Maintaining Great Communication with Your Investors

It is imperative to keep and maintain good communication with your investors. By doing so, you are ensuring their confidence in you and their investment. You are putting the relationship in jeopardy if they feel they need to chase you down for an update. Plan ahead of time how you are going to effectively communicate with your investors, using some of the examples below. Proactive communication on your part will also increase the likelihood of them choosing to invest with you and your future deals.

Before Beginning

Spend some time getting to know your investor firstly. Ask how and how often they prefer updates. For example, phone call, email, photos, video and/or site visit. It’s important that you know what their expectations are beforehand, to avoid failing to meet them later.

Show your investor your gratitude for their contribution and participation in your business by sending some brownies or a gift basket via an online store. There are a bunch of different websites out there with an enormous variety of gifts to send, so if budget is an issue, there is something out there that fits yours. The sentiment is what matters more than the gift that’s sent.

During The Investment

Most important, do what you said you were going to do!

1. Pay your interest at the interval you agreed upon. Stone Bay pays interest monthly via direct deposit. This is our first important communication touch.

2. Send them a monthly investment statement.

3. Text them pictures or short video updates.

4. Email pictures or videos along with details of the progress.

5. Invite them for a site tour. Let them see the neighborhood they are helping to revitalize.

Or at the very least, just be available always. This is crucial; you always want to answer their calls! They need to know that they can reach you if they need to. If ever you miss a call, text or email, make sure that you are responding as soon as possible.

Providing consistent regular updates to your investors is the key.

Post Investment

Show your investor your gratitude for their contribution and participation in your business. Find a way to make them feel appreciated.

Achieve this simply by sending a genuine handwritten thank you card to them. Add them to your email list and communicate monthly or quarterly with your recent activity.

At Stone Bay, we have created a family culture, not just with our investors, but with our entire staff. So much so, that if you ask any of our investors, they already know it’s not just something we say. We create that with these follow-ups and extra touches, because we would not be what we are without them.

The Extras

An often-overlooked opportunity to reach out and connect with your investors is the holiday season. As business owners, we sometimes get swept up in employee gifts, or managing family gatherings, and we forget about our investors that are vital to our business. Stone Bay holds an annual holiday party where we welcome every single one of our investors for dinner and drinks and celebrations. This will be our fifth year! It has been a great opportunity to get face time with everyone and connect in the midst of a busy holiday season to make our investors feel valued.

If the budget doesn’t allow for a large holiday party, send a holiday card or if you only have an investor or two, you can again take to an online website and find a great gift basket you know they will love. Be sure to send any gifts, cards, or schedule events as early in the season as possible, as it tends to get more hectic as the year comes to an end.

Extra ways to go above and beyond for your investors is not limited to the holiday season from Thanksgiving to New Years. There are other opportunities you can create throughout the year to check in with them and remind them of your relationship. Creating opportunities to show that you appreciate them is the foundation of building and cultivating a successful relationship for future opportunities with you.

What are some ways that you keep in contact with your investors? Let me know in the comments!