Pursuing an initial public offering is playing in the big leagues. It means choosing the right partners to work with as your IPO is in the works. Getting all the expert support to execute your plans for a successful listing.

As you put together your IPO team and build your board, you’ll want to strategise your investor roadshow and communications. You’ll be appealing to a broader investor community, providing ongoing communications during the whole listing process and onwards.

“Not secure.”

Seen that message next to a web address? (Hopefully, not on your website.)

Google displays that label on sites that don’t use an SSL Certificate (or Secure Sockets Layer certificate). This digital certificate delivers secure, encrypted communications between your website and any browser used by your clients or investors.

Reinventing your brand is a smart way for your business to be relevant as you compete in the marketplace. It’s a clever strategy to stay current amid evolving industry trends.

However, you’ll need to ensure your new brand makes a positive impact to your clients. Not only that, but you’ll also want to guarantee a smooth transition for investors. You wouldn’t want to confuse stakeholders when you engage under a name with a different logo, right?

Business is good and you’re looking for ways to make it even better. In fact, your industry is positioned for growth and your company is poised to expand along with it. So, you’re shifting gears to offer finer products that will take your venture to the next level.

But is your website ready to support your game-changing plans? Will it allow you to make changes to your site without having to flex a technical muscle?

Investors are putting more value on sustainability than ever before. Seeing how companies care about people and the environment not only generates good feelings about doing business with these organisations. It also influences their decision making on investments with these businesses.

As companies strive to give back to society and their communities, so they are recognised as more responsible and benevolent. That’s why the corporate website's presentation of sustainability is essential for investors. A dedicated Sustainability section is where stakeholders could find out about companies’ commitment to social efforts and their stories on sustainability.

Congratulations, you’ve attracted an “investor” to your online touchpoint!

Someone has found your website, social media post, ASX announcement, online report. What happens next might be the start of a wonderful relationship. Or just a brief fling!

To help understand what’s happening, we need to get inside the head of the investor visitor.

Is your company a new kid on the block? Your online presence will be vital to the success of your latest venture.

A professional-looking website will best represent your business and give it the exposure it needs. As investors find you on the web, your online presence will improve the credibility of your organisation.

Is your company website missing out on corporate content for investors? Then you’re probably kissing goodbye opportunities for stakeholder engagement.

The investor section of your site is one of the most important sources of information for stakeholders. Investors access this segment to tap into your investment proposition and key financials before making a decision, especially when you’re listing on the ASX.

Still remember the last time you updated your website? If it’s been a while, your site may probably look outdated and unappealing now. It might be time for a site refresh to shake up your online communications and make it more effective.

You can’t just set and forget your website after launching it. Your site is a work in progress that will advance several times to better represent your business. It doesn’t have to be a major overhaul, as long as you have a scalable system that powers your site.

Annual Reports are changing in the new normal where digital communication channels are increasingly preferred over traditional ones. As investors are more online now, companies are addressing the digital demand for information with new opportunities to get their messages across, even with their annual reports.

However, selecting the best annual report format can be tricky. Should you go for a printed document, an online interactive version, or a combination of both? Which medium is best for your organisation?

Ramping up to an initial public offering means managing new regulations and addressing a broader investor community. Stock exchanges like the ASX will require what information to be published and when to post them. A wider audience will need to be tapped, including investors and influencers of shareholder sentiment, such as the media and analysts.

With these new processes and audience expectations, your company’s website must move up as one of the most important information channels. It is after all a key communication and compliance tool for listed corporations.

A successful initial public offering can be the start of great things for a business. But taking a company public is a complex task. Planning and managing a public listing is challenging and time-consuming.

In the IPO process, an organisation must not only focus its preparations on going public. It must also get ready for being public – operating as a publicly listed entity.

With the fast-changing digital space, there will always be new apps, platforms and social media trends turning up as latest online communications.

But despite the different channels added each year, one thing is for sure. The dependable corporate website remains at the forefront of digital communications. It’s still the first place people go to when checking out a company, yours included.

Australian companies and investors are embracing the digital shift to virtual annual general meetings (AGMs). In fact, 68% of AGMs in 2020 were online or hybrid, according to Computershare’s 2021 AGM Intelligence Report.

Running an effective virtual AGM will largely depend on several components, like your webcast, as Boardroom.Media discusses in its article, “2021 Annual General Meetings - virtual, physical or both?”. Whether it’s a live broadcast or a video-recorded presentation, webcasting is crucial for well-organised communications in AGMs.

Has a website ever required you to give your email address so you can download a document or register for an event?

I actually saw this on an IPO site days ago. The website required people to provide their email address before getting through to download the prospectus. And my immediate reaction was, "Yeah, great idea. Get lots of email addresses. Why didn't we think of that?"

With today’s digital-first environment, investors have high expectations for online access to information. As you can probably tell, this digital acceleration is largely fueled by remote work in the new normal.

Undoubtedly, investors are using online content more than ever before. In fact, 73% of investors depend on digital tools for communications, according to a recent research.

As your company prepares for growth, you would want a website you can manage on your own. So, you can communicate with investors and keep them up to date, as you focus on business development.

You would need a site that lets you easily upload news or provide downloadable documents for stakeholders. A platform where you can effortlessly publish announcements, add links to your text and insert images or videos. One you can conveniently work with, without requiring web development skills.

In this constantly evolving digital world, web standards change each year. So, if your website is several years old, it’s probably outdated now in looks and functionality.

Most likely, your website’s code is far behind. This delays its loading speed on devices and makes it incompatible with latest browsers. Consequently, a lack of tech updates is a bit of a downer.

Do you find the need for your website to communicate to separate audiences, like clients and investors? Consider having a unique site for each group as an effective way to serve your different audiences.

Creating a specialised website for each audience would make more sense as it would provide content that targets their specific needs. Each site would give a customised digital experience as users browse pages that are tailor fit for them.

One of the ultimate marks of a company’s success is to go public. That’s why when you’re shooting for an initial public offering, you’ll be putting effort into your IPO to ensure a rewarding process. You know that a well-executed plan takes foresight and careful preparation to meet regulatory requirements.

However, such diligence to go public doesn’t end when your company gets listed. On the contrary, your endeavours should continue even more so once you operate as a publicly traded entity. Why waste the goodwill you’ve established during your IPO, right?