You (still) can’t fatten a pig on market day.

When I wrote this original article nearly two years ago, it was born from seeing companies make a similar mistake time and again. They would wait until they needed the market for something - funds or a vote - and then start communicating.

By then it was too late to have a material impact on their goal, so they determined it to "not be worth it". In addition, the special interest in the market drove them to bad habits, namely because it suited those third parties.

That’s why the analogy of “You can’t fatten a pig on market day” came to mind and for our first article, it did quite well.

But it was also a bit condescending so here’s a better way to frame it.

To be fair, I've never been a listed MD.

I know a fair bit about the role from spending so much time with you all but I don’t do the job. My job is hard enough - but throw in more compliance, reporting, oversight, and more - it’s no wonder the engagement side seems “optional” and isn’t completed.

Unfortunately the cost is real and too often you get to market day and realise you have the runt of the show. So rather than whinge at you, I’ve put together three systems to help you build momentum.

These systems either (1) add slight changes to your existing processes to generate leverage, or (2) build leverage by adding scale. I’ve also introduced two mental models below from our company offsite this week which might help you approach these.

(1) Lead bullets, not silver bullets.

To start, here’s a great quote from $42bn fund manager Andreessen Horowitz, which we can apply to the market (swap out "product" with "stock"):

“The issue with their ideas was that we weren’t facing a market problem. The customers were buying; they just weren’t buying our product. This was not a time to pivot. So I said the same thing to every one of them: “There are no silver bullets for this, only lead bullets.” They did not want to hear that, but it made things clear: we had to build a better product. There was no other way out. No window, no hole, no escape hatch, no backdoor. We had to go through the front door and deal with the big, ugly guy blocking it. Lead bullets.”

Don’t look at this as seeking one big solution that will fix all your problems, look at it as a series of bullets or actions that you have to keep firing.

(2) Improvement over perfection.

Now that we’re not waiting for that one big silver bullet, we’re doing more actions.

When we increase the reps, we give ourselves more opportunities to improve. So let’s aim to get better every time we do it, just a little bit, just 1% better. Because pretty soon, this starts to compound and we’ll be able to look back in time to see how things have grown - bit by bit.

A bit like this newsletter!

So, now with those mindsets in place, let's look at three systems we can do to build that market momentum!

In the two years since I wrote the original version of this article, we’ve learned a lot more about how modern public companies can efficiently “fatten the pig” - that is, engage the market more effectively without spending too much time or money on the matter.

Our approach is influenced by a deep understanding of the investor journey and data that shows us what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to nudging investors through it.

Here are the top-level insights.

(1) Direct all awareness activities to an asset you control.

Whether it is a market announcement, sponsored media, PR, a roadshow, or a conference, all new and existing shareholders should be sent to an asset that you control. This ensures that the story they see, read, or hear is coming directly from you, and allows for future engagement opportunities.

Just point everything back at your site and capture emails for anything you're doing. Keep that control, and build that list - and the momentum with it.

(2) Nurture intent over the long term.

Now you have the list you need to engage at scale. Choose tools and processes that allow you to talk with many investors at once. Actively calling your top investors works. It is a good use of time, but stops being worth it at some point down the list.

Use this scale to tell the message. Take people on a journey. Build the trust and story with thousands of investors at once and scale, scale, scale.

(3) Convert and retain investors.

Many companies make the mistake of believing that their results will “speak for themselves”, and that investors will buy and/or hold off the back of good news.

There’s a principle in marketing called the ‘Rule of 7’, which states that a potential buyer needs to hear a story 7 times before developing purchase intent. Investors are the same, they need many touch points, not just one good bit of news.

So build that momentum with intent, and convert on the good news, or the repetition of message.

You still cannot fatten a pig on market day.

When I first wrote this two years ago, I was predominantly referring to raising capital.

Now, after 2+ years of InvestorHub, I know it applies to so much more. Whether it is voting, liquidity, share price performance, capital raise outcomes, or anything else, the need to engage the market more efficiently has never been more important.

Have a great weekend!