Transaction Sites
The Corporate Action
When there’s a corporate action on, the need for online communication with investors is heightened significantly. Typically deadlines are short and effort is high. Compliance risks can be significant and need careful management.
A Special Transaction Site
Often the needs of a transaction are best met through a special purpose micro website specifically related to the transaction. This reduces the impact on the main website and provides better flexibility to the transaction team, in terms of what is published about the transaction and when.
The site can also respect the legal and compliance needs, for example by providing disclaimers, country specific content, document downloads after agreeing to conditions, and possibly even a secure login process to track who has downloaded documents.
Using IRM Newsroom can also be an effective add-on to a transaction site. By uploading a mailing list, and linking IRM Newsroom to specific types of ASX Announcements, news can be updated to the transaction site and emailed to interested parties immediately after an announcement is released.
Transaction Websites vs Investor Websites
Transaction websites, or special purpose issues websites, are focused on a high profile issue relevant at the time, and may be aimed mainly at getting opinion or information into the media / target audiences at the right time to influence an outcome. They are often appropraite for an IPO, a takeover / defence, a fund raising, or managing a crisis.
This is not the role of an investor website. Its role is to be there on an ongoing basis over the longer term. Continually creating the right impressions and delivering the right facts (including the pieces of opinion generated periodically for transactions) to an ever-changing and largely unknown group of investors (actual and potential) who will behave emotionally and randomly based on a long term subjective assessment of the ability of the company to generate shareholder value. Not just based on the latest transaction, issue or opinion.
If people with a transaction focus do a great website that addresses an issue at a point in time, the risk is that six months later when there are more mundane things to communicate, the website looks out of date and unfocused, and needs re-doing.
Transaction websites and investor websites are different animals, and people who are good at transaction sites may not have any credentials for investor websites.
IRM and Transaction websites
IRM has provided special purpose transaction websites on a number of occasions. By their nature they are urgent and IRM’s team can deliver such sites at sometimes very short notice, and can provide the urgent support when needed.
It’s difficult to point to current transaction sites because of their transitory nature. Discuss with IRM your specific needs.