Is your investor relations strategy complete if it doesn’t consider individuals? You could be handicapping your IR strategy by underestimating your retail audience, as new data emerges this year.

This data comes two years after investor relations firm Q4 partnered with IR Magazine to host a webinar on the best practices for retail shareholder outreach. Many of the standards set by Q4 during this pandemic webinar still apply today for those teams wanting to tap into the escalating trend of retail trading.

A Retail Reckoning: Non-Institutional Trading Gains Traction

While some experts believed retail training peaked during the pandemic’s meme-fuelled days, recent reports suggest the opposite is true.

JPMorgan data revealed retail trading hit an all-time high earlier this year. Non-institutional investors accounted for 23% of all trading volume between January 25 and February 1, trading with particular focus on large-cap stocks.

Individuals may not have the same buying power as your biggest institutional shareholders, but research firm VandaTrack warns against underestimating this cohort. According to VandaTrack research, individual investors now pour a daily average of $1.51 billion into US equities.

When acting in large packs, individuals can have as much impact as any prominent institutional analyst — which underpins the importance of appealing to a retail audience.

Where Are They Looking for IR Intelligence?

A cross-section of this cohort reveals most of them are under 40. Millennials and Gen Z make up the largest portion of traders who started investing during the pandemic. The Charles Schwab Corporation calls these traders Generation Investors.

Generation investors are comfortable switching between digital channels to learn more about their options, including Reddit, Twitter, newsletters, and podcasts, partly due to their age.

These platforms have always been associated with retail investors; however, they’re gaining popularity and use with institutional investors, too. Social media has been a tool for the buy- and sell-side to keep track of — and ahead of — the chatter.

How to Strengthen Digital IR Communications

Meeting investors where they are is the key to effective outreach. Here are three tools you can use to make your IR strategy inclusive of individuals.

1. Socials

Although your Twitter page may not have been originally intended as an IR tool, it is now. It’s a democratic tool that allows you to share information that may have been traditionally hidden behind a paywall, like a Bloomberg terminal. You can publish pull quotes from timely press releases and webcasts, linking them back to your website.

2. IR Website

If the content you post on your social redirects visitors to your IR website, make sure all your content is accessible to individuals, including financial downloads and corporate access virtual events transcripts and webinar links.

3. Corporate Access Virtual Events

Keeping these capital markets events virtual (or, at the very least, hybrid) will help individuals attend conferences that they would otherwise miss.

Update Your IR Tools Accordingly

Tweaking your IR strategy for a retail audience won’t make a seismic shift in your everyday workflow; however, you may notice an influx of new digital engagements.

Consider upgrading your IR tools to include engagement analytics to make sure you don’t overlook a single kernel of information harvested from your socials, IR site, or corporate access virtual events. This data can help you get in front of your retail cohort.