Have you ever opened your registry, seen some random name with a random address, that's not only entered your registry but bought decently? All of a sudden, someone's gone from nowhere to your top 200, top 100, top 50 or even higher.
You have to wonder how they came across you. How they learned your story and built conviction. And if there's one like this - how can we get more?
A lot of these investors don't like and work in the major investment cities. They can be farmers, remote workers, overseas expats and more. And you have to wonder, how do they see you?
With the rise in real estate values, wages and wealth combined with unprecedented digital access, there are more self-directed investors now than at any other point in the history of the ASX.Â
Through our experience, I've seen (1) groups of deep-sea Marlin fishermen investing between catches, (2) retirees on Lord Howe Island writing big cheques and (3) farmers getting up early to go through the market before their day starts.Â
There are shareholders and potential investors everywhere.Â
And all of them have a phone, internet, trading apps, and like all of us - they want to be a part of something.
So it's worth noting that while 99% of your investors are far removed from the boardroom, they still want to be heard.Â
Let's understand why.Â
Think about the internet. So much information, with so little connection, all bundled into the same experience.
Just Wikipedia alone is home to almost all the information you could ever need in your lifetime, but without connection, it's unlikely you'll absorb much of it.Â
Traditional shareholder engagement is the same.
Most companies are good at pushing information to their shareholders and keeping them informed. Take any annual report and they're packed with information - more information than most investors know what to do with.
But information alone isn't enough to cut it. Why do we expect shareholders to feel informed and valued if the channels we offer them are predominantly one-way and text-based?
It's why HotCopper is so popular.
It (regrettably) services an unaddressed challenge for millions of shareholders - the ability to connect and be heard. Companies need to get better at providing channels for shareholders to reach the company directly on their own terms.
A generic email address at the footer of an announcement isn’t enough (and we know that 50% of investor emails go unanswered, anyway). Our friends at the ASA have strong guidance on this: consider roadshows, interactive webinars, investor dinners, and even open-invitation investor site tours - think beyond a “once per year” engagement opportunity mindset.
Because when you offer the opportunity to connect, investors invariably do -Â they are pining for connection. We see it time and again with InvestorHub - the companies that use the features most frequently are the ones that get more hub traffic, more hub engagement, more hub signups - and more on-market buyers!
And that's the key to building a long-lasting shareholder connection. In a world of endless information, connection trumps all.
Let's understand how.Â
I want to focus on two categories to address when marketing to your investors: push and pull.
As I said earlier, most companies are good at the push side of their investor marketing, but there's always room for improvement.
Shareholders want to be engaged directly, not via mass communications. This is where segmentation and targeting can be useful.
In the 12 months since I first wrote this article, we’ve found that segmenting your shareholder base into four categories for separate targeting is helpful. For each segment, you can tailor not only the message but the amount of time you invest in communicating with them:
Conceptually, it's pretty simple; open the doors and lower the friction so the interested can come forward.Â
In practice, it's a little more involved.
Creating two-way communication channels takes time and effort, but the benefits for your shareholders will be significant and long-lasting.
And given that all of your shareholders reside online in some digital capacity, leveraging channels is the best way to start.
These are just a couple of ideas to broaden your thinking, but the goal remains consistent no matter what channel you pursue: provide your shareholders with two-way channels to reach you directly and to feel like they’re heard.
When investors feel heard, they trust the company and believe in the team more.
A weird flex, but if you want proof of this, head to HotCopper and find the threads about hub announcements from any of our clients (1, 2, 3) - they’re (mostly) optimistic about the simple act of opening up lines of two-way communication with the market.
Remember to be adaptable, open, and creative when connecting with your shareholder base. It can feel intimidating, but I've got faith that if you’ve made it this far, you can do this.
And to end this article, a challenge.
I challenge you to re-think how you present to the market, by pretending you are an arms-length investor thinking about investing for the first time.
So - have a look at how you look to the market. Open up your trading app and have a look. The #1 way people research stocks is through their trading app (CommSec etc), and the #2 way is through other information websites like MarketIndex, Simply WallSt, the ASX site and even HotCopper.
So forget you work there for a minute. Go look up your stock.Â
In short - imagine you have money to invest and based on what you can see rather than what you know - would you invest?
If not - what needs to change?
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