MUNCmedia_Retail_Investor_Targeting

Treat Retail Investors like shopper/buyers

	First and foremost, retail investors are consumers - thus the word "retail." This does not mean they are not as serious or as "professional" investors, but it does indicate that their workflow - or as I explain to clients - their TRUSTFLOW - is different than 9-to-5 investors. Individual investors are very cautious "shoppers" - exactly as if they were buying a large capital expense... like a car.
Ask yourself a question: as a consumer, how do YOU make choices?  Are you prepared for an investor's due diligence? You better be. YOU are in great competition for their eyeballs and wallets exactly as if you are selling a product. Because you are. Have a great day.

A 2011 tactical plan for shareholder communications to Main Street

Since the launch of our MUNCmessaging program, I have been joining our sales people on many of their sales call ( four or five a day...phew ) – sometimes participating, always listening. On ALL these calls, without fail, I am hearing the same statement again and again: “You are the first company ever to create a real-time [continual] plan for reaching retail investors.”

One prospect - who is becoming a client ;) - said “Our communications [to retail] was always shooting from the hip. We’d do a webcast or live conference once in a while. No follow-up. Nothing consistent.” No realistic, easy to execute plan. Of great interest to me– this sentiment was mirrored from companies across all capitalizations. IRO perception is that most IR service providers only offered “shoot-from-the-hip” solutions. A webcast here, an email list there. Plus… Small and micro-caps are furiously preyed upon by promoters who offer short campaigns to day-traders “that cost tens of thousands even for one week” Larger and mega-cap companies would like a individual investor program, ( with all the new proxy access pressures, etc) just didn’t know “how to start one” Corporate IR is often criticized for ignoring the individual investors; however I have never taken to that thought. By default, corporate IR is limited by both budget and subsequent bandwidth – thus their support mechanisms lean towards institutional outreach. Like any sales organization, they have to focus on “the big deals.” Executed poorly, retail investors will be a time consuming, un-measurable exercise. Working with a consistent, sustainable shareholder communications map to retail investors – WITH a thoughtful IR website – will give your senior team measurable analytics while demonstrating your company's commitment to Main Street without burdening your 2011 investor relations "to-do" list. Contact me here to see the 12-month MUNCmessaging calendar and case studies. Have a great day.

Should companies switch to a “notice & access” model for press releases?

Video length: 45 seconds

There's been a lot of media, blog and Twitter discussions about Google’s announcement regarding their taking advantage of the SEC’s 2008 interpretation of RegFD. It’s a topic that I am very familiar with for a few reasons includuing: 1.) it was my Shareholder.com data that NIRI brought to the Hill back in 2008 that drove the interpretation,

2.) I obvivosly know the product workings of both IR website disclosure and 3.) the newswire product processes quite well.   I have been asked several times since Google’s “Earth Shattering Announcement” (capitalized that to make it look important) for my opinion on this. My Opinion (capitalized that to make it look important) is….. it’s a moot point for my MUNCmedia clients – which is my focus now. The overarching reason that public companies select to work with MUNCmedia is that their broadly disseminated news is not proactively reaching eyeballs (cue Frank video above). Regardless if it’s a 6,000 word earnings release or a 400 word “snippet” with a link to the full content, until a company gets their ticker into an investor, media or analyst watchlist, having their news passively sitting somewhere is not effective outreach. What am I defining as a watchlist? Any mechanism (financial web portal, IR website, institutional terminals) that sends out an alert that “xyz company has issued a news release.” This blatent MUNCmedia sales pitch aside, my belief is that newswires continue to be a very effective and IR friendly one-stop distribution channel to established investors and media.   I’m dodging the main question, aren't I? Should companies switch to a “notice & access” model for press releases? How the @#$%& would I know that? I ABSOLUTELY do know that tactically -and for RegFD compliance- companies can switch. But a tactical “can” is unrelated to a strategic “should.” Even though he's the grumpiest looking of the four in this IR Alert post, I like what my friend Jeff Stacey (GlobeNewswire) stated: “The term "best practice" is relative as each implementation is highly dependent on the company and the type of announcement. There are many nuances that influence what makes a best practice. Each company must measure whether the end goal is SEC disclosure, generating news coverage, reducing costs, engaging more directly with customers, attracting investors or a combination of any number of these factors.” Closing Thought. ( I capitalized it to make it look important) Perhaps companies need to ask their investors how they want to receive their news? That’s actually the genesis of the “notice & access” moniker anyway (it was stolen from eproxy). IE: if your institutional holders’ daily workflow is all within Bloomberg, ThomsonOne, FactSet – then companies may not want to interrupt that business process. Consider the fee for 6,000 words and snazzy XHTML tables as a cost of business. Retail Investors? MUNC is your best COB. Have a great day and see you at the NIRI Conference

A Frank discussion: turning the invisible (small-cap material news) visible

Video length: 45 seconds

At my previous role, I did not interact much with small-cap (and below) corporations. Truthfully, I never thought much about them. I was a “mid-cap and above snob.” Or perhaps I just simply did not work with them directly enough. They were not our major market. Within the past couple MUNCmonths, I have met with countless smaller companies – and their CEOs.  It’s been very enlightening and certain points stand out.

1.)   The CEOs are extremely passionate about their products, more than their stock price. Liquidity is precious for re-investment into their company for growth, liquidity is not so much shareholders (yet). They believe the strength of Retail Investors is their long-term loyalty. 2.)   They feel invisible to the media and investors. The video of Frank above speaks to that. Another point expressed by our clients is their frustration at the “small-cap” predatory vendors. As one CEO commented – “These %&^#$ taint the OTC companies with this %&^#$. And they waste my money.” As you see, he was a little %&^#$ mad. Kudos to the regulatory powers (i.e.Mary “The Hammer” Shapiro) who have taken a serious stand and stepped up in the past months to bring many of these issues into the light. I recommend you Twitter follow NIRI’s CEO Jeff Morgan (@jeffreydmorgan) to keep up-to-date on regulatory actions that affect IR. WARNING: SALES PITCH ALERT > MUNCmedia distributes our client’s material news. We don’t create it or comment on their news. We target and dish it up to hungry Retail Investors. Have a great day.

A Frank discussion: real investors in real-time

Video length: 45 seconds

Other than the cheeky little video I posted about Investor Relations and Social Media, the snippet introducing Frank Lane, was the highest blog traffic to date. Thank you - here’s more video about how MUNCmedia works. Certainly, Retail Investors are an elusive bunch. Until MUNCmedia, the main outreach paths to directly engage with Main Street was at Investor Fairs (Money Show, Better Investing, etc.) or via opt-in databases.

Of the two, I’d say Investor fairs bring in qualified “shoppers” as if an individual is going to invest their time and effort to attend a fair, if follows that they would invest their dollars too. Opt-in databases have gone the way of passenger pigeon (metaphor intended). Last month, I received another retail investor checklist for more information IN. THE. MAIL. This retail investor direct mailing stemmed from a request for a single annual report I made over six years ago. Am being sold on a list as a qualified retail investor? Like many individuals, my personal email has changed a couple times since my initial opt-in, (this was before the ubiquitous gmail) so I do not receive their retail investor emails anymore. Safe to say, the retail investor of six years ago is not the retail investor of today. Retail investors are dynamic. So is Frank for that matter! J  Have a great day.

A Frank discussion: retail investor targeting and your broad newswire

Video length: one minute	I am very pleased to introduce you to MUNCmedia's VP of Client Operations, Frank Lane. Frank has guided ALL our clients through their campaigns - assuring that their news is material and compelling for individual investors. In this video, he's taken a brief moment to discuss why our  Retail Investor Targeting is an effective complement to your current broad (and regulatory-minded) newswire.
I'll be featuring Frank each week. Please contact me directly if you would like a set of our case studies or, if you prefer, I can help you schedule some time to speak with Frank. Also, follow me >  @BHSMITH Have a great day.