VP of Brand Marketing & Communications at AvidXchange, the industry leader in automating invoices and payments for mid-market businesses.
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Preparing an IPO communications plan can be intimidating, especially for those who haven’t had experience with the process. The good news is that communication around becoming a publicly traded company is a very formulaic and highly regulated series of processes. It boils down to looking ahead to listing day and moving backward, working around key milestones like SEC filings. It’s exciting work and a pride-inducing achievement lies at the end of the road.
But there’s also not-so-good news: The volume of work involved in IPO communications can be staggering, and there’s little-to-no leeway with deadlines.
How do you manage the work, ensure your plan meets its objectives and keep your team from burning out? AvidXchange became a publicly traded company in October 2021, and I can attest that these five tried-and-true tips can help make the above happen.
1. Carve out a working team.
Your gut tells you to leverage your entire team to tackle the IPO workload, but you are restricted in what you can tell them, and you need to cover other work.
Instead, choose a select team of pros to focus solely on IPO communications. Offload their other work and assign clear-cut responsibilities, such as a point person for dealing with NASDAQ and associated deliverables; an events superstar to manage listing day; team leaders from other communications disciplines, like creative services for branding and collateral and PR for external communications; and an internal communications person for mastering what’s talked about on the inside.
If there are gaps in your team’s experience and expertise, tap into specialized communications agencies—just be sure to build in time to vet your options.
2. Provide strategic message training, before, during and beyond.
What you say and when you say it is everything in an IPO. Part of the importance is about complying with tight rules and SEC regulations. The other part is about consistently telling your most compelling story.
The way to do this is through a series of message trainings for executives, spokespeople and internal audiences. You can break the training into two sections—pre-listing day and after—catered by audience and always synced with legal and finance teams. In addition to very formal message training for those speaking to external audiences, create refresher materials to be distributed in existing meetings.
After the big day, provide training about your new responsibilities as a public company. AvidXchange’s C-suite hosted an all-hands employee meeting to go into greater depth about the change, answer questions and provide resources for other information.
3. It’s a big deal, so make sure to be inclusive.
Think about how to make the experience fun and immersive by engaging your entire company, including employees who work remotely.
Enlist the internal communications expert from your IPO team to disseminate information to employees once the intention to issue a public offering is made public. This includes everything from an announcement and congratulatory letter to FAQs about what’s happening. Listing day provides a powerful opportunity to go big with engagement, involving the entire company and celebrating with swag.
4. Invest in high-quality work and leverage it beyond listing day.
The roadshow video, used by management and advisors, is a critical component of the IPO process. It’s worthy of investment. Selectively choose a video production team that can dynamically tell your company’s story with multiple audiences, including management, employees, partners and customers, and make it a cohesive, comprehensive story that truly reflects your brand and aligns with your S-1 message.
The video will be viewed countless times during and around the investor roadshow, but its value doesn’t end when the first trade is made. Maximize your investment by leveraging the video footage for other communications, including b-roll for media, clips for your social media channels, advertising and other marketing materials.
5. Provide an interactive resource hub.
The time leading up to your first trade as a public company is exhilarating, and it’s also a time of uncertainty. Not everyone understands the highly regulated process, what it means to their everyday work life or what happens when it’s complete.
Turn the mystery around the process into excitement by engaging employees and providing a place for them to find information and ask questions. Email newsletters are effective vehicles for updates, in addition to an intranet hub of IPO resources.
Our IPO intranet page includes helpful information, such as IPO 101 articles about what it means to be a publicly traded company and a stockholder in the company and advice on how to invest. It also includes contacts for sending questions, encouraging employees to reach out for more information when they aren’t sure about what they can and cannot say or need help with selling their newly vested stock options.
It takes on average six to nine months for a company to go public, a time frame that may feel like an eternity or the blink of an eye. It’s an incredible experience that provides new insights into your business and the professionals involved in taking it public.
An IPO also offers a broader perspective on how teams can effectively work together under pressure to meet a common goal and instills a deeper appreciation for each team member’s abilities and strengths. The success of your IPO communications plan depends on how you leverage those strengths to carry your organization through this important milestone and well beyond.
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