Engaging with Retail Investors
Retail investors represent a dynamic and multifaceted segment of the shareholder landscape for publicly listed companies, characterized by a broad spectrum of motivations, perceptions, and long-term goals. Though understanding the nuances of retail investor’s motivations and concerns is a challenge, it is imperative for management teams to gain a complete picture of their shareholder base. Given this audience accounts for approximately 25% of trading flows on any given day, retail investors drive more than just headlines.
As part of our recent research into the shifting expectations of CEOs, we captured a snapshot of high level behaviors and preferences of retail investors in the United States.
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Five Characteristics of Retail Investors
While understanding the needs of individual retail investors can be a challenge, survey research is one way we can identify retail investors’ unifying characteristics, which can inform engagement strategies, whether around a proxy battle or in an effort to maintain or grow a retail base. Here are five characteristics that can form the basis of your retail investor engagement strategy:
The vast majority of retail investors are online and use social media to follow company activities
Retail investors are actively searching for information about companies, and this is influencing their perception
TV networks continue to play a significant role in keeping retail investors up to date
Retail investors want to see company CEOs prioritize financial performance and employee wellbeing
There are some key areas where retail investors want to hear more publicly from CEOs
Engaging with Retail Investors
Based on this knowledge and our experience, we focus on three central tenets in our strategies for engaging with retail investors:
Meeting Retail Investors Where They Are
Using a combination of digital data analysis and survey research like the above, we can identify where retail investors are learning about and sharing perspectives on your company and meet them there. That data can then inform an integrated approach to engaging the right media, placing the right content and developing a paid media strategy that reaches investors in the right place, at the right time.
Giving Retail Investors What They Want
Giving retail investors what they want is both thematic and functional. While survey data can help us understand what interests retail investors, smart content creation helps make those messages stick. Content and outreach dedicated to retail investors should focus on making stories quick and digestible, responding to the needs of a time-pressed audience.
Keeping Retail Investors Close
Companies can keep their retail investors close by creating opportunities for ongoing engagement and then measuring that engagement. These opportunities could include sign-up forms, virtual events and interactive tools that invite retail investors to get in the game. In turn, these engagements can be used to test what captures retail investors’ attention, while periodic digital analyses and surveys can help track perspectives over time.
Interested in discussing a tailored strategy to engage with your investors?
Related Insight
Understanding Retail Investors in 2023
A snapshot of high level behaviors and preferences of retail investors in the U.S.
