AGORACOM Small-cap Investor Relations Blog

If you are a small-cap CEO, you didn’t need a slowing economy to make sure you get the best bang for every dollar spent.  You’ve been doing it for years.

Nonetheless, no matter how sharp you are, chances are you can always be a little sharper and – in my experience – this is especially true for CEO’s that have not fully embraced the web.  If you fit this description, then you’ll be very interested in this e-marketer story which concludes that online advertising will continue to grow in 2008 (17.4%) 2009 (14.5%) as companies look to maximize ROI during this turbulent period.

TOP 7 REASONS FOR SWITCHING OFFLINE TO ONLINE MARKETING

For those of you that don’t have time to read the entire article, here are the 7 top reasons given by more than 1,500 marketing managers for shifting dollars to online marketing:

1. The Internet is inherently more measurable and accountable than traditional channels.

2. The Internet allows for better, more-granular targeting than do other forms of media. That reduces media waste and can save marketing dollars.

3. The Internet is interactive, thereby allowing for a higher degree of engagement with consumer and business prospects and customers.

4. Particularly among younger consumers, the Internet is accounting for a larger and larger share of total media time; numerous studies demonstrate that teens, millennials and other younger cohorts are spending more time online per week than they are watching television.

5. The Internet plays into the consumer-in-control movement and therefore provides new opportunities for marketers to be a part of their conversations about interests, attitudes, shopping plans and even brands.

6. New Web 2.0 phenomena such as blogs, social networks and Twitter provide marketers with the potential to gain rich insights into consumer behavior and attitudes (the Internet is like a perpetual focus group on steroids).

7. The Internet, unlike any other medium or channel, allows marketers to reach prospects throughout the entire consumer buying cycle, from initial awareness through pre-information-gathering to sales and post-sale feedback and support.

Regards,
George

This edition of Small-Cap CEO Lessons is quite simple:

“You already use search engines to find things, now start using search engines to be found!“

It is amazing to see the look on a CEO’s face when I put search engine marketing into this simple context. You use search engines at Google/Yahoo/MSN to find important, mission-critical items for your business such as data, research, articles, definitions, experts, etc.  You do so because search engines have proven to be a fast and reliable way to find things you are looking for.

And yet …

… you still continue to rely on old fashioned, outdated, expensive and slow moving marketing methods such as conferences, printed materials, print advertising, road shows and buying drinks at local broker watering holes to find new investors.

Does this make sense to you?  I’ve underlined “find” to illustrate the real disconnect between how you find important things for yourself (search engines) vs. how you allow other people to find you (same old, same old).

OVER 35,000,000 ONLINE INVESTORS

With over 10,000,000 North American households now trading online and more than 35,000,000 online traders around the world, you can bet that search engines and the web play a huge role in how investors find new small-cap investments.  In fact, an AGORACOM survey of more than 850 investors earlier this year revealed the following:

• 73% of Investors Conduct the Majority of their Research (75%+) into New Stocks Online. This is a dramatic 18.65% increase over 67% of respondents in 2007 and serves as proof positive that an online investor relations program is critical if you want to reach new investors.
• 48% of Investors Conduct All of their Research (95%+) into New Stocks Online. No online IR program means you immediately miss out on 48% of all investors.

• 60% of Investors Use Discussion Forums For Information and/or Research.

CONCLUSION

You already use search engines and the web to find things.  With over 35,000,000 investors now trading online, start using search engines and the web to be found.

Regards,
George

Pursuant to my recent post entitled “Best Investor Relations Practices During Market Turmoil” I’m pleased to provide you with a communique sent by Kim Tyler, President of Canadian Arrow Mines, to his shareholder base via AGORACOM. Take a look at my comments following his message as to why this was a simple but effective move.

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Friends and investors;

Attached below is a link to an interview regarding the latest Canadian Arrow and Kenbridge update. We are not dissuaded by the current and ongoing financial turmoil as we believe the underlying fundamentals for economic growth, hence nickel and stainless steel, are still secure. Demand by the emergent Asian middle class may slow temporarily but will ultimately not be appeased by the current mine closures, lack of new supply coming on-stream and expected run on supply thereafter.

The current spate of high cost operations closures may well continue. This is healthy for Canadian Arrow and Kenbridge. Canadian Arrow is still perfectly poised to bring production on-stream over the next 1.5 to 2 years at a projected operating cash cost of US$3.47 per lb of nickel net of copper credits, well under current and projected prices, at a perfect time to meet the next upswing in the base metals sector.

Canadian Arrow has a competent team with a commitment to succeed, a completed positive scoping study, NI43-101 Measured and Indicated lbs in the ground, and more than all that, infrastructure in the ground by way of the existing shaft.

Thanks once again for your continued support.

Best regards,
Kim

Link To Interview

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This was a simple but very effective message for 4 reasons.

First of all, hats off to Kim for exercising best investor relations practices during a period of market turmoil. Investors may be fearful but they are looking for leadership and confidence. Kim delivered it.

Second, I commend Kim for communicating with investors via text and video. The text message was strong and to the point. He didn’t ramble, he stuck to pertinent facts. The video, on the other hand, then creates a conversation between Kim and his shareholders.

Third, everyone should take note of the fact that Kim used this opportunity to remind investors about the long-term reasons they originally used to invest in his company. In an environment in which fear can blind investors from fundamentals, CEO’s need to make sure that fundamentals trump emotions.

Fourth – and I love this one – Kim uses market and industry weaknesses to his advantage by specifically demonstrating to investors how Canadian Arrow Mines is positioned to benefit from such weakness. Brilliant.

Simple but extremely effective. You can bet Canadian Arrow shareholders are breathing a whole lot easier today.

This is how you communicate with investors during market turmoil.

AGORACOM clients have been taping or in the process of taping their own messages to shareholders. If you have not done so, what are you waiting for?

Regards,
George

As a small-cap CEO, one of your most important goals is attracting new investors to your company.  As the founder of the biggest online small-cap IR firm, I’ve tried to go beyond “selling” you by teaching you valuable small-cap CEO lessons.

Today’s lesson is perhaps the most valuable lesson of all because it serves as a clear example of how one CEO beat his corporate competitors by using the web to attract millions of individual investors.

Your personal politics aside, Barack Obama has run a simply masterful online campaign for the hearts, minds, votes and wallets of American voters, with the latter point being most relevant to you.  Specifically, the New York Times reported the Obama Campaign raised $150,000,000 in September, shattering all records in the process, including the following unbelievable data:

• 632,000 new donors. The number of new donors added in September;
• 3.1 million. The number of total donors;
• $86.  The average contribution per donor.

Yes, not every one of these donors came through the web but at an average of $86 per donor, you can bet an overwhelming majority of them came via the web.

How did he do it?  We’ll save the full details for another day.  For now, the following picture is worth a thousand words.

If a newbie Senator from Illinois can use these tactics to rise from long-shot candidate to becoming the first Black President of the United States of America, what is stopping you from using them to build an incredible, winning small-cap company?

Regards,
George

My friend and colleague, Dominic Jones, publishes the best research and information about online investor relations practices through the IR Web Report. He has counseled some of the world’s biggest and best-known corporations across every sector and in more than a dozen different countries. As such, when he writes, I listen.

A couple of days ago he posted a must read article about the the single most important lesson we all can learn from the current crisis: Main Street matters.

Given the fact he wrote the article prior to voting and rejection on the bailout bill thanks to the people’s revolt, it’s safe to assume this important lesson has now graduated to a commandment.

Since I’ve already declared it a must read, I won’t ruin it by re-hashing it here – but I would like to give you a couple of his best quotes”

“Investor relations shouldn’t only be about hobnobbing with analysts
and portfolio managers, it must also support strategically important
retail investor communications.”

“Companies that don’t have dedicated IR website managers in-house can’t take advantage of even a fraction of the opportunities available to them to build and maintain relationships with their investors.”

Regards,
George