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.
You think you’re busy and important? You have nothing on these guys.
Investors are busy and important people. Makes one think they have ADHD - unmedicated ADHD. They always have something more important to do.
Keeping abreast with latest news from financial media to see how current events will impact their portfolio. Constantly checking market changes and staying up to date on trends. Sorting through reports and financials to gain valuable insight for decision-making processes. Going to a meeting or online chat with their mates. Busy, busy, busy.
And plenty of other places to invest their cash. Why should they choose you?
In fact, research shows 60% of investors visiting corporate websites for the first time will make a decision in the first few seconds based ONLY on impressions. Not facts nor figures. Just impressions. This probably applies to all other online touchpoints as well, including the ASX Announcement.
- Does this company give me a good impression?
- Do I like it?
- Can I instantly see the information I want?
Leverage the “three things in three seconds” principle.
To address this, think about doing “three things in three seconds”. For investor website home pages, it means focus on the impressions first, to help the visitor decide to stay just that little bit longer to be sold on making a click which they know will take even more of their precious time.
- Don’t load it up with lots of text.
- Don’t make them do lots of scrolling to get the right impression.
- The images need to look great, or preferably stunning – and convey subtle messages of their own.
- The straplines need to be short and easily digested, to capture the essence of the business and why they should like it.
So, you’ve grabbed their attention. Now it’s time to sell the first click.
Remember, they know what they want. Have the link there ready for them and easy to find in the expected place. Use your analytics to understand what they are interested in on your site. As a high level guide, the investor wants the first click to tell them, at a glance:
- What business is the company in
- Can I trust the management
- Where’s the latest important announcement / presentation / report
- What’s the investment proposition –
and then, when they have digested that
- What’s the latest share price (and recent mini chart)
Then there's the thing you’d like them to click on, but they didn’t really come for. Maybe your key selling proposition, your standout project or product, or getting them to subscribe for email alerts. And that’s enough for the home page. Don’t try to describe anything too much, just sell that click.
Once you have their interest, they will give you two clicks before getting bored again. You’ve sold the first one, that means that you must be certain that when they get to that chosen place, they definitely find what they want with just one more.
This is the two-clicks rule at ANY online touchpoint.
If the online touchpoint is not your website, make sure that one of the main clicks you are selling is a link to the corporate website. When you get them there you have a better chance of engaging them.
Apply the two-clicks rule on your online touchpoints.
So what?
When an investor comes to your online touchpoint, they need to like you, they know what they want, and they expect to find it easily. They may be right or wrong about what they want. But if it isn’t there, they’re going to move on. They are time poor and have plenty of other places to go.
Remember:
- Three things in three seconds
- You can only rely on two clicks
Bump up your online presence
Looking to establish a compelling investor website? We can give you a hand.
Since 2002, IRM has been helping ASX listed companies on their websites and online investor communications needs. You’d be in good company.
Let’s chat on +61 2 8705 5444 and talk about how we can serve you as well. Or email us at clientrelations@irmau.com for your queries.
Btw, this blog post is part of the "5 New Ideas for Better Online Engagement with Investors" series. Catch up on the previous related blog posts below:
10 golden rules for investor websites - and so what?
Online touchpoints move investors in their journey - and so what?
Stages of the Investor Journey - and so what?
Reading the minds of Investors - and so what?
Who are these people we call investors - and so what?
Online Investor Engagement Specialists
