Analyst communication is one of the core services offered at TechComms. Although we’ve been working with analysts for a long time, things change and each encounter offers its own challenges to overcome.
To meet changing communication requirements, we recently started to offer behavioural economics as a part of our services. This approach not only gives us the ability to further strengthen analyst relationships, but allows us to communicate with analysts it a way that is most beneficial to them. By using the behavioural economics approach, our communication with analysts stands out in a crowded playing field.
We’re not only using this approach internally, but offering training on this topic to marketers. Our three-part training series covers what every marketer needs to know about behavioural economics – what it is, its principles, marketing implementations, UX and advertisement. The course covers:
- Stage one: This one hour, interactive session explains behavioural economics.
- Stage two: This 45-minute session revolves around case studies and how behavioural economics principles are applied to different applications.
- Stage three: This 30-minute session will enable participants to put what they’ve learned into practice. Using cases, attendees will use behavioural economics principles, and be asked to explain the rational logic behind their decisions.
Our primary way of communicating with analysts is email, and this is where our expertise plays a critical role. Since analysts receive countless emails everyday, it’s a challenge for them to find a unique product or technology that will add value to their future research or current knowledge.
To stand out in a crowded inbox, we take a unique approach to analyst communications. In this two-part series we’ll explore how we communicate with analysts through four different behavioural economics principles: Choice Overload, Anchoring Effect, Salience Effect and Scarcity Effect.
Principle 1 – Choice Overload: Our brains have limited capacity to process information. Sadly, modern technology provides us with an environment to send virtually everything and anything without any limitations. The results are long emails, as well as content heavy Word document attachments. In theory, the communication ticks all the necessary boxes since everything that is related to the product or technology is sent to the analyst. In reality, analysts have limited processing power, and will probably ignore most of the documents. Excessive communication also makes it difficult, if not impossible, for analysts to zero-in on the main points within the communication.
We focus on sending clear and easy to understand emails with digestible Word documents. Since many people, including analysts, read emails from their smartphones, we ensure that the attached documents can be easily read on smaller screens.
Principle 2 – Anchoring Effect: Initial exposure to a number serves as a reference point and influences subsequent judgments about the value of a product or technology. Our brains evaluate and make decisions based on reference points. For example, we don’t really have a definition of what is expensive versus what is affordable. Or what is really fast or slow. Our judgements are based on pre-set reference points.
When we introduce a new industry finding or a new technology to an analyst, we incorporate a reference point into the description. The reference may be based on the competition or another value. However, references are always in a state of flux and must be constantly evaluated. For instance, the technology world is very fast paced and yesterday’s efficient product may be considered less than efficient in today’s terms. Therefore, we clearly identify and highlight outstanding benefits, and provide comparisons of existing benchmarks or technology. This gives the analyst the ability to easily highlight which components of the product or technology to cover.
Watch for the conclusion of this blog series where we will cover the final two behavioural economics principles: Salience Effect and Scarcity Effect as they related to analysts relations.
To learn more about our b2b analyst relations, behavioural economics training or to sign up for the next course session, contact us on + 44 (0) 203 322 8928.
