for a CRM application.
Whether you are a fan of Microsoft or not, the software giant is one of the most reliable producers of enterprise solutions, and their CRM solutions reflect this fact.
I am currently looking at moving away from Hubspot (not because it is lacking) to Microsoft Dynamics because it will integrate with many of my other solutions. This is a major point to keep in mind when you do select a customer relations management suite.
We rely on Microsoft for many of our software solutions (Teams, Office, Skype, etc.), and Dynamics is currently something that we are looking at seriously. That being said, this has been on the table for a while, and we have yet to make the switch.
Dynamics is an excellent platform, and if you are looking for an enterprise-level solution, then it should be on your radar.
Okay, I will admit it, the name is what grabbed my attention initially. But it would be foolish to not respect the impact that Agile CRM has made in the customer relationship management market.
Agile CRM was built with a few basic tenants at its core. First, marketing automation. There are many daily aspects of investor relations that can be automated, improving communication. Second, was the advent of social media for developing contacts. Third, is accessibility, meaning simply to use and affordable.
For a small-business, AgileCRM is very well suited, with lots of features to make it a very powerful solution.
This may seem like a pick from left field, but ZOHO CRM makes it on the list for a few reasons. First, I know of a couple of highly respected IR firms that rely upon ZOHO CRM and have done so for several years.
And secondly, it is highly flexible. This ability to customize ZOHO CRM is why these firms went with it initially.
Investor Relations is a very specific industry, so flexibility is highly important. The ability to set up a custom workflow in ZOHO is a very compelling argument. While we do not use it in-house at AgileIR, we have seen first hand that it is very useful for the industry.
Regardless of the CRM solution that you decide to take on, whether it is one of the 5 listed here, a custom solution, or some other CRM package, the important thing is that you are using one.
If you have decided against a CRM, or think that Outlook or Gmail is going to meet your needs, then we hope you reconsider. After 20+ years in the IR industry, I believe that implementing a reliable CRM platform and a logical workflow is critical to a company’s IR success.
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]]>The post Investor Relations Website Design: The Definitive Guide appeared first on Agile IR.
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Perhaps the most important aspect of any company is their latest news releases. The website should be updated immediately upon issuance of the latest press release. Also, press release services should include links in the PR back to the website, or media sources that further explain aspects of the PR.
News continues to be a major driver of market activity, and a focal point for IR representatives. Markets are consistently moved higher and lower on news, and this is of critical importance to investors and investor communications. Make the News section of the website more than just an archive of past press releases, take the opportunity to educate investors on the people and events that influence your market.
Investors have come to expect that they can download an IR package for a company, without the hassle of calling the investor relations contact listed on the website. For this reason, it is critical that every IR website have an easy to access download section, that contains the critical documents.
I generally explain to my clients that they really need to have 4 pieces of IR collateral material, consistently kept up to date and available for download;
In addition, a collection of the latest, critical news releases in PDF format are another good idea. The download section should be easy to access, with links to it on the Homepage. As a rule, we never have a barrier to entry (name squeeze) to gain access, although we do utilize Pop-ups to suggest volunteering contact information.
The most important characteristic that any company can use to foster their shareholder base is trust. Providing media and research coverage on the website is an excellent way to reinforce trust.
If your company has had independent research coverage, or the CEO has appeared on TV or radio to speak about the company or industry, make sure to include these media pieces on your website.
Is your investor website mobile compliant? If not, then you are missing out on a huge portion of your potential audience.
Mobile continues to grow each year by leaps and bounds, and it already eclipses desktop traffic by a significant margin. When you consider investor research, that number is further exacerbated.
There is absolutely no reason that in the current digital age for your investor website to not be mobile friendly. If you are currently not mobile friendly, please skip ahead to the Content Management section of this guide.
Content management system is a software platform that enables centralized control of the creation and deployment of all digital content on a website. There are many different solutions in the CMS market, including free, premium and custom options.
One of the most popular CMS platforms available is WordPress, a powerful software application that is very flexible due to the huge community of plugin developers. There are hundreds of investor relations friendly plugins available on the WordPress framework (many for free), and this makes it a logical choice for IR departments.
Other popular CRM solutions include Drupal and Joomla. Both are excellent pieces of software, but they lack the depth of the WordPress development community, making customization more cumbersome. There are also numerous online website builders such as Weebly and WIX that offer excellent platforms and warrant consideration, as some of the customized CMS solutions, especially ones that focus on the IR niche.
One piece of software that I believe every single Investor Relations department should have as a foundational piece, it is either Customer Relations Management, or capable Contact Database.
There are literally thousands of options to select, but our advice here is to focus on a product that is both simple to use and effective. Some examples include Salesforce CRM, Hubspot CRM, Microsoft 365 Dynamics, etc.
For a smaller company or IR department, an effective contact management platform can also be effective, but not something I would recommend.
Keeping in contact with both existing shareholders and prospective investors can be a time consuming and cumbersome task. That I why marketing automation and list management tools have emerged as one of the cornerstones for digital IR solutions.
One of the most popular options in this category is MailChimp, and because it is both cost-effective and easy to implement. While we have used MailChimp in the past, it should be noted that there are better solutions for the investor relations space.
A comprehensive marketing automation platform allows for more comprehensive digital intelligence when delivering content to visitors. MailChimp is a highly limited, more-or-less a scaled-down list management tool that will deliver emails and manage subscribes and unsubscribes.
More comprehensive digital solutions allow for greater list segmentation, and the delivery of specific content to visitors, based upon their online behavior and interests.
Another major focus to keep in mind is an automated list cleaning or purging. A major obstacle to any digital marketer is getting their emails in front of their subscribers.
When subscribers stop opening your latest news release, this is noticed by the major email service providers. As a result, your emails are eventually diverted towards the promotional tabs or spam filters. This can be mitigated or even avoided by being proactive by ‘scrubbing’ lists of inactive subscribers, hence preserving your pristine reputation.
Examples here include Keap (formerly Infusionsoft), or DRIP.
PowerPoint into a video presentation, then we suggest you give Adobe Premiere a try.
Go with Google Analytics and Google Search Console here, no need to reinvent the wheel. Yes, there are more advanced solutions, but there is a ton of data collected by these two tools.
There are some excellent strategies for expanding your existing IR content simply by looking at your Search Console data. Search queries can often spell out the exact questions your audience is asking.
We cannot stress the Importance of these two tools enough, they are free and should be one of the first tools that you plug into your investor website.
Another thing to keep in mind is heat maps. There measure where your visitors are clicking, or even looking on your webpage.
Heat map data is critical at identifying both what is working and what is not working. Premium solutions here are CrazyEgg, Mouseflow, and Lucky Orange.
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]]>The post What is Digital Investor Relations? appeared first on Agile IR.
]]>I have worked with a lot of companies over the years, primarily as an investor relations consultant, and it never ceases to amaze me how many intelligent business people simply do not understand the digital realm. Now, I don’t mean this an insult, rather it is an observation of how quickly digital media has grown and evolved.
At its simplest form, Digital Investor Relations is the augmentation of traditional IR activities with digital multimedia. This allows IR professionals to increase the scope and focus of their activities, and improve their overall ability to accurately communicate with the investing public.
When I started in IR (Investor Relations), it was pretty simple, you lived and died by the phone.
Regardless of whether you were speaking with a shareholder, or the media or an interested broker, the phone was your mission-critical tool. Well, I would argue that it is still the most important tool in the toolbelt for any IR professional, but now that phone has some key helpers.
The first key digital tools that really transformed the investor relations industry should be a surprise to no-one, i) E-mail and ii) Website. The use of advanced CRM’s (customer relations management software) was also adopted fairly early-on.
Now, we see that digital media is a key component of any successful investor relations strategy. The use of video and audio was once restricted to television or radio and paid promotional activities, but now we can distribute freely via Youtube, iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, and the list goes on and on and on.
CEO Interviews, corporate presentations, and even press releases can now be released en mass to the public, in real time, and be carried out via a two-way conversation. Emails can now be easily and freely sent to busy financial professionals, that utilize video or graphic representations of data. And all of this is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, usually by a little device that is currently in your hand or pocket.
This makes the IR Professional’s job far more efficient, and it vastly improves the quality of communication coming from the company to their stakeholders.
In order for this to succeed, there needs to be a well thought out plan put into place, one that ensures the property materials are crafted, the proper platforms are incorporated, and the proper message is being delivered.
Without forethought and planning, digital media will lack focus, it will lack direction, and worst of all, it will undermine the companies communications and messaging with stakeholders. Making your traditional investor relations activities far more difficult, if not impossible.
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