First quarter earnings are around the corner, a time when the Investor Relations’ pages of a corporate website start gaining real traction. The IR role is an important one and a good content strategy, like a solid quarterly earnings, can drive eyeballs to your site.
IR- The Hidden Website Weapon
Regulations like MiFID II have created resource constraints for already busy and over stretched IR teams. When investors were asked in a 2019 report by Peel & Hunt what companies could be doing post MiFID II to increase their visibility to investors, 32% said that corporates should update their website. Only 25% of investors said they’d be working with investor relations advisors more closely.
Where are the 75% of remaining investors going for information if not to the IR team directly? They’re going to the website. According to the Nielsen Norman Group the IR page is one of the top-four, most heavily trafficked pages of a corporate website alongside Public Relations, Employment and About us. Investors are in your pages and it’s those pages that should be working the hardest.
Having a well-managed and clear IR page is important, one where the most pertinent information is easy to find, is available in different, viewable formats, and is categorised in a way to allow your audience to get the most from their visit. For most IR teams, a looming challenge remains: how to create an IR page and content strategy that satisfies your audiences with limited resources and budgets, especially in many corporate cultures that say “ do more with less”?
IR + Content – The Strategy
A page with top-four traffic deserves its own comprehensive content strategy and one, ideally, that should be refreshed and thought through regularly. But with limited resources available to most IROs here are a few quick wins.
The content audit
Is the content on your IR pages doing the heavy lifting for you? Is the content doing its job to attract the analysts and investors your company wants and needs? If the company is looking to grow organically, if it’s in the middle of a transformation, wants to divest, or is looking for outside financing to grow quickly; those are different audiences and content targets.
Performing an internal and competitor content audit on your IR pages will help you understand what content is getting traction and whether the pages are working for your overall corporate strategy and narrative.
Know your audience
In general, traffic to the IR page comes from institutional investors, financial analysts, financial journalists and individual investors. Regardless of their title, all are looking for a “story behind the numbers” and you need to provide them with that story. Of course, each audience will have different content pieces to lure them in and keep them on your page, but it’s important that this isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.
Does IR really need a social media presence?
The short answer is yes. It’s just another way to drive eyes to your pages. In fact, it’s not uncommon for investment professionals and individual investors to use social media as a way to “get to know” the company better. Videos and blog posts from senior leadership can give a qualitative view into the company that goes beyond quantitative. Well done webcasts, analyst and investor events, as well as webinars are perfect to showcase on the IR page and on the company’s social media. Your analysts and investors are undoubtedly already following you, so why not give them a push to your website?
Where do IR teams go from here?
Start small and don’t try to be all things to all people. Focus on your strategy and the narrative you’re telling the capital markets community and make sure that the content you’re producing reflects that. And if you still don’t know where to start, ask for help.
As an award-winning financial services content marketing agency, Vested can support your digital marketing and branding efforts for business success.
