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Web Writing Samples Created by 

JMB Communications / Jeff Berger

for Internet.com

The following samples are copyrighted by Internet.com and are reprinted with permission.

Investor Relations: Why Bother?

By Jeff Berger 

Isn't it enough to simply do the usual stuff -- annual reports, quarterly reports, 10Ks, occasional Web site updates, and news releases? After all, if stockholders bought the stock, they think well of you and they're getting all the news they need to stick with you. Right?

Wrong.

It's a minority of companies today that doesn't pay special attention to investors because, as recent stock market gyrations testify, businesses can come unglued quite easily. The sudden tumble of the NASDAQ through much of 2000 whacked tech stocks and whacked Internet stocks even harder, drying up funding for marginal companies and causing tough sledding even for companies that had been doing well.

Although sound Investor Relations programs are sometimes put in the same box as Crisis Communications programs -- that is, they're not regarded as important until they're urgently needed -- the fact is that communicating regularly with investors and the analyst community is good business, and in times of market uncertainty it may even be a key to survival, let alone ongoing success.

Who Are The Experts?

As is the case in other disciplines, for sound Investor Relations programs it pays to use people who know what they are doing, and who have a successful track record, regardless of whether you hire them directly or outsource.

How do you select appropriate individuals to head in-house IR programs? The usual way you select any high-level candidates, we suggest -- through competent, proven senior executive head hunters. Agencies should be picked based either on the trusted counsel of seasoned IR veterans, or on the advice of management consultants who specialize in IR agency selection.

There are also a number of interesting IR-focused Web sites. Here's a brief review of a few of them:

• CCBN.com characterizes itself as "a leading financial info-mediary that enables public companies to reach both the institutional and retail investment communities with their messages in their words." The reality is that CCBN.com acts as a database, a center for information access and distribution for the investment community much as InternetPRGuide is an information resource for PR writers and others related to the PR profession. One way CCBN helps companies is through its StreetEvents sector, through which more than 6,000 public companies post their event information including earnings releases, company presentations, conference calls, and conference call dial-in information. Increasingly, analysts and investors rely on such databases as sources of important investment-related information.
• Shareholder.com says its clients, including leading corporations like Merrill Lynch, John Hancock, Microsoft, Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, and Lockheed Martin, "serve their investors with a complete and integrated application for the electronic distribution of corporate news and shareholder materials." The company says its applications "include robust, customized investor-relations Web sites; sophisticated touch-tone response telephone hotlines; and advanced electronic proxy voting services." [Perhaps we should inform Florida of this. But I digress...] Web sites such as these can be used heavily by both investors and analysts for research.
• Presenter.com, headquartered in San Jose, CA, is an Internet application service provider (ASP) for business communications. Presenter.com "turns live presentations or videos into iPresentations® enabling companies, organizations and individuals to distribute and access expert knowledge from around the world using high-quality, platform-neutral web presentations."
• Investor Relations Center of Excellence is part of Austin, TX-based PR firm The Bernard Group. According to the company, the center "offers start-ups and public high-tech companies a dedicated team of IR experts to execute winning investor relations programs that serve the short-term and long-term needs of high-tech companies and their shareholders. According to our clients, investor relations is very much in demand and we plan to fill that need."

Public companies, and startups planning to go public, can benefit greatly from solid IR expertise - especially in a roller-coaster economy. The trick is knowing how to find it and make sure it's as real as it looks.

SO Not Easier

If you're thinking romantically, as some people do - that it's all glory, make-your-own-hours, pick tons of low-hanging fruit, and work with your shoes off - then you're in for a rude awakening. (Except for the shoes. Who needs them in a private office?)

Working for someone else, you have many advantages:

• For the most part, you know the co-workers and clients with whom you work.
• Your income is predictable, both in terms of frequency and amount.
• You have benefits - medical insurance, paid vacation, perhaps disability insurance.
• If you're fired, the economy's fine, so you can probably find something else in a few weeks.

Criteria for Making the Decision

If you have only three or four years of experience, it's highly unlikely that most thoughtful, competent corporate PR honchos would give you a second look, let alone any assignments. So it's generally unwise to spread your wings with so little experience to keep yourself competitively afloat.

You need five things to be able to succeed in building a successful PR practice:

1. Competence. Incompetent, semi-competent, or inexperienced people do launch businesses and succeed by sheer luck, but their successes are usually short-lived unless they are able to quickly surround themselves with others who know more than they do - and that's not likely. If your work for someone else clicks, if it's getting real results, and if you're getting frequent calls from quality headhunters and satisfied clients, that's a hint that you know what you're doing and might make it on your own.
2. Support System/Network. You cannot succeed in a vacuum: your reputation should precede you. But if it doesn't, you should certainly have a far-flung network of people who believe in you and who are willing to be "centers of influence" for your business and for your personal competencies - who will recommend you freely to others, or who will encourage (not merely allow) you to tell referrals, "Your name came up in conversation with Person X." The reaction you want among people you're referred to by centers of influence: "She's one of my best friends. What can I do for you?" All of this helps build a track for you to go on.
3. A plan. Business plans are about as superfluous as a flight plan is to a pilot. You need to know where you're going, you need to know obstacles in your path, you need to plan how to get there while avoiding the obstacles, you need to be sure your aircraft is durable enough to make it through stormy weather, and you certainly need enough fuel on board before you start your engines. Another accurate cliché: "If you don't know where you're going, you're likely to wind up somewhere else." Do a business plan!
4. Courage/Patience. James Bryant Conant said many years ago, "Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when his neck is out." You won't get business waiting for your phone to ring; you need to be in front of people, and getting appointments in an era of voicemail isn't easy. If you plan to take clients from your current employer, beware of legal ramifications and consult a lawyer if there's a "no compete" clause in your employment agreement. Above all, you must have the courage to go after business, and the wisdom and patience to realize that success is likely to take far longer to achieve than you expect.
5. Money. When you quit, your salary ends, and there's no "good" time for that to happen. If you've been laid off or terminated, you'll probably receive unemployment compensation, which can help you start your own business if you continue to meet the job-search qualifications your state sets as a prerequisite for benefits. Also be sure you have health insurance - it's just plain foolish to be without it. The more money you have as a startup cushion, the better.

This isn't the forum for a discussion of business plans but, as we said earlier, planning is absolutely essential. There are many things to decide after you've resolved the issues raised earlier in this article:

• Your Market. Given your competencies, your experience, and your network, what kinds of businesses or institutions would be most likely to use you? Define your market carefully, and be sure to analyze the competition as well as the future course of the market. For example, are you absolutely sure of the market's ongoing stability? Is it growing or retracting? Does it face obsolescence from some new kind of competition? Might some other market with which you're familiar offer you a better chance of success?
• Your Portfolio. How do you intend to make prospects aware of yourself? As a PR practitioner you should realize that it may take more than traditional PR to kick your business into gear. You may need some advertising and perhaps even targeted e-mails, not to be confused with Spam, or (annoying and increasingly ignored) unsolicited bulk e-mail. You may well want to use targeted direct response snail mail. How do you handle responses? Be prepared to show your stuff in a brochure, in e-mail attachments sent to repliers, on a Web site, or in reprint form. Never send attachments to people you don't know; they, too are routinely ignored because of virus concerns.
• Your approach. It's not just which methods you should use to get the word out, it's also what you're going to say to them and in what context. Of course, the focus must be on their needs, wants, and concerns. You beating your chest won't impress anybody; it's what you can do for them that really matters.

It isn't easy. You're likely to become compulsive, working longer hours than you ever imagined because it's your business. You'll find yourself increasingly reluctant to go on vacation without your Internet-connected laptop and/or a cell phone. You'll be promised work in anticipation of which you refuse other work, but then it doesn't happen. Some clients won't take your advice or worse, will argue points that in your heart you know are wrong. Some may dump you. You may decide some major clients aren't worth the aggravation.

Are you ready for that?

Copyright, ©, JMB Communications, 2005. All rights reserved. Portions copyright Cyberatlas and Internet.com, 2000, are reprinted with permission.