What is the investor journey?
Every interaction an investor has with your company, from the first announcement they read to the day they buy, hold and top up. Understanding it is how listed companies build investor belief and drive favourable investor behaviour.
The idea
From a single interaction to a company journey.
An investor journey becomes strategic when you use digital infrastructure that lets you observe meaningful interactions and derive insights from that data to optimise each touchpoint.
Definition
The investor journey is the sequence of touchpoints an investor has with a company over time. Structured together into a funnel that nurtures investors, it turns a one-off interaction into a journey that measures the return on your investor communications, acquires more shareholders, and maximises on-market demand to support your share price.
Most public companies are familiar with the one-off actions that capture investor attention: announcements, social media, investor forums. Far fewer continue into the next steps that nurture attention into investor leads, and leads into shareholders. The majority of retail investors don’t become shareholders after a single interaction.
Touchpoints
What your investor touchpoints could look like.
Capturing attention is only the first touchpoint. Here is the funnel of strategic touchpoints you should be nudging investors through, with investor marketing in place.
- 01
An investor views a company announcement. That is investor attention.
- 02
You add video and text summaries to the announcement to provide additional context.
- 03
You give them a company platform to ask questions and raise concerns.
- 04
The investor reaches out with an email query. That is an investor lead, and you collect their contact details.
- 05
You reach out with a personalised email campaign to share company news.
- 06
The investor opens a position in the company. That is a new shareholder.
Intent
Every touchpoint is a signal of intent.
These are all ways a touchpoint can start an investor's journey with the company. Each one adds intent. If you want to nurture that investor into a shareholder over time, that is where digital infrastructure comes in.
- 01An investor views a company announcement.+ intent
- 02An investor asks a question about the company on a third-party forum.+ intent
- 03An investor visits the company's socials and engages with content.+ intent
- 04An investor sends an email querying a project update.+ intent
- 05An investor signs up for the company's mailing list.+ intent
The leak
Whose journey is it, anyway?
Investor journeys are largely driven by third parties whose interests conflict with yours. You want an investor to understand, believe, hold and upgrade. Most other parties have short-term objectives that run counter to that.
Whether it’s selling ads, encouraging short-term trading, or promoting the next paying customer, the majority of third parties’ interests are not aligned with the needs of a public company. The result is a “leaky” funnel: it drives early attention and interest, then quickly diverts it. An incredibly inefficient investor journey, and one the company doesn’t control.
Owning the journey is the point of direct-to-investor marketing. Each touchpoint you control is one you can measure, and each one you measure is one you can improve. See how that plays out in turning attention into investor leads.
Own the investor journey.
InvestorHub gives you the infrastructure to observe, nurture and measure every touchpoint. See how it fits your IR strategy in one 30-minute call.