Investor Relations is a department of any organization or public company that provides timely and accurate accounts/data to investors or public institutions. This intel helps investors decide whether the company is a good investment for their needs or not.
Corporate Investor Relations had become the most important part of public companies or organizations since 2002 when the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed. It is also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act. After the act was passed, many public companies felt the need for Investor Relations to report and accurately circulate the financial information, company affairs, and compliance with reporting laws. Now they have a dedicated IR department to fulfill their requirements.
What is Corporate Investor Relation?
Corporate IR manages the company’s financial accounts, information about the company, data of shares, meetings, and communication with investors, stakeholders, and the financial community. It works as a medium between the company’s executives and investors to keep the flow of information going and convey investors’ prospects and what improvements can be made that can benefit both sides.
The Importance of Investor Relations
Investor Relations play an integral role for any company by organizing the data and financial records to make them accessible to the public. Once your company affairs and accounts are publicly available to the investors, stakeholders, public companies, etc., it allows for making a communication bond that is transparent enough for investors to invest in your company. Corporate IR generally needs to communicate with all of its stakeholders on an ongoing basis. It must disclose material information to all investors simultaneously, both insiders and outsiders.
For example, suppose a public company holds an important meeting with analysts or large shareholders to discuss its earnings projections for future quarters. In that case, that information must be communicated immediately to all other investors in a timely fashion. IR is responsible for making sure that happens.
Long ago, you would need to make phone calls, arrange meetings, or send emails to every potential investor about your company’s financial affairs. Still, since the evolution of social platforms, it has been made easy for corporate investor relations to reach out to everyone with their financial information by a strong and engaging appearance in the shape of digital marketing.
How Investor Relations website help investors?
Build Connections
As Investor Relations are responsible for meetings with shareholders or investors, they also play a critical role in building important connections with reputable and important public companies or (individual) investors. Corporate IR can achieve this goal with ease through digital marketing. Once IR digital profiles have all of the real-time information about your company displayed for the visitors, it can assure transparency and help you get in contact with your potential investors.
Branding
Investor Relations websites can help your company with unique branding since it is the communication bridge between the company and investors. Aesthetically pleasing designs and transparent display of data on sec compliant IR websites can have a huge impact on building authenticity and creating brand awareness in a captivating fashion.
Lead Generation
The most important task for any Investor Relations firm is generating leads. Provide vital information, financial affairs, the firm’s highs, and profit prospects to attract and keep the interest of investors in your company. Press Releases are playing a critical role for companies to alter media’s attention and generate leads as they are the most trusted source of information for investors. Since the information trend is now on social platforms, corporate IR website can be used to generate leads easily with real-time information as every investor would open it to collect the information required from their end.
Documentation
Corporate IR websites should have proper documentation about the company in the form of “interactive data.” It can be presentations, financial records, information about share prices, quarterly financial reports, or any important company accounts available in HTML, PDFs, or any other electronic source. This information should be displayed in a very simplified way so the visitors can easily access and navigate effortlessly.
Present, Past, and Future of Company
Investor Relations have all the past and present records of the company; this helps them make better projections about the company’s future with the improvements that are required to scale the growth. Once the executives approve these prospects, they are instantly discussed with the investors and are available to the public. Sec compliant IR websites have these records available for the visitors under the regulation of laws which can provide authenticity and build trust between your company and investors.
Important Sections that Corporate IR Website should cover?
Apart from the financial records and crucial information about the company, there are some other important sections that a corporate IR website should cover. These sections are explained below:
Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG)
The environmental and Social sections help explain to the visitors what a brand can or has been doing to improve the environment of earth and social community. Big companies like (Facebook, Snapchat, etc.) have these sections on their IR websites where they have explained how their brands have helped Social and Environmental issues and made a difference in the community. On the other hand, the Corporate Governance section is equally important. In this section, the information about the executives (Directors, CEO, Presidents, etc.) should be displayed. This helps in increasing authenticity and trust.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was originally published on 27th April 2016 but was put into effect on 25th May 2018. It is a security law that protects the privacy and data of visitors. Corporate IR should comply with GDPR laws; otherwise, they will be imposed heavy fines if they go against the policies. Investor Relations firms should have an SEC-compliant IR website that also obeys the policies and requirements of GDPR.
Accessibility
Corporate IR websites should comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Providing an option to choose large, clean, and bold text, an optional keyboard control, high contrast website design, Colorblind mode, etc. because you’re not neglecting more than 1 million of the population due to disabilities such as cognitive, neurological, visuals, auditory, broken hands or even age factors. Furthermore, it helps with Search Engine Optimization as it is providing accessibility to everyone regardless of anything.
Conclusion
Investor Relations is the most important department for any public organization because it links companies and investors. Without investor relations, the company’s financial records are unorganized, and if there’s no real-time information, the company could lose potential investors. The importance of investor relations is clearly visible, and how streaming-data solutions are improving it. Market Media Connect helps corporate investor relations by developing sec compliant IR websites that provide real-time information about the stocks, company affairs, quarterly financial reports, etc., to attract new investors and retain the old ones.
