outreach with an impact

outreach program

An industry analyst relations outreach program is a strategic tool to gain competitive advantage and create a mutually beneficial two-way dialogue and information exchange. A nourished relationship gives valuable market input and proof-points to your marketing and sales process. It supports your business development activities and helps develop your customer relationships. It is a channel to position yourself and influence your perception and bottom-line.

An analyst relations outreach program efficiently manages, drives and executes proactive outreach in the form of, for example, analyst briefings, tours, industry events, summits, newsletters and other information material, through regular contact with relevant leading analysts at your prioritized industry analyst firms. Focus on what you want to achieve and find the activities that best support your goals.

A nice by-product of an effective AR program is that it brings the organization together to ensure aligned marketing and communication to proactively communicate a coherent story. An integrated approach builds the brand, supports strategic direction and clearly gets key messages across to explain strengths, capabilities, offering and vision. A crucial step in communicating one integrated common story, is to provide and co-ordinate training for spokespeople and experts.

examples of AR outreach activities

• one-on-one briefings in person, over the phone and at industry events

• broadcast or telebriefings on a regular basis planned through out the year with updates, news and hot topics

• message testing to sharpen content and messages before a product launch

• pitching and pre-briefings

• visits to analyst firms and industry analyst tours

• industry analyst roundtables

• invite industry analysts to visit facilities and meet top management

• relevant background, product information material

• quarterly or regular newsletters

• share investor and press information

• VIP industry analyst programs

• industry events

• analyst summits

The outreach program, or some of the activities, can easily be reused and adopted for other marketing efforts and channels to target audiences such as trade press, media and to some extent the financial community, and your customers.

Ideally, the outreach plan is developed in conjunction with other sales, marketing and communication plans to leverage on an integrated approach and re-evaluated and adjusted accordingly on an on-going bases depending on the situation.