Building great public relations (PR) takes time, effort, and significant planning. The payoff, though, is worth it; exceptional PR strategies can bring new investors on board and keep current investors happy and confident.
No matter how financially strong an organization is, investors are key to growth and scaling the business. Great PR can lead to great investor relations, which is how a company engages with its shareholders, stakeholders, and any other parties that invest in the organization.
Importance of Investor Relations
Good PR can help your business get solid investors. PR teams that specialize in investor and shareholder relations can communicate important business news and data in a professional and timely manner, which improves stakeholder trust and overall financial growth.
For a company to succeed, it is fundamental to maintain positive and trustworthy relationships with investors—and PR teams can help.
How Can PR Impact Investor Relations?
Following are some ways in which PR impacts a business’s investors.
1. Good Public Image
PR helps to build a good brand image. If you encounter a crisis, as most businesses do at one point or another, your PR team can help you mitigate the negative effects on your brand and ensure that your reputation is not unnecessarily damaged.
Brand reputation management is one of the main facets of PR, and this very thing makes a big difference when investors consider committing money to an organization. PR tactics such as quick and empathetic community management, timely statements released to the press, and proactive, positive pitching can help improve or maintain a great brand reputation, even in difficult times. Stable and consistently positive media coverage will bolster investors’ confidence in your brand and may ultimately attract new investors.
2. Trustworthiness
Good PR tactics will help you present your brand as a trustworthy and responsible organization with strong goals and objectives. PR encourages your target audience to believe in your brand, think of your products or services when the need arises, and choose your organization over competitors when purchasing. All of this is lost if a brand isn’t reliable.
Trustworthiness comes from consistent PR tactics; that means there should be regular positive media overage, giving initiatives, social media management, and more. If there is going to be a major business change, great PR teams will find effective ways to communicate this information with stakeholders before it happens. General consistency and clarity in communication are exceptionally important when building trust with audiences and investors.
3. Transparency
Transparency is a great tactic for PR teams to adopt, especially in times of crisis. Issuing honest, empathetic, and crystal-clear communications bolsters trust, improves brand image in the long run, and often convinces investors they can rely on your brand to deliver. Regardless of the circumstances, they know they’ll receive verified information in a timely manner from your organization, which can be a key differentiator in your investor relations. Investments come with a lot of risks, but genuine transparency can help ease investors’ concerns.
4. Improved Financial Health
Investor relations is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. As your good PR attracts more investors, you’ll see a boost in the overall financial health of your business. The renewed strength of your financials might, in turn, attract more investors!
Financial stability means less risk for investors, so making smart hiring decisions, minimizing crises, and scaling responsibly can all improve the likelihood of your business attracting investors. PR teams can facilitate some of these needs with clear, professional business communications, exceptional internal communications, and great crisis management.
5. Brand Awareness
Every organization wants its products and services to sell, but many touchpoints are required before most consumers choose to make a purchase. The same goes for investor relations—investors need to be familiar with your organization before they ever consider making an investment.
In order to capture a share of your market, you’ll need to do lots of proactive pitching and PR campaigns. You might host in-person events, sponsor major conferences, get your leadership team interviewing on podcasts and TV shows, and post consistently on social media. All of these platforms, and likely more, will need to be leveraged to capture even a fraction of the market.
But the hard work should pay off; once consumers and investors are fully aware of your product and mission, they are far more likely to purchase or invest. Through brand awareness, PR helps to increase the demand of any organization, which in turn drives investor relations.
6. Consistency in Communication
If your business doesn’t have a dedicated PR team or PR agency, you can’t expect to put out consistent and clear communications (which are vital for an organization’s overall health). There are fundamental skills involved in disseminating information in the most effective manner on the platforms that will best reach your audiences. Certain levels of finesse, attention to detail, and understanding of the media landscape are required.
Coverage with major news outlets helps investors to understand your brand’s story and determine its trustworthiness in a matter of minutes, so exceptional communications can truly help bolster investor relations down the line.
Everyone Benefits When PR Improves Investor Relations
One of the most valuable aspects of PR is that it can build investor relations. PR can ensure investors stay in the loop and trust your leadership team, which is imperative for the health of your business. Best of all? General consumers will reap the benefits of exceptional PR in the process.
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