How good are your communications now?

The following questions are there to assist the IR professional to gauge how the company could further improve and strengthen its IR communications. Answers with ‘yes’ suggest the company is making the right effort towards following best practice.

Strategic multi-channel focus

Meeting the needs of shareholders and other external and internal stakeholders
Are the company’s IR communications a result of a strategic communication or share marketing plan?
Has the mix of communication initiatives been reviewed and updated during the past 12 months?
Have all mediums been explored successfully to improve the company’s brand profile and reputation?
Do you segment your various IR audiences and fine tune your messages and channels to target them individually?
Do the initiatives deliver the company’s back story, as well as current news and updates, engagingly and consistently across all mediums?
Are the company’s reports compliant with current legislation?
Are you getting the most effective value from your IR communications budget?

Offline environment opportunities

Plugging the opt-in gap:
Have you minimised the cost of your annual report now that around 90% of your shareholders have probably not opted in to receive it?
Are you actively communicating with the remaining 90% through some other offline medium?
Are your replacement print communications compelling, engaging, easily accessible?
Do they tell stories?
Do they help build trust in your organisation?
Have you taken the opportunity afforded by the reduced annual report cost, to communicate with your stakeholders more than once a year?
Do you make the most of your AGM to differentiate your stock and connect positively with shareholders?
Are you printing and mailing a CSR Report if you have a good story to tell?
Are you doing anything to build shareholder loyalty, for example, through special shareholder offers or similar benefits?
Have you considered profit announcement advertising to ensure that your shareholders receive your good news? Or do you rely entirely on media coverage?

The questions below are specific to the online environment, which still is a relatively new medium for many organisations. They help determine whether the company’s online development follows best practise, and to identify opportunities for further improvement.

Online environment opportunities

Finding the information I’m interested in:
Is the IR company section announced on the corporate site home page?
Does the IR home page give the visitor specific routes for your various target audiences e.g. customer, journalist, retail investor or analyst?
Do navigational links differ from text references e.g. underlining, bold, colour?
Is there a search option?
Is there a quick links section, which provides a listing of the most relevant topics, alphabetically listed, for locating topics quickly?
Does the search indicate relevance to searched results?
Does the search indicate relevance by frequency searched?
Does the navigation provide a pathway or track that shows the relevant position within the web site?
Is there a site map?
Is there always a link to the IR home page?
Is there a possibility to select and arrange data to personal needs?

Making use of the information available:
Are reports prepared to suit on-line viewing i.e. designed and laid-out for internet instead of print?
Is the most viewed data housed clearly on your home page, to reduce click necessity?
Are there graphics that enable dynamic reviewing of data (e.g. calculators, chart/graph builders)?
Is there a ‘print site’ function, to enable user friendly laser prints of sections of the site?
Is there a provision to collect specific data, choosing from a range of data and printing a summary of the data on one A4?
Does the ability exist to collect desired files, such as reports and media releases, for collective print output (e.g. shopping cart)?
Does the ability exist to downloaded financial data as a spreadsheet?
Does the financial data enable comparison with other historical data?
Is there a glossary?
Is there a FAQs section?
Is there a podcast or webcast section?
Does CSR reporting appear on your IR site?

Staying in touch:
Is there a function to provide permission to send investors material online, e.g. email alerts, RSS feeds?
Is there a ‘contact’ area with access to designated communications personnel e.g. email or DDI to investor relations manager?
Is there a ‘contact’ area for general feed back or a live shareholder Q&A forum?
Is there a bookmark function?

To find out more how Insight Communications can help reaching your company’s full communication potential, contact Director Mike Tisdall on 1300 367 639 in Australia or 09 919 6002 in New Zealand.