Investors who entrust their capital to a third party expect a certain degree of familiarity, as well as a stable point of contact to guide them through market fluctuations. Investors seeking reassurance and transparency look to investor relations teams (IR) to be trusted advisors. IR teams have to not only manage communications effectively, but to build meaningful relationships that go beyond surface-level interactions. Technology can streamline and even guide this interpersonal activity with investors, and proper use of a dedicated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system becomes invaluable.

Hold on, I wrote that down somewhere….

Building and maintaining investor relationships cannot be done with wit and personality alone. Interpersonal skills are of course essential, but must be supported by accurate information. This naturally includes professional information about the individual and their investment, including investor balances, recent meetings and activities, and in the case of institutional investors, company-level information. It may also include personal information, such as family setups, preferred names, birthdays, or even recent holiday destinations. Most IR teams capture this data in some way, and will continually build upon their knowledge to create a continuous bond with investors. As the company scales, how this information is captured becomes very important, as email, spreadsheets and memory quickly become untenable ways to store data.

Most fund managers use a CRM to capture this information, and store it in a way that can be used by other systems downstream, or by the IR team in their outreach. A more sophisticated CRM, and likely one built specifically for the fund management industry, will give far greater insight into investor behaviour, shedding a light on which investors are most or least satisfied, identifying marketing campaign success, and helping the IR team to set their agenda and manage exceptions quickly and proactively.

No CRM is an island

Information on investors comes from all corners of the business, and is used in a wide variety of ways. Data capture must be robust and consistent. For a CRM to help a firm to its full potential, it must be well integrated with other systems and used company wide. Systems such as the investor portal, data room, and email marketing generate huge amounts of insight, and also need to consume data including permissions, email address, a variety of personal fields etc. The data flow should be automated, giving the fund manager deeper insight into investor behaviour, and streamlining digital engagement.

Edgefolio’s FundPortal combines a hedge fund dedicated CRM with investor portal, data room and email marketing meaning this connectivity is inherent. Insight is clearly presented on dashboards to let the IR team cut to the chase and focus on what matters.

Be sure to check out our latest white paper, “Investor Relations in 2024/2025“, to learn more about forging strong investor relations in the digital age.