Investor Relations » Small Cap Companies

Investor Conferences Prove Valuable Promotional Tools for Small Cap Companies

Admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 03:10:01 +0000

For small cap companies looking to streamline their investor relations, the sheer breadth of options available through Upside Media Group’s promotional website offers infinite possibilities. And while access to video, magazine, direct mail, web page, and radio promotional tools offer exciting and effective mediums for media based stock promotion, there is still something to be said for the one-on-one meeting. To that end, Upside Media’s quarterly investor conferences are a nod to the power of personal presentation, and one of the most tried and true tools in the company’s arsenal. And for companies interested in luring investors and raising capital, such moments provide a rare opportunity to pitch those investors face to face.

Upside Media’s decision to implement investor conferences as a complement to their numerous means of internet promotion was a master stroke. The intent was to promote the intimacy needed for companies and investors to size each other up on a one on one basis; thus allowing each side to search up close for the foundation of a working relationship. For participating companies such conferences, which Upside Media schedules on a quarterly basis, provide the opportunity to craft and style an intimate presentation; one that allows for the attention to detail often left out of audio and video presentations due to time limits and other constraints.

With a database that includes thousands of accredited investors, fund managers, and brokers, there is no shortage of candidates to attend these one-on-one presentations on the investor side. As with all matchmaking endeavors the key is compatibility on any number of levels. And with the goals of individual investors as numerous as those of individual companies, it helps that an effort has been made to ensure compatibility prior to each investor conference.

“We gear a participating companies’ information to something investors want or need to see,” says Upside Media’s Mike Reinboth. “With this we hope to get some exposure for the company which ultimately leads to more liquidity in their stock.”

The ability to reach potential investors they otherwise wouldn’t makes the incredible promotional tools of Upside Media Group an invaluable stock promotional tool. In the midst of all of this powerful technology however, there is always room for the for an old school conference room presentation. For those who’ve participated in Upside’s quarterly investor conferences in fact, it can be argued that such meetings are as useful as any other promotional tools at their disposal.

By: Mike S Reinboth

How to Use Video in Your Investor Relations Strategy

Admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:20:13 +0000

Raising Your Profile

In this economy of depressed markets and money-conscious investors, the cost of raising capital or your stock’s profile is not only getting higher but the ROI is practically non-existent. It seems like every company is working harder and spending more on investor relations and marketing campaigns but yielding far less results.

In raising your stock’s profile, nothing is more important than building solid relationships, creating opportunities to pitch investors and differentiating your company to attract new investors. Reaching new investors is the most expensive and time consuming part of an investor relations strategy, yet it is an often fruitless process – especially for small cap companies like those listed on the Canadian TSX Venture or the US’ OTCBB exchanges.

If your company is going to spend any money on an IR or marketing campaign to raise the profile of your company’s stock, you better make sure that you have put in place the right corporate branding that targets investors and not just your clients. If you don’t, you may lose thousands of dollars in investments from investors that would have otherwise been interested in your company’s stock but invested elsewhere because your lack of a corporate image.

Respect Your Investors

Investors need to know that you respect them. No one will invest in a company with a website they don’t understand or written in another language. These days, no one will invest in a company that spends little or no money on their corporate image. Luckily, changing the way you present to investors is simple. An easy first step is to incorporate professionally produced investor-geared videos into your program.

Tell a Story

Videos are a great first step but there are major pitfalls if you attempt to do it without first understanding what works. Let’s face it: Most corporate videos are boring.

Videos need to tell a story. It needs to be well-scripted and well-produced because this piece of material will be the first thing investors look at and may be the last thing they see before they make any investment decisions. But once you have one, it will become your most powerful selling tool – aside from yourself, of course.

Don’t believe me? Take a look and do some research. Find two comparable public companies, one with well-produced corporate videos and the other without. Then take a look at their average trading volume and share price performance. You’ll find the answer won’t be surprising (given similar comparables, of course.)

Impactful Selling

By now your company has engaged in marketing initiatives or have inquired about different marketing approaches. Have you noticed that video advertising reaches less people than their print counterparts but costs significantly more relative to the audience reach? That’s because videos are significantly more effective at selling.

Let’s take TV infomercials for example which often sell useless items. If they were to send a brochure or email advertising the same products they did on TV, how many people would actually react and buy something from a brochure they received? Probably not many. Yet people react and purchase useless things from infomercials every day.

Hopefully, your company’s shares are not useless. But the principles of marketing remain the same for your company’s stock as it does for those useless items on the infomercials. It’s a well-known statistic that people remember 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, but 70% of what they both hear and see. So give investors something they can remember.

Still don’t think video is right for your company?

Proof is in the Pudding

In recent studies of online video ad exposure, 52% took action after seeing a video ad, 45% elicited a response, 28% looked for more information, and an astounding 16% bought something. I highly doubt any print advertising can achieve those numbers.

The biggest myth regarding using video in your investor relations program is that it has to cost a lot. It doesn’t. There are a select group of IR firms that can handle every process involved anywhere in North America, do it with a very minimal budget, and present your video to a whole new network of investors. Just make sure to find a firm that not only understands the investment community but can help you script and produce a video geared towards investors.

Every client or every company we interviewed regarding the use of video in their IR campaigns all agree it’s the easiest and most effective promotional piece they have ever created. Perhaps now is the time for your company to take the leap.

Upside Media Group Brings Small-cap Companies and Investors Together

Admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:11:59 +0000

So you’re a small cap company, and so far your investor relations haven’t yielded an onslaught of accredited investors coming to the table with a boatload of much needed capital. It could be that your approach, and not your company, is the issue. If the trick is figuring out where to promote awareness of your company and its products and services, the answer is to go where everyone is: online. Companies like Upside Media Group are providing companies of all stripes with the ability to get in front of investors and investor groups in a variety of ways. In the process, they’re reinventing the very concept of stock promotion.

Companies advertising their wares on Upside Media’s website come into a number of great ways to promote their companies to investors that have what they want… capital. A variety of services including email, video interviews with company executives, airline advertising, exposure in a small-cap investor magazine, direct mail, radio broadcasts, web page advertisements and one-on-one investor conferences open up a whole new world to companies fortunate enough to be featured.

Upside is also one of the only companies of its kind with its own production studio, providing instant access and hands-on expertise to the creation of audio and video promotions. With so many avenues of access to real, accredited investors, the opportunity for making a match is increased exponentially.

It’s easy to see what is in a site like Upside Media Group’s site for the small-cap company on the hunt for potential investors. But how are investors protected and assured that the companies presenting to them represent sound and viable investments? To address this issue, Upside offers a detailed research report about every company that appears on its site. This report offers important details about the company, its prospects, and the industry it works in as a whole. In addition to including in depth details about every relevant aspect of the company, investors are supplied with a realistic intrinsic valuation based on the details of the report.

At the end of the day, successful matchmaking of any kind is based upon compatibility. And when investing is involved that compatibility must be backed up by viable research and accumulation of knowledge by company and investor alike. The good news for both sides is that Upside Media Group provides a forum for just such an exchange to happen. And while there’s no such thing as a sure thing in investing, as with everything in life the more you know the better off you’ll be.

By: Mike S Reinboth