CUTTING THROUGH THE NOISE
‘Strategy is about making choices. It’s about deliberately choosing to be different’ - Michael Porter
At irlabs, we have never tried to be like other investor relations firms. Our company was built with the vision of bringing a forward thinking and innovative approach to investor relations. Every client is unique, and we know there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. We pride ourselves on being as unique as the clients we serve. We’re not out here to beat our competition, we’re here to create value for our clients.
Our company was formed with the philosophy of going that one step further than other firms. We recognize that there is an epic scramble from individuals, organizations, and companies to get the attention of investors and analysts through a deluge of information and content. We try to be truly different and find unique ways to engage with the investment community to cut through the noise.
That all sounds good, but how do we do it? Here’s the blueprint to our success:
Audience
We take pride in truly getting to know our audience and have adopted a rigorous process for building great relationships. We know that IAs have a thankless task, so when we go and pay our regular visits, we like to bring them a steady stream of our client’s goodies and treats. We feel it brings our clients and bankers closer together and actually gives analysts something tangible to consider as they learn about our client’s business. Aside from having stellar financials, there is no faster way to get into someone’s good graces than through their stomach!
Authenticity
People can smell disingenuity a mile away. At irlabs, we’ve never pretended to be anything we’re not. We have strong values and a well-defined identity as a company, and we only work with other companies who are unapologetically themselves. Authenticity is a key aspect of the work we do for our clients. We recently helped PesoRama (TSX-V: PESO), the fantastic operators of JOi Canadian Stores, go public. As moms, we are frequent dollar store shoppers and are always looking for ways to make our dollars stretch. We put together a carefully curated e-mail campaign to our database of contacts with a call to action: “If you want some arts and crafts to do with your family, drop us a line and we’ll send you some dollar store swag!” On PESO’s first day of trading on the Toronto Venture Exchange. we shipped free dollar store swag (think DIY arts and crafts) to investment advisors in our network. Talk about thinking outside the box and making an impact.
The Human Touch
In the investor relations world, there is an adage stating that, “people work with people.” But, as companies grow, they can become faceless entities and, with the advent of digital tools like Zoom, Teams and Slack, the human touch gets lost. It is important to find ways to break down the company façade to humanize our clients and give analysts context by looking for unique ways to celebrate people, whether that be management, employees, or customers. Recently, we launched a “GOT MYLK” campaign for plant-based food company The Planting Hope and offered samples of their signature sesamemilk. What better way to invest in a company than to try the product? Their sesamemilk is healthy and tasty, and we wanted to show the value of those products to real people. So, we collected photos of our families enjoying the milk and integrated them into an email campaign:
Shout About It!
Seriously though, why bother going the extra mile if you don’t shout it from the mountaintops. Let people know about all the great work you’re doing. To do that effectively, you must identify the right channels to communicate your message. Revisiting our point about knowing the audience, we know that users consume content differently on each platform and that each channel has different limitations or content requirements. For example, Instagram is more geared toward visual content, whereas LinkedIn and Facebook allow for more text heavy content. As a business-centered platform, LinkedIn tends to have more engagement with content related to investing.
To sum things up, know your audience and be yourself. Remember to go beyond the brand and tell the stories of your team and your customers. Finally, don’t be afraid to talk about your success, but remember to match you message to the medium.
