Playbook: Measuring the success of your shareholder communications

Keeping up with the ever-changing demands of an international investor poses a challenge to even the most well-resourced of IROs, as the rate of technological advancement continues to accelerate. Many IR teams may feel overwhelmed by the breadth of communication platforms now available to them. But which should you prioritize? And how do you make sure you’re keeping up with any changing investor preferences?

This playbook examines these pivotal changes and offers crucial insights into how leading IR professionals are optimizing their communication strategies to enhance efficacy and stimulate engagement.

It contains a breakdown of a poll of select IROs that reveals the communication channels they prefer, the changes they have seen in recent years and details of the feedback mechanisms they have in place already. It is packed with practical advice on how IROs can effectively gather and use feedback to refine their strategic work, ensuring their efforts yield a tangible return on investment in terms of both time and resources.

Key findings

• When asked to list the communication channels they find most effective today, IROs say in-person events are by far the most impactful of any method, with direct calls and virtual events also ranking highly.
• This compares with three years ago, when live video and IR blogs both ranked as important tools for reaching investors.
• When constructing feedback loops with investors, most IROs consider qualitative and quantitative data to be of equal importance.
• Among the metrics IROs consider most important when evaluating their communications success are direct feedback via calls or email, a measure of the quality of follow-up engagements and analyst notes.
• The largest proportion of respondents say they review the metrics they use on a quarterly basis, with a smaller cohort doing so less frequently.