Best practice
Communications framework
We will help you to look at your company as an investment proposition, formulating an overall framework for the structure of your key corporate communications - your Annual Report (printed and online) and your Investor Website - mapping this into a 3 year development plan for the future.
Summary of services
A summary of a selection of our services include the following;
Free communications appraisal
An initial overview of your corporate communications, including pointers and areas for improvement and enhancement.
Find out more about our free communications appraisal
Benchmarking and peer group analysis
Understanding how your annual report and / or your investor relations website stacks up against best practice and your peer group, enables you to make informed choices about the direction these important communication channels should take and develop. An awareness of the opportunities and challenges facing your existing communication tools enables you to channel time, effort and resource into those aspects than can ‘lift’ your corporate reporting to the next level.
We start by benchmarking your company and performing a peer group analysis to find out how your communications stack up against the Investor Relations Society's best practice recommendations, as well as against any key competitors or aspirational goals.
We have invested time in effort in assessing what works and what doesn’t – all you need to do is give us an hour of your time and we will show you how you can maximise the potential of your annual report and IR website spend to reach and connect with your target audiences. Check out our "3C"© scorecard and STAND UP© tools to see the difference we can make to your corporate reporting requirements. We offer the following benchmarking services;
The Annual Report 3C’s© scorecard
Corporate / Investor relations website STAND UP© benchmarking scorecard
Such an exercise is useful to prioritise areas for improvement and development to ensure you are following the latest best practice recommendations, as well as understanding how you score against your peers.
Scoping Sessions - challenging key messages
Brainstorming sessions will ensure that the appropriate key messages are developed across all communications and all media (be it printed and online).
These provide the impetus to get your investor communications efforts on the right track. Are you at the beginning of the reporting process and sick of staring at that blank page? Lacking direction, uncertain of what is relevant and necessary? Maybe you would just like the opportunity to bounce ideas and build momentum into the reporting process. Working with Jones and Palmer allows you to cut to the chase and to work at what really matters in your quest to turn words into positive investor actions.
A half day session to make sure your messages are on target can save you valuable hours in shaping and developing not only your copy but also the core information that needs to be collected to support your core messages. We lead you through the thicket to refine your messages and value proposition.
Copy Direction
Do you feel you have lots of points to make but are unsure how to prioritise your messages? Copy direction is one of the core outputs from our key scoping sessions. We are here to document those areas of opportunity, to expand and get your key messages across, as well considering how to deal with the more challenging aspects of messaging. This provides both a starting point and on-going reference document that should speed up your copywriting process and provide a more holistic understanding of the company’s key performance, potential and personality. Breaking down the narrative structure of the report into manageable sections allows the report to develop quickly and resonate with your target audience.
Copywriting
Our narrative services take the strain out of transforming your key messages into a compelling story that will attract, retain and motivate your key investor relations audiences. You may require strong copywriting skills to create content for your annual report or investor relations website. Alternatively, you may simply need someone to smooth copy to ensure that the input of many different authors is consistent in style and tone. Whatever your requirements we can work with you to shape and develop key content for use in your investor communications.
Effectiveness Reviews
We perform effectiveness reviews to judge how your communications have been perceived in the past and develop methodologies for constant improvement.
The end of the road is in sight, but you wonder whether it was all worth the effort. Commissioning Jones and Palmer to conduct a feedback exercise helps validate your efforts as well as providing important input into ensuring the reporting process evolves over time and remains in touch with the needs of those you are trying to connect with. Drawing on our network of contacts including leading investors, analysts and market commentators we can provide independent assessments of how your external corporate reporting efforts are perceived in the market place. Using our research skills we can assess the impact that your efforts have made – ensuring that you always know what works and what doesn’t.
Balancing printed and electronic communications
At Jones and Palmer, we can consult with you over a number of critical areas including, for example, the new media mix - balancing printed and electronic communications with shareholders.
If you feel that you need support getting your message across, we will work in partnership with you to form narrative, making your message clear, concise and a compelling read.
Further information on best practice
Legislation
Our survival guides will help you to demystify the impact of the latest legislation as well as showing you ways that we can help you to address the legislative requirements.
Learn more about our survival guides
Related topics
Read our briefing articles...
Obligation or opportunity?
Getting the right message across
Review, review and review
Prospective and new flotations - where do you start?
Benefits of using project management techniques
The importance of an account director
Why pay more? A credit crunch briefing for your Annual Report
Jones and Palmer Services
Find out further information about structuring your message including reasons to improve your corporate communications, complimentary communications appraisal, Copywriting and legislation
Find out more information on creating the right impression and using the right medium
Jones and Palmer Products
Find out further information about our Annual Report, Online Annual Report or Investor Relations Website products
Talk to... Jones and Palmer
Contact our Investor Communications Specialist for more information