Photo
Buildings
Grid
The Answers You Should Know

Our philosophy about communicating with investors is "information reduces risk". We apply the same approach in our relationships with clients.

Here are the questions we most often hear from people who are considering working with Financial Relations Board – and the straight answers to them.


What does an investor relations program cost?
We wish there was a simple answer to this one. Two facts prevent us from quoting you a specific price up front. First, your situation is unique. Before we can talk about costs, we need to know your goals – because no program is a bargain if it doesn't achieve these. Second, we offer one of the broadest lines of financial communication services in the industry. Only some of them are right for you, and we need to know this before determining a price.

What we can tell you is that in 2006, our comprehensive programs averaged from $10,000-$15,000 retainer per month. By "comprehensive" we mean assistance with the four main parts of an investor relations effort:
  • Developing the messages,
  • Creating print and electronic materials that share the message,
  • Directly marketing your story to investment professionals, and
  • Creating opportunities for the media to cover your company.

We find clients appreciate working on a retainer basis, so they can better manage their budget. We also send detailed invoices so you can see exactly how our time was spent.

Here's what we've found most effective. Spend an hour meeting with us. We'll listen to what you want – and use this to determine what we think you need. Within a week you will see the result: a proposal that's tailored to your needs and spells out the goals, strategies, tactics and costs we believe are involved. Because we're client-centric, we think coming up with a program that is designed around you is the best approach.

Does FRB work with clients on a project basis?
Yes. 

A number of clients come to us when they have a need in a specialized area or don’t have enough professional staff to handle a situation.  Here are some recent examples:

In each situation, we learn what you want, make suggestions on what you need, and determine the best way to deliver both within your budget.

Why should I have an "active" approach to financial communications?
There really are three important reasons to move from responding to investor interest to creating it:
  • You control the messages to investors. You're not at the whim of what others outside your company say about it.
  • You increase the likelihood of attracting the investors you want, not just taking the ones who find you.
  • You will see your stock valuation increase because your investment story and growth potential are easy to understand and evaluate.

If you're happy with your stock's performance and the people who hold it, then taking a passive approach to investor relations may be suitable. But you can only take both to the next level through an active approach.

How do you determine which professionals at Financial Relations Board will be working with me?
We look at this from two perspectives. First, Financial Relations Board takes a "team of experts" approach. We don't believe one person can know everything about every facet of financial communications. Here's how we structure our staff.
  • Your main contact will be your account representative. This person is skilled in message development and communication materials. He or she also will coordinate all other members of the team, so we achieve your program goals.
  • You will have an investor contact expert. This person will have a background in your industry and already know the professional investors who should know you.
  • You also will receive an experienced administration professional. This person will handle the details – everything from setting up quarterly conference calls to issuing news releases – relieving you and your staff of these responsibilities.
  • You will work with someone who focuses on media relations. This person is familiar with local, regional, national and international reporters and editors and knows how to approach them on your behalf.
  • You will have access to other senior practitioners at Financial Relations Board who have expertise in special situations, such as crisis communications and valuation analysis, when you need them.

The second perspective we use to create your team is "personality". We pick professionals who fit in well with your culture and objectives, so you feel comfortable with your team from the beginning.

What's the difference between investor relations and public relations?
To us, they're different branches of marketing. Both of them focus on raising awareness through creating compelling messages, and sharing them in the way most likely to reach their target audiences. The first difference is that public relations most often targets customers and the general public, while investor relations focuses on the investment community and business/financial media. The second difference is that you really can measure the effectiveness of your investment in investor relations.

What is the return on investment for a financial communications program?
We firmly believe you should see measurable improvements from your efforts. Here are some of the metrics we use with our clients:
  • We create target lists of institutional investors and portfolio managers, contact them, track their responses and, ultimately, their buy and sell decisions, so you can see the correlation.
  • We use the same approach when it comes to interesting sell-side analysts in writing research reports on your company.
  • We also develop lists of the key media who should know about you, track our progress on interesting them in your company, and evaluate the coverage that results.
  • We conduct perception studies to analyze the effectiveness of the messages we are sending to the financial community – and how easily they are able to identify your appeals as an investment.
  • We analyze your shareholder mix, including a review of your quarterly 13-F reports, to quantify the progress we're making on these goals for you.
  • We look at your overall valuation growth to determine the impact our efforts have had on your equity.

And we have a track record of getting results for our clients, as you can see here.

What should I know about selecting an investor relations agency?
This is so important that we created an entire article about it. Click here (PDF) to read it.

Make an informed choice when deciding on a firm to help with your financial communications. Contact us for answers to any other questions you may have.