Behind the scenes at the
materials sector IR website rankings
By Dominic Jones, IR Web
Report
Our recent rankings for
the World's Best IR Websites™ in the
materials
sector focused on 62 companies. And while
the industries represented — forestry, mining,
steel and chemicals — are a little dull,
the results certainly are anything but mundane.
Only six firms made the cutoff for being designated
world's best. German companies put in a strong
showing, making up half of the top group.
Chemical giants BASF
AG, which leads the sector, and Bayer
AG, which has slipped slightly due to
inertia, have comprehensive, well-managed sites
that show obvious attention to detail.
Steel company ThyssenKrupp
AG leads its industry peers by a wide
margin, including the likes of Arcelor S.A.,
Mittal Steel, POSCO, Nucor
and United States Steel. ThyssenKrupp
has one of the best-managed IR websites in the
world, with a clean and clear design and good
usability.
Finland's Stora
Enso Oyj, once the outright best at
online IR, has lost some of its advantage after
making content changes and failing to keep up
with changing technologies. However, even though
its site is getting old, it still is far better
than any other forestry company, including fellow
Scandinavians SCA and UPM-Kymmene
Oyj, and North American firms like International
Paper and Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.
Rounding out the top group is the interesting
peer battle between two fertilizer giants —
Potash
Corporation of Canada and Yara
International ASA of Norway. Yara is
relatively new on the scene. It was spun off
from Norsk Hydro ASA, the energy and aluminum
company.
Potash Corp. has a long track record of excellence
in its IR communications and has consistently
outclassed its peers. The arrival of Yara on
the scene is making the competition more interesting.
As evidenced by BASF topping Bayer, companies
cannot afford to become complacent when they
achieve recognition, particularly when they
have a worthy and motivated adversary.
Expert management
defines top-level sites
Looking at the World's Best IR Websites™
in the materials sector, one characteristic
stands out. These sites are all big with
a lot of deep and diverse content that is being
managed with great precision and skill.
Big IR websites present many usability and
credibility challenges for companies. Designing
sites to be easy to use — and then keeping
them that way — requires a high level of
expertise and know-how. While some of the top
sites need some improvement, mostly these companies
have been able to present vast amounts of information
in a usable way.
Sites with huge stores of content also are
harder to keep fresh and relevant. The
best sites are under constant management and
review. They use precise planning and coordination
to add new content and simultaneously update
all related information throughout their sites.
At the same time, they always have at least
one eye on new practices and emerging technologies.
Expert website management is ultimately what
separates the best IR websites from the rest.
It is the holy grail of online investor relations
communications because it presents a company
in a positive light and ensures that investors
can efficiently achieve their objectives.
All of the top sites are putting many hours
into planning, designing and managing their
sites. While they certainly also have healthy
budgets, the commitment and effort shows
through much more than the financial investment.
Many companies, particularly in North America,
are spending just as much money if not more
than the top companies, but they are getting
nowhere near the same return. This is mostly
because their sites are poorly managed and badly
designed.
Don't break with convention
How user-centric sites are is a major component
of the evaluations we conducted to determine
the best sites. IR websites need to work the
way that investors expect based on their prior
experience on other sites. User-centric sites
enable investors to easily and quickly obtain
the information they need to make their decisions.
There are many universal conventions for the
structure and presentation of information on
investor relations websites. Sites that follow
these conventions are easier to use because
investors are familiar with how they work.
To avoid frustrating your audience, it's important
to respect basic conventions. This is particularly
important when you have a large IR website with
a lot of unique content. The double load of
an unconventional presentation and heaps of
information is a user experience disaster
for IR websites.
Sites that stray too far from convention typically
are designed by outside vendors who don't understand
the investor audience. Sometimes they are the
result of companies not reviewing other IR websites
regularly to identify prevailing standards
of practice.
Several sites that narrowly missed being included
in the top group suffered from these problems.
They included two mining companies, Anglo
American plc and Rio Tinto plc. Both
have large corporate websites that need tighter
management and a closer alignment with established
convention.
Good-bye Placer Dome
Inc.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the passing
of Placer Dome Inc., which has been acquired
by fellow Canadian gold miner Barrick Gold
Corp. If not for being bought and broken
up, Placer Dome would have been in the best
sites group.
Sadly, this is another
case of an expertly managed IR website being
replaced by the acquirer's inferior one. Barrick
Gold hasn't been able to its head around the
Web or the new investor relations communications
environment it has ushered in.
It seems somebody at Placer Dome hasn't lost
their sense of humor. During a recent visit
to the old Placer Dome homepage, I was informed
that the company is no more and given a link
Barrick's
website.
When I clicked on the link, a system prompt
popped up:
"You are about to leave placerdome.com.
Place Dome is not responsible for the contents
of the web site you are now entering."
It's an old exit disclaimer for outbound links
as recommended by the SEC, but in the circumstances
it is both apt and amusing.
But enough of this, go
see those sites.
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