Investor Relations and the art of selling shares

From an investor’s perspective, purchasing shares is not much different from buying shoes or a car.

Yes, investors are customers, too. They go through a buying process as they decide to spend their money.

Their buying process starts with their needs. Then it goes through a series of steps to an eventual decision. Parting with cash in return for shares. A process otherwise known as the investor journey.

Who can best offer your company shares to investors? Your Investor Relations team, of course.

Your IR team basically exists to sell shares. No one else has the job of marketing the company’s shares to investors. It’s clearly the responsibility of your IR team.

Selling shares might be called “distributing news,” “communicating with investors,” or “having a great presentation.”

But it’s selling, right?

Here’s a few ideas on how your IR team can turn up your share sales.

1. Sort out the investor journey and customer journey

It’s key for your IR team to realise how the investor journey relates to the customer journey. Applying the same marketing principles of a customer journey will drive your business to compete in the market for investors.

Once your IR team leverages the investor-journey thinking to their share marketing responsibilities, your company will have a major point in time advantage.

But it’s not enough to appreciate how these journeys are parallel to each other.

2. Support investors in each stage of their journey

Your IR team must understand where investors are in their individual journeys. They need to provide investors with information to make a positive buy decision in whatever stage they’re in. How?

By learning the touchpoints investors use as they progress in their journey. And adopting the online success factors to perform best in helping investors progress through their journey.

Lastly…

3. Sustain investor engagement as they become shareholders

When they do become shareholders, your IR team needs to keep investors happy and well informed. Helping them resist the temptation to go down the road to a competitor.

Employing online tools will keep stakeholders engaged throughout their journey. Investor websites and news services are some devices to help monitor and manage the process.

To sum up

Understanding the investor journey is the first step in the art of selling shares for your IR team. With that know-how, caring for investors in each stage of their journey and keeping them engaged would just follow suit.

Don't be left behind

Think about joining IRM’s 170 current clients and having a great online investor presence.

Let’s chat about your particular situation, and how your team can become better at investor relations.

IRM has been privileged to be helping ASX-listed companies with their online investor communications since 2002. We can support you the whole way through the investor journey – from idea generation through to engagement.

Call us on +61 2 8705 5444 or email clientrelations@irmau.com.

Read more of our online investor presence ideas on our blog or at www.irmau.com.