Engage

Decisions in later phases require investors to be informed at the right time, immediately when material news is released, and in an easy and effective way for them to absorb the news.

Invite “registration” through whichever touchpoint investors choose and invite feedback. Email alerts are essential, and social media is becoming as important. Make sure emails are responsive.

Encourage offline communication and follow it up.

Continually broaden the base of people you are reaching directly through the relate mechanisms.

Consider the language issues your investors face as they try to interpret your messages. Engaging people in their native languages will broaden access to investors.

Here are IRM’s top three hints for engaging with investors:

Subject	Suggestion
Provide Email Alerts service	Any investor that shows an interest in the company by providing an email address should be communicated with directly using an automated email alerts service. Ensure email alerts are sent out immediately once the announcement is released. Don’t be slow.
Foreign Languages	Not all of your investors have English as their main language. They may be able to use English, but will be more engaged if you provide information in their native language. Provide at least a key page for main foreign language investors in their language. Google translate is one way of doing this but beware of the reliability of translation of technical information using this method.
Collect email addresses from the share registry	Share registries are collecting email addresses to send shareholder communications to. They will provide these email addresses to the company to add to the email alerts list The two lists are different. Share registries communicate only shareholder specific communication to people who are shareholders at the time. Investors are a wider audience wanting news information.

A full review from IRM will identify and discuss more than 10 additional ways to improve engagement.