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 Why Digital Marketing for Investor Relations is Critical appeared first on Agile IR.
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At times IR has been one of the most exciting and fun professions any person could hope.
There is always a new project, whether it is a ground breakthrough technology or start-up venture, or searching for the next new mineral deposit.
And as a result…
Setting up meetings for management, conference calling analysts, talking to shareholders (both retail and institutional) organizing investor road shows, scheduling broker meetings, or booking a CEO interview on a new radio program, the list goes on and one.
But much has changed since I first cut my teeth on a phone in 2003, and much of that is directly a result of the emergence of digital marketing in the world of investor relations.
This has a lot to do with many fundamental changes to the overall investment industry, changes that are still occurring.
After the horrific financial crisis of 2007-2008, the investment industry experienced massive changes.
The increasing trend of investment brokerages moving away from a transactional fee structure to a management fee has meant that there is less and less tolerance for speculative investments.
Compound this trend is the reality that regulations have tightened up what investments an investment advisor is allowed to introduce to a client, or if the compliance department will even sanction said transactions.
This has cumulated into the perfect storm to disrupt the traditional investor relations industry.
And for this reason, it has become increasingly more and more important for IR professionals to reach out directly to the investing public, and not to the investment professionals.
The key mechanism for reaching this elusive audience has been the Internet, and that is where digital marketing has emerged as a priority in the investor relations sector.
In many aspects, this is an exciting new time in our industry, but in others, it is rather unsettling.
Digital IR means different things to different people, and there still needs to be a lot of education to where we get to the point this is resolved.
Because we are dealing with the investment sector, it is a highly regulated industry, with very specific rules. For many Internet marketing professionals, they simply do not understand the realities of this type of environment.
And that is why IR consultants will either need to become savvy enough to understand how to incorporate a digital marketing campaign for their clients, or they will need to secure trusted sources for this service.
And make no mistake, this is a VERY specialized skill set.
One of the first things that people need to understand is that digital marketing is not SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is part of the digital marketing umbrella, but it is hardly defining, and in most cases, a totally inappropriate strategy for a public company looking to secure increased investor awareness.
Botton line SEO is highly cost prohibitive for most companies to engage, and it is probably no the best option for long-term, predictable success.
In 2019, you would be hard pressed to find an active public company that does not have some form of a website. Most of these websites will have an investor section that is dedicated to communicating with existing or prospective shareholders.
The investor section is an important digital tool that is critical to a successful investor relations program.
Unfortunately, many companies have not figured out how to maximize the potential to engage shareholders in a strategically designed investor section.
A properly designed IR Website or investor section can be a great opportunity for a company to reach out to shareholders and tell their story.
We recommend that companies work with a digital IR consultant to streamline their investor section or fix some of the deficiencies in the existing IR website.
Investor relations involves many functions, one of the most important roles is to increase the overall investor awareness for the company. Pay per click marketing or PPC is one of the most effective ways to increase the profile of the company.
Previously, IR professionals would speak with registered investment advisors as a method to increase the awareness of the company, but that is becoming less and less viable as an option.
The reality is that more individuals or retail investors have discount online trading accounts to save money and make many of their own decisions.
This has facilitated the need for companies to directly engage these potential investors, who are doing their investment research through digital online tools.
PPC allows companies to select the digital media outlets that their advertisements appear, and pay only for results. The costs are predictable, and strategically designed landing pages can control the narrative when introducing the company to the public.
There are many different forms of PPC, but we have some IR related search engine marketing tips that can help you get started.
Yes, the powerpoint presentation is a digital marketing tool, that is critical to a well designed digital IR strategy.
Investor presentations are expected by the public and are often one of the first things to be accessed on the website.
But powerpoints are only the tip of the iceberg of the investor materials that could and should be developed. Another must is the corporate snapshot or summary, usually a 2-page (front and back) document that details the core facts about the company.
Another piece that is often overlooked is an up to date CEO interview, that accurately tells the story about the company and its vision for the future.
Much of investor relations is about storytelling and a well-crafted CEO interview can be effective at telling that story in a controlled environment.
Back in the day, we would aggregate a comprehensive investor package, that included the corporate presentation, snapshot, financial data, some recent press releases, and other relevant information. There is no reason the IR website shouldn’t have this all aggregated in a convenient location for visitors to download.
And don’t do something silly like put up a barrier such as a name squeeze as a prerequisite for downloading investor materials. This will only act as a deterrent for existing or potential shareholders to access these documents.
Email and telephone are still highly effective digital tools, and they are a must for an effective IR strategy.
One of the first things I do with a new client is to look at their existing database. You would be shocked at how many companies either don’t have any database or they bring out a random collection of spreadsheets, data files and emails,
Regardless of whether you are collecting emails on the website, or business cards from a meet and greet, there are literally hundreds of free or cheap digital tools that can be used to organize these potential contacts. In a later post, I will go over some of these tools, but for right now keep a couple of these 4 in mind;
It is a free CRM, that can be used in conjunction with Hubspot’s premium marketing services, or not. In terms of a CRM, the free product is really handy, and more than enough for many IR professionals to build a decent database. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube if you need help with a specific task. Is this the best option for a CRM? No, but it is still very good, and it is free. If you’re not using a CRM at the moment, why not try out HubSpot, and once you ready, you can move on to a more comprehensive solution. Exporting your data out of Hubspot is also painless, so there is no excuse.
This is perhaps the most well known and easiest use email newsletter service available. It is free for the first 200 subscribers, so there is an opportunity to use the product a little before you have to invest in the premium services. One of the reasons that I preferred services such as MailChimp for emailing, is that they are ‘white labelled’ or trusted by many of the email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.
A simple email newsletter service is the bare minimum though if you are feeling a little more adventurous, then a move toward a marketing automation app like Drip or InfusionSoft is an excellent choice.
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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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