IR Best Practices for Earnings Calls and Other Capital Markets Events

February 21, 2023 Enterprise, Entrepreneurs, Start-ups, Small Businesses, FinTech and Alternative Finance, Fintech Services, Innovation and Resources, Leadership, Productivity, Competition, Human Capital, Health No comments

Guest Post | Feb 21, 2023

Image: Freepik/videoflow

Like other important capital markets events, your company’s earnings call plays an integral role in your investor relations strategy. However, sharing your quarterly performance in a way that upholds your IR strategy can be challenging for all those involved.

These best practices can help you organize the best presentation, whether it’s for earnings season or virtual bus tours, thematic conferences, or thought leadership events.

Reconsider Your Webcast Setup

Despite the word “call” in the title, few earnings calls are literal teleconference calls. Most IR professionals and C-Suite teams share their financials using webcasting services, adding a visual element to this critical presentation.

Updating your webcasting tools is crucial to hosting an effective virtual earnings call. The latest technology gives you the ability to create a customizable and fully branded experience with expert support.

Think About Analytics

On the backend of things, your virtual earnings call can reveal pertinent information about your attendees and their digital experience. You can use these insights to gain a better understanding of attendees and stakeholders by measuring the content that resonates with them the most.

You can place these insights into greater context when you consolidate these virtual analytics with other data pulled from your virtual channels. An all-in-one platform powered by engagement analytics makes it easier to act on your earnings analytics, as you’ll see how they compare to other engagements and strategic touchpoints with capital markets.

Sophisticated engagement analytics relies on powerful AI and state-of-the-art machine learning to find patterns in investor behavior. This can flag investors who need extra attention at the opportune time.

Create a Compelling IR Narrative

While your financials take center stage during earnings season, your IR narrative always plays an important role. Craft your communications with your brand’s story in mind, mirroring these values when discussing your performance.

You’ll want to ensure your messaging throughout your webcast aligns with your branding across all channels. Update your messaging to ensure it reflects the meat of your financials — whether it was a runaway year or a challenging time.

Checking in with your peer group is another strategy you can employ while crafting your webcast, especially if the market volatility has negatively affected your financials. Your competition can provide insights on how you can get in front of underwhelming earnings reports.

Sharpen and Simplify Your Financials

Your earnings are what makes the call, so it’s important you present your financials and other supporting documents in a clear and simple manner. It’s easy to overcomplicate this data when trying to make it presentable.

When it comes to earnings seasons, less is more. Don’t overburden your slides with too much text, unnecessary effects, or poorly designed graphics. Good design lets the data talk for itself and enhances your messaging.

If you aren’t sure of the best way to share your data in a digestible way, working with an IR partner can help you find the clarity you need. These professionals have created a list of design best practices that help you share visualized data in a way that supports your message, rather than detracting from it.

See: FCA Uses New Tools to Catch 14X more Mis-leading Ads than Last Year

There are countless ways to improve your earnings calls, but these four represent changes that have the most profound effect on your performance. Keep these in mind as you enter earnings season and beyond.

NCFA Jan 2018 resize - IR Best Practices for Earnings Calls and Other Capital Markets Events The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org