i-Centre » Bringing the Online Investor Centre to Life

What’s on your online investor centre? A list of ASX announcements, another list of Media Releases and perhaps a link to your ASX/ NZX information page for share price information? Does it look like a boring old list of pdf files? Does it sometimes go weeks or even months without any change?

Online Investor Centres are often treated as a compliance chore, resulting in sites which look like uninspiring shopping lists of announcement headings, and are about as inspiring to investors as hessian sacks to the fashion world.

But with 54% of retail investor respondents in a 2010 survey by AIRA (Australasian Investor Relations Association) listing e-communications as becoming more important or much more important, companies really need to ensure they are extracting maximum value from their online investor centre. Essentially, you need to turn your online investor centre from post office to high end mall.

The same survey identified the following features as essential components of a listed entity’s website:

• Dedicated Investor Relations section
• Regularly updated (announcements, presentations, calendar dates)
• Email or RSS notifications for new content
• Easy to navigate layout
• Able to be printed
• Interactive, accessible online documents that do not require downloading

When it comes to interactive and engaging websites consumer-facing businesses are well ahead of the game.  Listed companies have a real opportunity to learn from the tools and techniques used to generate engaged and committed consumers, to create engaged and committed investors. In the life sciences especially, there is an opportunity to overcome the science/ non-scientist divide through interactive and engaging communications that explain clearly the investment proposition.

So to add to the list above, companies should also be looking to incorporate at least some of the following elements to their investor centre:

• Search Engine Optimised content – identify those keywords that potential investors search for in your space and optimise your content accordingly
• A live share price chart
• Interactive content including video, audio, animations and interactive reports and presentations
• Different areas of content so users can easily find what they are looking for, e.g. separate areas for ASX announcements, Media Releases, Analyst Reports, Investor Presentations and so forth
• “Featured” articles or videos that change regularly
• Links to all necessary process and protocol documents (including disclaimers and forward looking statements)
• Links to social media channels where used (See 6 Reasons why Biotechs Cannot Ignore Social Media)
• Links to relevant third party content where it acts to provide improved context to your story

Clinuvel (ASX:CUV) has recently released a new website that incorporates many of these elements. Other biotech/ pharma companies which have dynamic Investor centres include Pfizer, GSK & Amgen.

Who has the best online investor centre you’ve seen?