“Website visitation data is useful intent data


because it provides insight into visitors’ online behavior and their interests. Tere are services that can help you better understand who is coming to your IR website, grabbing IP addresses and linking them back to organizations to help you understand where they came from and then digging right down to the individuals that you should be trying to speak with. Tis can be really helpful around earnings calls, annual meetings, and investor days. “You can track somebody’s entire path on your website and all the pages they’re looking at. So you can get really deep if you want to. It comes down to what is going to be relevant. What are the most popular documents web visitors are looking at? For example, if you just spent a lot of time and money on an ESG report, is anybody clicking on it? Tis can help your company better allocate time and resources. “You have people who are subscribing to alerts


and updates on your company. Many companies don’t ever analyze those lists. There are current shareholders or prospective holders that are follow- ing your company and reading alerts that you may not be talking to or aware of. “In a similar vein are conference call attendee


lists. Companies spend a massive amount of time planning and executing conference calls and earn- ings calls, but fewer than half of IR teams we talk to actually request those lists from their conference call provider. And if they do request them, they don’t re- ally do much with them. But this is a really valuable source of data to identify potential investors.”


Moving Forward “Tis is a big evolving space,” Gamache said. “We are at a stage where the individual is more empowered by technology than ever before. So, get out there and try a few things.” “Many IROs already have access to alternative


data sources so you may not have to look that far,” Fasken said. “It’s just a question of whether you’re leveraging it effectively. One of the most common issues is not having it organized. Having a CRM or a system where you can store it, tag it and run a report on it is extremely important; otherwise, the data is useless.” IR


30 WINTER 2 0 24 ■ IR UPDAT E


Sam Walton: A Researcher on the Ground and in the Air


Walmart Founder Sam Walton was famous for monitoring the number of cars in Walmart parking lots to gauge customer activity. While his research wasn’t done for investor relations purposes, it highlights one aspect of how market analysts might measure the success of a company. An article about Walton published by the Los Angeles


Times in 1992 talked about Walton’s focus on this: “On store visits, Walton would count the cars in the parking lot as a barometer of business, and once got so engrossed in the task that he crashed his car into the back of a Walmart truck. One of the 10 floats in the parade on Walton Appreciation Day was a wrecked car welded to the back of a Walmart truck.” Years later in 2016, former Walmart employee Michael


Kennedy told this related story about Walton on Medium, an online news platform: “Sam Walton was a pilot. He loved to fly and make surprise visits to his stores. He was known for in- specting the number of cars in the Walmart parking lots as he buzzed overhead. He’d get furious if he saw an empty parking lot; obviously, something was wrong at the store…but not for long. Sam would get to the bottom of it. “One afternoon he saw something that made him nearly land his plane in the empty parking lot itself. Upon learning that Sam Walton was making a surprise visit to his store, one manager and his staff rushed to beautify their receiving area, the large room in the back of the store where trucks offload merchandise. The manager, unfortunately, wasn’t aware that Sam Walton was a private pilot. He had to think quick, ‘Where should we go with all this stuff before Mr. Walton arrives?’ And to the roof they went…with cases and boxes and tons of inventory. The roof was quite a mess. But their receiving area sparkled like a world-class operation!”


niri.org/ irupdate


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40