Top 3 Investor Relations Tips For Small Cap Companies On A Limited Budget

Identify your most important investor relations objectives and give yourself a realistic timeline
a. List the priorities – who will do what, times for completion, measurement of tasks. Evaluate where your strengths lie and what needs to be outsourced, if anything, to a specialist.
b. Set time frames for priorities as deadline slippage can impact results – short term versus longer or medium term.
c. Determine the budget and resources that will be allocated and stick to them. Sometimes its about time vs quality. Never compromise on quality but consider pushing out time frames over a longer horizon to achieve the end result you want.
d. Define your KPIs (key performance indicators) and monitor those closely. In investor relations, these can vary greatly from company to company and be impacted by size of market cap, industry and other factors.
Ensure your IR marketing materials are the best they can be.
a. From an investor relations perspective, the materials you show to potential and current investors need to be executed well. From the positioning, content and flow of the document, the investment opportunity must be consistent and easy to understand to the reader. The use of graphics, video and colour can help in this regard. Often an outside set of eyes can be useful when evaluating this.
b. If your company doesn’t have the resources internally such as a graphic designer or marketing resource – consider using a communications agency or graphic designer to help in this regard who does have experience in this area.
c. Ensure the website and IR website section are modern, updated, information rich and easy to navigate for prospective viewers and investors. Look and feel should align with the brand and should speak to multiple audiences – customers, investors, regulators, other stakeholders.
Be creative!
a. Think outside the box of how to do things differently to how you might have done things in the past. Want to do a roadshow to meet new investors but don’t have the time or funds to visit different cities? Hold a webinar and invite multiple people. Invite potential investors to onsite head office visits. Use video conferences and webinars for maximum reach and impact.
b. If you don’t have in-house IR expertise, use an agency for specific tasks that you do have the budget for that the results can be measurable and tie into your overall IR objectives. Think about what tasks you can do in-house vs outsourcing and use an IR agency for those. Negotiate with IR vendors on prices and terms to secure the best deal for your company.
c. Want larger reach but have a limited investor network in the geographic location you are based? Reach out to your sell side analyst if you are covered, or investment banker if you have those connections to set up meetings for you where possible.