Building Strong Analyst Relationships: Best Practices for Effective Engagement

In the marketing and communications landscape, analyst relations (AR) is an area that can often be overlooked. Organisations will often prioritise public relations, social media, content, and digital marketing, as these can demonstrate clear and instant value for a business, but those that are not paying more attention to AR are missing a trick. 

Analyst relations play a critical role in the success of organisations by bridging the gap between companies and the analysts who evaluate and recommend their products or services. Analysts wield significant influence over market perceptions and buying decisions and are a source of important information for those in the procurement stages of a project, as they provide objective insights on a business and their technology solutions. 

As a result, effective engagement with analysts can help your organisation ensure that its innovations and value propositions are accurately understood and communicated in the market. Moreover, an AR programme allows companies to receive strategic feedback, helping them align their product development and marketing strategies with market needs and trends. Ultimately, a strong AR strategy plays an important role in the sales funnel, enhancing a company's credibility and visibility, and leading to increased opportunities to differentiate from competitors and to accelerate business growth. 

There are 4 main ways that an analyst relations programme can provide value to your business. These are: 

1. Leveraging Analysts to Drive Market Perceptions (Reputation & Credibility) 
2. Leveraging Analysts to Increase Short-List Opportunities (Demand Generation) 
3. Leveraging Analysts as a Micro-Population of the Market (Provide an outside-in view for strategy and decision-making) 
4. Direct Support of Sales  

With this in mind, our team has taken its many years of collective experience and knowledge to share some of our top tips for building strong analyst relationships. 

Get to know your account manager 

Your account manager at an analyst firm holds the keys to your relationship with analysts. They are a critical point of contact for any organisation, sharing insights and information, granting access to reports, helping to facilitate briefings, and setting up inquiries with the analysts you care most about. As a result, it is critical that you take the time and effort to build a strong relationship with your account manager as they are your biggest ally when it comes to ensuring that you are getting the most value out of your analyst license.  

Understand your target analysts 

At the start of any AR programme, it is imperative that you identify the analysts you want to engage and interact with on a regular basis. However, it’s crucial to keep this list focussed and limited to a handful of analysts who truly understand the market in which you operate, and who have deep knowledge of your clients, competitors, and prospects.  

Once you understand who you are trying to target, you should then look at the specific areas they cover in the industry, reports they are contributing to, trends they are writing about, and what they are engaging with on social media. By doing so, you can tailor your communications and ensure that you are speaking to their areas of interest. Not only will this highlight how your organisation fits into the market dynamics, but it will also generate interest and brand recognition with the analysts, so they can refer to your organisation in reports in future. 

Cadence is key 

The importance of the timing and timeliness of your interactions with analysts cannot be understated. Of course, it’s necessary to share updates with your analysts, but at the same time, it’s vital to not overburden them with information. 

With this in mind, we recommend ensuring that you are setting up briefings with your key analysts at least once per quarter, to build a strong relationship and to keep them informed of your current roadmap and the latest business updates. Outside of these briefings, it is important to remember to set up inquiries when you need them, and ensure you are communicating to your analysts with emails and newsletters, to highlight the growth and success of your organisation. These types of interactions should occur on a monthly basis, ensuring that you have the right cadence of communication and keeping your business front of mind for the analysts.  

You should also be keeping track of what your analysts have been doing, writing, and saying over time, so that your communications are tailored to their interests and their area of expertise. That way, you can build stronger relationships with analysts by having a meaningful conversation with them that lasts longer, rather than having isolated engagements that lack consistency or relevance. 

Assessing your own AR strategy 

Analyst relations is a two-way street. It is important to use your relationships to gain insights and information you need on how to improve your business and marketing strategy for your prospects, but it equally important to keep analysts abreast of your latest developments so they can see how you are impacting the market. 

However, we appreciate that sometimes it’s much easier said than done. Many businesses don’t have a dedicated AR function or are unsure how to optimise their AR strategy to get the most from their analyst programmes. 

That’s why Resonance is offering a free AR health check – comprising a 45-minute health check meeting, followed by a written report – to test the effectiveness of your analyst relations programme. If you have ever questioned the value of your analyst licence or of the briefings and inquiries you are conducting, then our AR health check will identify the gaps and opportunities within your AR programme, helping you unlock greater value.  

To get a free AR health check and understand where your business is at with its analyst programme, get in touch with us today at hello@resonancecrowd.com