IN OUR recent surveys of IR websites, only about 60 percent of companies provide an email alert service. It's not clear why so many companies fail to offer this feature, but it is certain that they're missing out on one of the more useful tools the Web has to offer investor relations departments.

As a "push technology," email alerts bring real utility to the Web. They keep people informed of important developments, drive them to your site more often and allow IR departments to build long-term relationships with a much greater number of people than was ever possible before the Internet.

However, to be effective, email alert utilities have to be properly set up and managed. Too often we see email alert utilities that don't work properly, which are hard to sign up for or unsubscribe from, and which bombard people with useless alerts.

This article provides detailed guidelines for every aspect of setting up and managing email alerts on an IR website. It provides guidelines for getting people to sign up to your list, explains how to format email alerts so that they'll be noticed in users' inboxes, and it provide guidelines for how to make unsubscribing from your list easy for your investors.

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