Service Providers • 2020

DECEMBER • 2020

Learn from industry professionals in: ACCOUNTING INVESTOR RELATIONS CURRENCY GOVERNANCE MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS NEWS DISSEMINATION RESEARCH & INTELLIGENCE TRUST & TRANSFER AGENCY

A CURATED DIRECTORY FOR

CSE-Listed Companies

MARKET ACCESS

VENUE DEAL SOLUTIONS

Maintain momentto-moment control.

Whether you’re looking for highly secure due diligence for an M&A, raising capital, preparing for an IPO, or developing a document repository, you need a virtual data room that is backed by trusted industry experts who can answer any question now.

DFINsolutions.com

Confidently manage your business transactions from start to finish.

Improve every stage of every deal.

Reduce the time and resources you spend on the lifecycle of a deal, and make every step of the deal process simpler and more secure.

Our end-to-end deal solutions include:

DEAL MARKETING Bring your investment story to life with an interactive, multimedia interface.

D ATA & A N A LY T I C S Better support your valuation or evaluate asset value.

C O N T R A C T A N A LY T I C S Use AI to reduce the time and cost of due diligence and contract review.

INVESTOR REPORTING Maintain compliance while streamlining your investor reporting.

SECURE FILE SHARING Securely share files in an auditable collaboration space.

Learn about DFIN’s end-to-end risk and compliance solutions.

Visit DFINsolutions.com | Call us +1 800 823 5304 For more information on DFIN’s bundled service offering for CSE listings, contact: Matt Francis matthew.francis@dfinsolutions.com | +1 778 227 6504

V E N U E D E A L S O LU T I O N S

©2018 Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN)

Contents

6

Message From the CSE

8

Winning With Records

12

Marketing Your Private Placement Online

an ERP 16 Implementing Software to Optimize

Efficiency and Boost Profitability

20

Conducting Your Best Virtual Presentation

Adapting 22 Entrepreneurs 2020 Communications Strategies to Fit the Times

ACCOUNTING

10 10

Avisar MNP INVESTOR RELATIONS

Momentum PR Stockhouse CURRENCY

Monex Canada

Donnelley Financial Solutions Issuer Direct PubCo Reporting Solutions Wiklow Corporate Services

A Solution to Getting 28 to Know Your

NEWS DISSEMINATION

on Writing a Press 32 Tips Release to Reach a Changing Audience

The Benefits of 34 Cross-Trading in

the United States

Harnessing the Power 36 of Video Marketing

During Times of Crisis

14 14 15 15

MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS

Compelling 26 Creating Email Newsletters

14

GOVERNANCE

BTV Financial Buzz Market One Media Group Proactive Investors

Shareholders

10 10

Accesswire Newsfile

24 24 24 24

30 30

RESEARCH & INTELLIGENCE

MJobserver.com Equity Guru Investorideas.com

30 30 30

TRUST & TRANSFER AGENCY

Capital Transfer Agency

35

MARKET ACCESS

OTC Markets Group

35

Canadian Securities Exchange | 5

MESSAGE FROM THE CSE W

elcome to the 2020 edition of the CSE’s Service Providers magazine!

It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway) that 2020 has been a year unlike any other, filled with extraordinary changes and challenges. In March, many of the CSE staff switched to working from home for what was supposed to be two weeks – and here we are, eight months later, still doing everything at home: working, schooling, exercising.

These days, we may be wearing our cozy slippers more often than our dress shoes, but what hasn’t changed is our commitment to the companies listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange.

We launched this publication two years ago as a comprehensive guide to third-party service providers that offer exclusive services and discounts to CSE companies, and the 2020 edition includes even more resources and tools to help your company achieve its goals and prosper.

All of the service providers in this issue have the experience and the capabilities to help growth-minded public companies like yours.

The selection of providers in this issue cover a wide variety of public company needs, including Governance, Investor Relations, Media and Communications, Research and Intelligence, News Dissemination, Trust and Transfer Agencies, and Market Access.

For your reading enjoyment, we’ve also included a range of useful articles prepared by our partners. Get helpful tips on writing an effective press release, conducting a virtual presentation and creating compelling email newsletters. Read about adapting communications strategies to fit the rapidly changing world, marketing your private placement online and implementing ERP software. Learn why good record keeping is crucial to any business, why you should get to know your shareholders and why video marketing is especially important during times of crisis. And discover the benefits of cross-trading in the United States.

What topics would you like to read about in future issues? Let us know. We welcome feedback and suggestions. And, if you are a service provider not currently in the magazine who would like to be included in 2021, please connect with me directly at anil.mall@thecse.com or 778-383-7714.

Stay safe, stay healthy and stay in touch.

ANIL MALL Director of Listed Company Services CSE – Canadian Securities Exchange

6 | Service Providers December 2020

®

PUBLISHER Sparx Publishing Group Inc.

GROUP PUBLISHER Hamish Khamisa EDITOR-IN-CHIEF James Black EDITOR Sheri Radford DESIGNER Elisabeth Choi COORDINATORS Anil Mall Katrina Abel FREE DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION Published by Sparx Publishing Group on behalf of the Canadian Securities Exchange. To receive your complimentary subscription, please contact Anil Mall at anill.mall@thecse.com.

For advertising rates and placements, please contact Anil Mall at anill.mall@thecse.com.

www.thecse.com @CSE_News

FEATURE

Winning With Records

By Avisar

Accurate financial record keeping is the bedrock of a well-functioning business. Though some companies survive in spite of their bookkeeping inefficiencies, in most cases, poor record keeping hinders progress and affects the company’s bottom line. The benefits of superior record keeping cannot be overstated.

WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT Cash is king, and good financial records are essential to strong cash-management procedures.

Quick collection of accounts receivable ensures that funds flow consistently into the bank account. Collection efforts are futile, however, if the financial records are incomplete and the amount and aging of receivables is incorrect.

The flip side is the management of accounts payable. Up-to-date records provide companies

with a snapshot of the amount owing and how long it has been outstanding. Vendors are less willing to extend credit to businesses with a history of late or irregular payments. Credit with vendors is critical for businesses to succeed.

Even profitable companies can easily find themselves in a negative cash flow situation.

Reasons for poor working capital management are plentiful: lack of credit from suppliers, substandard collection of accounts receivable, or obsolete inventory, among others, all of which could be eliminated by maintaining proper financial records.

PRICE POINT Accurate financial records enable management to analyze their cost structure. Companies need a firm understanding of their underlying costs in order to price their products appropriately and attain their desired profitability. Growing businesses could have multiple product offerings, and the inability to determine ideal prices for each offering will reduce the bottom line.

FINANCING ALTERNATIVES Any investor, bank or business partner will require a review of the financial records before investing in an entity. Maintaining accurate financial records demonstrates sound business practices and clearly details profitability, which expediates external funding.

GROWTH Management can generate and analyze various reports from sound financial records in order to 8 | Service Providers December 2020

assess the overall health of their enterprise and plan for the future. Leadership can evaluate the stress of any desired capital spending, which positions them to capitalize on opportunities and stay ahead of the competition. Otherwise, as they say about opportunity, “If you don’t take it, someone else will.”

Companies must also adhere to the deadlines imposed by their taxation authorities, i.e. the filing of annual tax returns, GST/HST returns, etc. Up-to-date financial records ensure timely compliance with such demands. Failure to file on time can be very costly to a business.

BUSINESS VALUATION

Publicly listed entities undergo an annual audit of their financial statements. All reports that are the subject of the audit are products of the underlying accounting records.

Maintaining proper records allows for smoother audits, resulting in timely filings. Accurate financial records also facilitate “efficient” audits since required information can be seamlessly provided to the auditors, lowering the overall cost of such services.

Company leaders endeavour to increase the valuation of businesses for shareholders. Thorough financial records are foundational to all approaches of business valuation, whether asset-based, earnings or even market value; they allow companies to calculate their worth.

COMPLIANCE Publicly listed companies have strict financial reporting requirements, and their ability to produce accurate and timely accounting data is key to such compliance. Besides imposing monetary penalties, securities commissions can subject companies to cease-trade orders for delinquent filings. The Chief Executive and Financial Officers are required to certify their company’s disclosure controls and internal controls over financial reporting, the foundation of which is a clean set of basic accounting records.

AUDIT EFFICIENCIES

All in all, accurate and timely financial record keeping is essential for the day-to-day operations of businesses and allows for intelligent decision-making by leadership, for growth or potential sale.

Canadian Securities Exchange | 9

Accounting Service Providers

Avisar Chartered Professional Accountants specializes in financial reporting compliance services for small- to medium-sized public companies. From maintaining bookkeeping records, to preparing financial statements compliant with IFRS and US GAAP, to CFO outsourcing, we have the expertise you need to comply with the CSE’s regulatory reporting requirements, allowing you to devote your time and resources to your core business. We also assist private companies in the “going public” process and prepare the financial analysis accompanying your initial public filing.

Contact Avisar: 1 (888) 513-5707 clientservices@avisar.ca www.avisar.ca

MNP audits over 300 public companies across Canada and the US. We are registered with the Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) and the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). These governing bodies ensure that MNP auditors adhere to the highest-quality auditing standards in the industry and also enable MNP to serve clients throughout North America. While our primary focus is on the Canadian public markets, we have a number of US-listed entities and are fully versed on SEC requirements, should there be a consideration to cross-list on a US exchange in the future.

Our client base ranges from capital pool companies listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange to companies with assets between $100 to $800 million listed on the TSX. Many of our professionals represent MNP on various CPA Canada and other regulatory committees, to ensure we are always at the forefront of upcoming IFRS and regulatory changes.

Contact MNP: (403) 444-0150 www.mnp.ca

Investor Relations Service Providers

Momentum Public Relations is a Montreal-based public and investor relations agency providing market awareness through our network of institutional investors, analysts and retail relationships within the North American investment community. Services are tailored to meet the needs of small- and medium-cap companies looking to increase exposure and shareholder value. Momentum’s team of professional PR consultants are specialized in building and maintaining positive corporate imagery. Clear, concise and highly effective communication strategies strengthen relationships, provide value and demonstrate the professionalism of our carefully selected clients.

With over 1 million unique visitors a month, Stockhouse is Canada’s #1 financial portal and one of North America’s largest small-cap investor communities.

Stackhouse members and visitors are active and affluent investors who utilize the site to discover new investment opportunities and make successful stock-buying decisions. Stackhouse programs go far beyond traditional investor relations by providing an array of tools to enable issuers to raise awareness and communicate their investment message to a large, targeted and highly engaged community of small-cap investors. For over 18 years and 900 public companies, Stackhouse programs have been proven to generate results.

Contact Momentum PR: (405) 332-6939 info@momentumpr.com www.momentumpr.com

Contact Stockhouse: Twila Jensen, VP Sales and Marketing (778) 383-1027 twila.jensen@stockhouse.com www.stockhouse.com

10 | Service Providers December 2020

MURRAY PEZIM HOWE STREET

H U S T L E T A K I N G C O N T RO L O F

THE DIGITAL POWER SHIFT TRAVERSING THE WORLD OF BULLS AND BEARS ON THE PHONES AND DIGITALLY

Issuers benefit from the Old Boys Club ways of phone room marketing powered by digital tools.

Gain from our stakeholder approach by leveraging our network for strategic business development to ink newsworthy deals and investor marketing reaching millions of

phone room

video call presentations

virtual tours

financing

Decades of legacy experience and knowledge from mining to tech and cannabis, cents to dollars with +2000% gains, the highest volume on the CSE honors, and even reaching a billion-dollar market cap has been a few of our bottle-popping moments.

retail investors.

Allow us to introduce you to the market, they are waiting to meet your teams and tour your facilities. Investor Marketing success in the new normal. Get face-to-face with retail brokerage firms, individual investors, sell-side or buy-side analysts and fund managers through phone, video-calls and virtual tours.

*September 2020 87% of retail investors reported that junior mining companies phones were not answered. We answer your investor calls 24/7

1.604.723.7480

FEATURE

Marketing Your Private Placement Online

By Stockhouse

Online investor marketing is not just about supporting your stock price – successful companies are now building specific marketing plans around each financing. As you approach a financing, consider these questions: How much of my financing will come from my “president’s list” and dealer syndicate?

If you are confident in hitting the full raise amount, that is great news, but even then, think about your share distribution. When these shares come free trading, what type of support will they see in the market?

In addition to bringing in dollars and expanding your shareholder base, marketing your raise gives the extra bonus of greater overall market awareness and

branding. Every investor in your private placement can become an active brand evangelist in social media, investor clubs and online message boards (such as the Bullboards seen on Stockhouse.com).

Is it time to expand our shareholder base?

Sure, the retail investor can be reactionary, emotional and even irrational, but support in the retail market is typically the only bridge to get you from tightly held strategic shareholders to institutional interest. For early-stage public companies, retail investors are critical – they move the share price and create the market.

Decide if there should be a retail component in your raise, and if so, start building that marketing plan.

Remember that attracting is not just about capturing their direct investment today – it is about adding their contact information to your database and about getting them to start following your company, both online and on social media. Financings are major milestones – do not miss the opportunity to leverage them as news, especially while the raise is live.

How do you find new direct investors?

Get your financing online. Reach out to Stockhouse. com to get your private placement in the Deal Room. Stockhouse.com is where the majority (8 million retail investors quarterly) of retail investors in Canada go to research and invest in public companies. The experts at Stockhouse will assist you in creating a marketing plan specifically around your financing. You can share your Deal Room link with your database – this includes your email lists, your website traffic and your social media. Give them your 12 | Service Providers December 2020

financing details and encourage them to distribute the link/details.

How will exceptions affect you marketing?

While the “accredited investor” exemption is the most used, the reality is that only 3% of Canadians qualify as accredited. Even within Stockhouse’s online community, which is purely investment based, just 17% self-identify as accredited.

How do you expand your reach?

• Include the Investment Dealer exemption, which allows anyone deemed suitable by an IIROC Dealer to be qualified. If your marketing attracts investors who do not already have a broker, this exemption can lead to new brokerage accounts, which can be a way to “pay back” your supporters on the broker side.

• Prepare an Offering Memorandum, which allows self-directed, non-accredited investors to qualify. That means you can cast your marketing net even wider, as literally every investor who can afford the investment within

the appropriate jurisdiction becomes your target audience.

• Use the Crowdfunding exemptions designed to allow for maximum marketing reach but with very low individual-investment limits.

Crowdfunding exemptions are best suited for early-stage, private company financing, not multi-million-dollar public company raises.

Based on CEO feedback, there is value to the crowdfunding exemption, but it is more about broader exposure than raising hard dollars.

If you want to leverage both the traditional exemptions and the reach of the internet, consider an online deal portal that specializes in public company private placements such as the Deal Room on Stockhouse.com.

Every financing is a valuable marketing opportunity to create news flow and to get in front of investors. Decide what your investor targets are, get your financing online and leverage Canada’s largest retail investor community via Stockhouse.com.

Canadian Securities Exchange | 13

Currency Service Providers

Monex Canada is a leading global specialist in commercial and private foreign exchange, providing bespoke FX execution products and unparalleled guidance for managing exposure to the foreign exchange market. We work with our clients to execute considered FX strategies, offering sharper pricing, hedging solutions, flexible credit facilities and international payment services.

Contact Monex: (647) 943-1679 info@monexcanada.com www.monexcanada.com

Our diverse client base consists of publicly listed and private companies, SMEs, financial institutions and high-net-worth individuals.

Monex Canada is part of a wider global financial services group and one of the world’s largest deliverable FX providers.

Governance Service Providers

Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN) is a leader in risk and compliance solutions, providing insightful technology, industry expertise and data insights to clients across the globe.

Since 1983, we’ve been committed to delivering the best-possible service and solutions to our clients. This commitment has taken us from our roots as the financial division of RR Donnelley & Sons to where we are today – revolutionizing regulatory and financial technology to better meet the needs of clients.

Contact Donnelley Financial Solutions: 1 (778) 227-6504 matthew.francis@dfinsolutions.com www.dfinsolutions.com

14 | Service Providers December 2020

Issuer Direct® is an industry-leading communications and compliance company focusing on the needs of corporate issuers.

Issuer Direct’s principal platform, Platform id., empowers users by thoughtfully integrating the most relevant tools, technologies and services, thus eliminating the complexity associated with producing and distributing financial and business communications.

Our investor platform allows you to schedule (in seconds) your next earnings event, investor day, conference or special event, seamlessly from any device. The Investor Network (IN) part of the platform weaves together services that enable companies to deliver the latest financial materials to shareholders and increase their positive exposure. IN is a new financial content community that serves market information, earnings, commentary and news on what’s trending to millions of unique investors. Dedicated to both the professional and the average trader, IN offers timely, trusted and relevant financial information for virtually every investor.

Contact Issuer Direct: James Michael (919) 481-4000 ext. 117 james.michael@issuerdirect.com www.issuerdirect.com

Governance Service Providers

PubCo Reporting Solutions, Inc. is a one-stop accounting and regulatory reporting and compliance solutions service provider. We offer outsourced CFO and corporate secretary services combined with SEC and SEDAR regulatory filings. We specialize in financial statement and notes preparation, consolidations, derivative calculations, bookkeeping, minute book maintenance, Exchange filings and organization of board and shareholder meetings, SEDAR and SEDI filings, and EDGAR and XBRL filings. Our goal is to do the heavy financial and compliance lifting, so that you will be better able to focus and grow your core business!

Wiklow Corporate Services is an outsourced corporate secretarial service. They are experts in keeping public companies in compliance with securities commission and stock exchange requirements. Since 1996, they have been helping companies in the resource, financial, technology and service sectors to keep up with the daily demands on public companies and to stay up-to-date on relevant issues, policies and working practices. They offer a broad range of corporate secretarial services on a cost-effective monthly contract or at an hourly rate on an as-needed basis.

Contact PubCo Reporting Solutions: 1 (844) 396-1415 info@pubcoreporting.com www.pubcoreporting.com

Contact Wiklow Corporate Service: Donna Moroney (604) 696-4236 dmoroney@wiklow.com www.wiklow.com

Canadian Securities Exchange  | 15

FEATURE

Implementing an ERP Software to Optimize Efficiency and Boost Profitability

By MNP

16 | Service Providers December 2020

I

n highly dynamic and extremely competitive industries, it’s crucial to have an integrated software solution that will optimize efficiency, reduce costs and increase your sales and profitability. Also, that will allow for more strategic, calculated, informed and accurate decision making.

An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) technology simultaneously integrates your various business processes (resources, accounting, order management, finance, monitoring, sales, human resources, etc.) while providing the transparency, simplicity and control capabilities inherent to a single database.

If you are considering an ERP system to optimize and boost your business’s growth, here are a few benefits that may help make that decision a little bit easier.

AUTOMATE, MANAGE AND STREAMLINE BUSINESS PROCESSES A robust ERP will optimize your business’s performance by simplifying and organizing your existing processes. All data is made available in a single centralized location, with complete transparency into all functionalities. It can also reduce – and often remove – manual processes through automation, which can significantly reduce errors and their associated costs.

Any employee can track and monitor production activities in real time without having to rely on an entire team. Different departments can also track production, costs, material usage, ordering and more, to make faster-informed decisions that boost productivity and enable you to meet your commitments.

ENHANCE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ERP solutions drastically improve your ability to meet delivery deadlines and other customer commitments by giving you precise control over inventory, ordering and scheduling. Customers can view every step in the

transaction in real-time view, including status reports, which boosts efficiency across the board for both your business and consumers.

MINIMIZE COSTS AND IMPROVE YOUR BOTTOM LINE An ERP solution reduces or eliminates time-consuming, manual operational processes that often create lag and discrepancies in reporting. Streamlined processes and real-time feedback optimize workforce productivity, reduce labour costs, and enhance accuracy and precision, so you can better manage supply chain/inventory costs, all while providing you with complete transparency and control.

The business intelligence flowing from your ERP allows you to schedule, manage and oversee workflow without ever requiring a production line to stop – resulting in more accurate decision making, fewer errors, better financial management, improved performance and faster execution of business processes.

Canadian Securities Exchange | 17

MANAGE YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN

INCREASED SECURITY

Full visual transparency of your business’s supply chain is critical to avoiding production disruptions or miscalculations. ERP solutions allow you to: • Manage various vendors to order materials/components

Leading cloud-based solutions provide end-toend business protection and application security – improving your resilience to corruption and security breaches. Because servers are located offsite and have multiple backups, the cloud also helps you avoid disruption due to natural/ unforeseen disasters, power outages or anything that could potentially risk the integrity of your data or resources.

•

Maintain business productivity and optimize delivery times

•

Monitor costs, budgeting, accounting and price changes when dealing with vendors

•

Run daily reports

•

Analyze and track supply chain and accounting spend

•

Automate inventory restocking

•

Identify errors/lags in problematic production areas

•

Gain a 360-degree view of the whole business operation

•

Establish HR modules and manage staff

•

Work within various segments of the business and break down the bigger picture

18 | Service Providers December 2020

SELECTING THE RIGHT SOLUTION The benefits of an ERP solution for your business are significant and far-reaching. But not every product in the marketplace will work for you or achieve what you need it to. When selecting an ERP, align yourself with an experienced provider that can implement, train, educate and inform you about the right application for your business.

To learn more about ERP solutions, or to begin looking at what solution is best for you, contact Kerry Mann, National Leader, Enterprise Resource Planning, at (647) 480-8400 or kerry.mann@mnp.ca.

The path ahead The decisions you make now will define your future.

We’re here to provide insights and strategies to guide your business forward.

David Danziger CPA, CA

Maruf Raza CPA, CA

National Leader, Public Companies

National Director, Public Companies

416.515.3923

416.515.3900

david.danziger@mnp.ca

maruf raza@mnp.ca

MNP.ca

FEATURE

Conducting Your Best Virtual Presentation

By BTV make a huge difference in how you appear on camera and how people perceive you.

LIGHTING

Having a window behind your screen is optimal for natural lighting. If this is not possible, close your blinds. Do not sit with your back to a window, or you will look like a silhouette. If you cannot use a natural light source, then have a light facing you, but make sure it does not show up in the shot.

BACKGROUND

W

orking from home has become the new normal for many people due to the current global pandemic. Amidst these new realities, BTV has been helping clients convey their stories to target audiences of new and existing investors. Here are some tips you can apply in your next virtual presentation.

1. Test Before you hop on that important meeting, presentation or interview, make sure you are well versed with the platform of your choosing.

PREPARE IN ADVANCE

If you are using a new platform, test the meeting link and password a day prior, to avoid any technical difficulties. It is also important to test your audio. Use headphones with a mic; wireless is not as responsive and tends 20 | Service Providers December 2020

to degrade quality. Also check your video and sound quality to make sure they are acceptable. Test with a colleague or family member.

CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS

Enable HD for a clear picture, use 16:9 widescreen (especially for TV interviews), turn on “touch up,” enable hardware and turn off display participants. An external HD webcam is a great investment since most laptops come with low-quality cameras and microphones.

2. Set Up Your virtual setup will say everything about you. From your background to your lighting, it is important to pay attention to these details, as they can

Do not use virtual backgrounds – they make you look pixelated when you move. Instead, declutter your background and add a plant or a picture; a plain white wall is too boring.

You could also add splash and brand prominence with your tradeshow booth popped up behind you; it’s great branding and a good use of your investment.

CAMERA ANGLE

Even with a perfect background, the camera angle is very important.

Avoid being too close to the wall, as some depth is preferred – ideally 4 to 5 feet away. You should be 2 to 2.5 feet away from the screen. Ensure you are eye level with the camera – you should not see the ceiling nor up your nose! If you are using a laptop, lift it up with a few thick books, or adjust your chair for a more optimal camera angle. When filming, be sure to look directly at the camera and not at the image of the interviewer on your screen. A tip is to

place a sticky note over the screen, so you’re forced to look at the camera.

WARDROBE

With people not working in offices these days, things have become more casual. Regardless, what to wear should be a mindful decision. Dress professionally and complement your backdrop. If you have a black chair and dark walls, then wear a tan jacket and a light shirt. If you have lighter walls, then wear colour for contrast.

Getting a haircut and a clean shave is a great way to make sure you look sharp on camera. Also, a bit of makeup certainly is helpful, and some powder to reduce shine is advisable.

BREVITY IS BEAUTIFUL

Essentially, you want the broker or investor to remember your story so they will share it – that is the goal. How will you do that? Keep it short, simple and memorable! Avoid industry jargon – always remember that you want your story to appeal to the masses, which will only happen if you share the story using simple language.

We have an office litmus test whereby we run scripts by a few BTV staff, and if they furrow their brow, they are confused, and a confused investor does not buy! (Also, it gives you frown lines.)

3. Crafting Your Story

USE VIDEO

Now you are camera-ready! Telling your story is all that is left. Stand out and make it memorable!

If you are presenting at a virtual conference, have video footage of your company embedded in

your PowerPoint, and have video at your virtual booth. A picture is worth 1,000 words, but according to Forrester Research, one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words! Your story should make people lean in and raise their eyebrows. Think of crafting your story like the trailer of a movie.

If it is good, then we want to see more.

If it’s not good, box office sales will decline, and viewers certainly won’t recommend it.

Hopefully, you now have some valuable takeaways to apply in your next virtual interview or presentation. Email me for more inside tips on how to craft your best investor presentation: taylor@b-tv.com. As Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,” so be prepared!

Canadian Securities Exchange | 21

FEATURE

Entrepreneurs Adapting 2020 Communications Strategies to Fit the Times

By Proactive Investors world, so what need was there to be risking hard-earned money with small companies that could just as easily go down 50% as up 50%?

But broader interest in chasing truly outsized returns by investing in early-stage companies is back, as evidenced by strong trading volumes and some outstanding share-price gains. Yes, macroeconomic factors are playing a big role in this, but it is also thanks to entrepreneurs taking today’s new challenges head-on, increasing the fundamental values of their companies and generating returns for shareholders. It is good to see for today and heartening when one considers longer-term prospects for the Canadian economy and society as a whole.

I

t is still hard to believe at times that we’ve been living in an environment of new physical, behavioral and travel limitations since mid-March, when governments around the world began introducing measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. Uncertainty had rarely been higher, and many thought stocks would sell off and capital flows grind to a halt, staying that way until a vaccine was developed and things went more or less back to normal.

Fortunately, we moved on to a new stage of our reaction to the novel coronavirus pretty quickly.

Speaking with dozens of executives at listed companies in late April and throughout May, we found that spirits were universally high. Entrepreneurs face challenges every day that must 22 | Service Providers December 2020

be overcome if their small business is to move forward, and typically do so with modest support teams around them. Not to understate the tragic human toll from COVID-19 or the ongoing threat we all face from it, but the virus is just one of many serious challenges faced by society, and entrepreneurs adapted quickly to the new environment.

It certainly helped that precious metals and healthcare companies found strong tailwinds at their backs, and retail investors returned to the market in force. More institutional money became willing to back small companies as well.

For years before, market conditions had been such that investors could make outsized returns by investing in the Microsofts and Apples of the

As a financial industry-focused media company with offices on three continents, Proactive enjoys a breadth of insight on the evolving capital market environment for small-cap stocks that we use ourselves and share with our clients each and every day. Here are a few general observations.

High growth in online traffic – Proactive websites collectively went from between 5 million and 6 million monthly visits at the beginning of 2020 to over 10.5 million in April – market volatility, people staying home with time to learn about listed companies and the return of the retail trader were the driving factors.

Lots of readers, but even more viewers, as video traffic outstrips that for articles 3:1 – if you can’t meet

executives at conferences and on roadshows anymore, interviews on a regular basis give the investor a chance to look company leaders in the eye virtually and take their measure.

Companies are maintaining marketing budgets at pre-COVID levels, but with conferences and roadshows out of the question, that spending is heading online to news outlets, webinar opportunities and various forms of digital marketing – given the general health of small-cap share prices, it seems to be working.

Very importantly, companies are making better use of the resources they pay for than ever before.

Executives are no longer running to catch flights or burning time with long daily commutes. Most executives remain very busy, but they have more flexibility in their schedules to

make room for marketing opportunities, and it is showing in significantly higher volumes of digital content being created on small-cap companies in 2020.

takes to read news releases and other material available online and piece the narrative together oneself. And it’s the best way to give all investors the same opportunity to gather the latest details and nuance from a CEO’s thoughts in real time, or close to it.

Sending videos to shareholders, incorporating them in newsletters, even embedding videos in news releases – there are multiple ways a listed company’s communications team can take high-quality content and extend its reach beyond its standard distribution channels. There are various content teams in the market with proven formats and unique distribution offerings. Choose what’s right for you. Then make sure you use it. And thanks for being a fearless entrepreneur – we need you now more than ever!

If there is one marketing idea amongst these that must be driven home, it is use of video. Executives cannot meet investors face-to-face anymore, but neither can they sit on investor calls all day. Video is an efficient tool that reaches out in a personal way and can keep any audience well and evenly informed. Any top executive at a listed company who is not using video extensively to communicate to stakeholders is overlooking a key component of a robust communications strategy.

Video puts the story together for the viewer in a fraction of the time it

Small cap.

Big reach.

Proactive is the company which can intelligently connect businesses like yours to the investors you’re looking for. We are one of the fastest growing financial media portals in the world, used by over 6 million investors a year, providing breaking news, commentary and analysis on hundreds of listed companies and pre- IPO businesses around the globe, 24/7.

Get in touch with our teams in Vancouver and Toronto – we’ll create a unique video for you that showcases your business, absolutely free, right now.

Call: 604-688-8158

E-mail: peter@proactiveinvestors.com

www.proactiveinvestors.com

Canadian Securities Exchange | 23

Media & Communications Service Providers

Shot on location and broadcast on national TV, BTV takes investors directly to companies! Now 18 years strong and Canada’s longest-running business show, BTV-Business Television, a weekly investor program, features emerging companies and top analysts across the US and Canada. With host Taylor Thoen, BTV goes on location, interviewing key executives and showcasing their businesses to give investors insight and help them grow their portfolios. BTV is broadcast internationally to millions on TV via BNN, US Biz Network and Air Canada and on top financial sites including Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, TMX Money, BNN.ca, Reuters, Globe Investor, OTC Markets, The National Post, MarketWatch, Stockhouse.com, etc.

With offices strategically located on Wall Street, NYC (USA), and in Yaletown, Vancouver (Canada), Financial Buzz Media provides credible financial news PR for companies across North America.

Through our proprietary newswire platform that includes newswire delivery, digital advertising, social media amplification, video production, broadcasting and financial publications, we are able to tell your company’s story to a targeted audience of same-sector investors, business professionals and financial professionals. Financial Buzz Media creates 100% unique original content.

Contact BTV: (604) 664-7401 ext. 5 info@b-tv.com www.b-tv.com

Contact Financial Buzz Media: (877) 601-1879 info@financialbuzz.com www.financialbuzzmedia.com

Market One is a marketing agency serving North America’s top publicly listed companies. The marketplace is saturated, and it is becoming even more difficult for a public company to stand out. With over 60 years of combined capital markets experience and a team of certified marketers, we specialize in making sure your story is heard. Developing Canada’s first “push” model of marketing for public companies, we’ve helped hundreds of public companies expand their awareness on broadcast TV, sponsored editorial content and digital marketing.

Proactive Investors provides public companies the broadest global reach of any news service focusing on the $1 billion and under market cap.

We report on every news release, conference call, analyst note and other corporate development at the companies we work with via news desks in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Not only do we turn achievements into written news, we also convey corporate messages through audio/video, plus investor forums in major cities. Our exceptional content attracts 2 million visitors to the Proactive Investors platform each month.

Contact Market One Media Group: 1 (604) 428-2125 info@marketone.ca www.marketone.ca

24 | Service Providers December 2020

Contact Proactive Investors: (604) 688-8158 peter@proactiveinvestors.com www.proactiveinvestors.com

Monex Canada Inc. Your commercial foreign exchange specialist Based in the heart of Toronto’s financial district, Monex Canada offers: Spot & forward deliverable FX

EURCAD GBPUSD

Transactions and onward FX

USDHKD CADHKD

Payments to corporate clients to help mitigate exposure to FX volatility.

EURUSD EURGBP

USDCAD GBPCAD

Contact us at: Tel: +1 647 943 1680 www.monexcanada.com

USDJPY CADJPY

Monex Canada, Inc. is a registered extra-provincial company under the Canada Business Corporations Act. Corporation number: 884479-8.

Registered address: 199 Bay Street, Suite 4000, Toronto, Ontario, M5L 1A9. Monex Canada, Inc. is registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) as a money services business under registration number M17698932. Monex Canada, Inc. is registered by Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) in Quebec as an MSB - AMF license number 902560

FEATURE

Creating Compelling Email Newsletters Your handy guide to avoiding the unread pile

By Sparx Publishing Group

newsletter [nyooz-let-er] noun 1. a periodical email publication sent to subscribers that presents news and information to people with a specific interest in the organization or subject. themes and topics vary, which include anything from your most interesting content, updates, promotions, offers and new blog posts.

2. something that should feel more like an update from an interesting, helpful friend than a pushy salesperson.

“Let’s create an email newsletter!”

This will sound familiar to many marketers. You’re sitting in a meeting, trying to figure out the best way to engage your leads and customers, and suddenly someone decides that creating an email newsletter will be a one-stop-shop solution for your marketing efforts.

Newsletters are a great way to maintain and engage with your audience since they are personal, targeted and consistent. They keep people informed about what’s going on in your business and create regular opportunities to turn readers into customers.

But there are a number of factors to consider before a newsletter ever reaches a reader. Let’s break it down for you.

3. what Sparx Publishing Group is pretty good at doing.

26 | Service Providers December 2020

What’s the purpose of an email newsletter?

Reinforce that your company is a valuable source of information.

Connect with customers and leads, resulting in an increase in sales and conversions.

Increase website traffic, social media following and brand awareness.

Remember, your newsletter is only as strong as your content is compelling. When determining what content to use and how to present it, it’s important to keep a number of questions in mind:

What will readers be most interested in?

What do I want to tell readers through the newsletter?

How can I get readers to engage with the newsletter content?

Tips & Tricks

Measuring & Optimizing

• Provide relevant and valuable content, to give people a reason to opt in.

All the hard work in preparing your newsletter is done, and it’s been sent off to your list of subscribers for consumption.

Next, you need to analyze the results of your email newsletter and measure your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This is an important step to optimizing your newsletters in the future. Here are a few tried-and-true email metrics to look at.

• Make the newsletter user-friendly, and consider responsive design. Most email opens occur on mobile devices over desktops, so all newsletters should be formatted to look great on both views.

• Use snappy subject lines to spark interest and entice subscribers to open each newsletter.

• Include a Call to Action (CTA) they can’t help but click. If your newsletter content builds enough interest, the CTA button will be waiting at the right place to encourage a higher click-through rate (CTR) and create potential leads and conversions.

• Include basic contact information like your company’s website, email address and phone number.

• Add visuals like photos, videos or illustrations to enhance your content.

(Include alt text for accessibility.)

• Don’t be afraid of white space. Leave enough breathing room between the text and visual elements.

• Time your newsletter deployment for when your subscribers are most likely to open and read your email.

OPEN RATE This number

indicates the percentage of people who open your email newsletter and read it, as opposed to deleting the message or leaving it in the depths of their inbox’s unread pile.

CLICK-THROUGHS Tracking

the number of clicks you get on newsletters over time is a good way to judge if your newsletter is useful to subscribers. Furthermore, because newsletters have different elements people can click on, you should also look at which links get the most clicks.

CONVERSIONS You want

people to do something after they open your newsletter and click on links. Do they go beyond the homepage of your website? Sign up for an event you promoted? Or maybe just click on a CTA in a blog post? Regardless, these

actions should be tracked to determine what works, what doesn’t and what people are most interested in as a result of newsletter consumption.

LIST GROWTH Over time,

you want more and more new subscribers who opt in to your newsletter and look forward to reading it in their inboxes. More people in your contact list means more people will click on your emails, consume newsletter content and convert based on the content.

OVERALL ROI If the objective is to use email newsletters to grow your business and gain more leads and exposure, you should be able to tie in all the efforts to your end goal. Some of the things to identify are visitors, leads and customers that your newsletter content generates, and how much revenue is gained as a result.

Let Sparx Help You have a lot of information that you want to share with potential and existing customers on a regular basis. But, your company is already busy doing what it does best. Do you really have the time to become a marketing whiz, too? That’s where Sparx comes in.

We are the experts at honing and amplifying marketing messages. We can help spark interest in your

content by building a compelling email newsletter for your company and monitoring its results.

Sparx transforms great ideas into compelling content, and exceptional content is our company’s passion, product, and promise. Find out more at sparxpg.com.

Canadian Securities Exchange | 27

FEATURE

A Solution to Getting to Know Your Shareholders

By Accesswire inbound interest. Before you know it, you’ve gone from 25 friends and family investors and one local fund in your network to more than 3,000 shareholders, some of whom own up to 10 percent of the company. Then it hits you: You don’t know who these people are, who knows whom, and if this even affects your company.

THE SOLUTION: SHAREHOLDER ID

REALITY CHECK: HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR SHAREHOLDERS? No, really – how well?

Most public companies suffer from a lack of the information that is typically found in small private companies. Small private companies experience the support of friends and family, small family offices or even venture capital firms that speculate on their behalf. Actually, public companies don’t operate much differently.

They, too, experience the support of friends, family and seed investors.

The difference is that one day the IPO lures a company into going public.

THE “PROBLEM” WITH GOING PUBLIC It begins when bankers, institutions and small funds lead the way in 28 | Service Providers December 2020

offering your company to go public. Some stay for a while and some are small-gain-focused funds or institutions that are out on day one, making their money on the run-up of the IPO. The end result: You’re left with hundreds, if not thousands, of shareholders. You have no clue who they are, what they represent, what their expectations are and, again, who they are.

I call them “boosters.” Boosters are a group of very intelligent, well-connected individuals who operate under the acronym “IRO” as a consultant and/or firm and want to help your company find new shareholders.

It’s their job to make introductions to people in their networks. If you do well in presenting your story and delivering and your guidance is on target, you will find shareholders.

Rinse and repeat with non-dealroad-show investor conferences and

It’s absolutely essential to the success of your public company that once a year you conduct a sound shareholder identification analysis. If you have sustained volume and people coming in and out of the story and people accumulating more and more, then you should consider hiring a firm to help manage this for each quarter. First, a robust shareholder ID program will identify street positions in variant forms, objecting beneficial holders (OBOs) and non-objecting beneficial holders (NOBOs). Then, the program will identify the registered positions analysis to see if firms and individuals show up on both lists. A robust shareholder ID program will highlight not only the brokers and banks that hold ownership but also the underlying shareholder(s), and if that shareholder is party to another firm or group that also owns shares in your company. This is where activists come in; this is where share voting is greatly improved; and this is where real relationships are formed.

Every shareholder has a price horizon; it’s important you know this, for many reasons. You should understand how much time you

invest in getting to know them, what else they invest in, whom they know, where they went to school and what they model your business out to be. The more you get to know your shareholder, the more you will understand these things. The more you understand these things, the quicker you can step up the shareholder base.

THE MORE YOU GET TO KNOW YOUR SHAREHOLDER, THE MORE YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THESE THINGS. THE MORE YOU UNDERSTAND THESE THINGS, THE QUICKER YOU CAN STEP UP THE SHAREHOLDER BASE. I’m a realist, and I enter a relationship with a shareholder knowing that if she/he makes a decision to purchase some shares in my company in the open market, most likely she/he will be my friend for a short period of time. This works. I don’t want a marriage – I have one. What I do want is to make them money, plain and simple. And I do that by executing my strategy, communicating my message and delivering. No disrespect intended when I say to any shareholder, either individual or firm/institution, that I want to sell when they’re ready and move on to the next one, to build a relationship with a new one, and repeat this process again. Every now and then, however, you find fans, regardless if they are highnet-worth people or firms, that love your business, your industry and you. They become the glue of your shareholder base, and they are rare. You might not even know who they really are. Do you want your company’s biggest fans to be a stranger to you and your management team? I think not!

DO YOU WANT YOUR COMPANY’S BIGGEST FANS TO BE A STRANGER TO YOU AND YOUR MANAGEMENT TEAM? Over the past 10 years, I have met hundreds of CEOs who don’t know their shareholders, don’t understand the mechanics of their shareholder base and refuse to invest the time or resources in learning it. By contrast, I have met a very small percentage of C-level executives who get this simple exercise and have the best shareholder bases I have ever seen.

Ask your IRO, your outsourced IR firm or even your transfer or annual-meeting management company for help. If they can’t do this for you, they should refer you to a trusted company that can.

Canadian Securities Exchange | 29

News Dissemination Service Providers

ACCESSWIRE is a premier news and communications network, providing regional, national and global news to hundreds of clients globally. In addition to our world-class and ever-growing distribution network, ACCESSWIRE is also leading the way in disclosure reporting, analytics and investor targeting. Because filings is one of our core services, we’ve got your company covered to complete your SEDAR, EDGAR or XBRL filing.

Trusted since 1997, Newsfile Corp. simplifies compliance for public companies and investment managers. Our culture of innovation has resulted in unique solutions for news release distribution, filings via EDGAR and SEDAR, XBRL, insider filings and financial printing.

Contact ACCESSWIRE: 1 (888) 952-4446 sales@accesswire.com www.accesswire.com

Contact Newsfile: (416) 806-1750 office@newsfilecorp.com www.newsfilecorp.com

Research & Intelligence Service Providers

MJobserver.com’s mission is to provide cannabis-industry stakeholders with the news, resources and information they need to make informed decisions.

By providing original analysis as well as syndicated updates from the marijuana industry’s most trusted sources, MJobserver.com offers constant coverage on the cannabis industry, from Wall Street to Weed Street.

Contact MJobserver.com: 1 (917) 633-7164 james@dailymarijuana observer.com www.mjobserver.com

30 | Service Providers December 2020

Equity.Guru is a marketing and financial news information service dedicated to helping millennial investors find investment opportunities, while helping pubcos be exposed to a wider audience.

Although our content is promotional, we hold our client companies to a high standard, meaning our coverage is honest and seen by our audience to be more valuable than competitor content as a result. We have the highest contract-renewal rate in the business, because we’re trusted, high quality and picky.

Contact Equity Guru: 1 (778) 927-2485 info@equity.guru www.equity.guru

Investorideas.com is a recognized news source publishing third-party news and press releases, plus we create original financial content. Learn about stock investing and sector trends from Investorideas.com with our news alerts, articles, podcasts and videos talking about cannabis, crypto, technology (including AI and IoT), mining, sports, biotech, water, renewable energy and more.

Investorideas.com’s original branded content includes the daily Crypto Corner podcast and newsletter; Play by Play sports and sports stock news column; Investor Ideas #Potcasts, #Cannabis News and Stocks on the Move podcast and column; Cleantech and Climate Change podcast; and AI Eye podcast and column covering developments in AI. Our podcasts can be heard on Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Google Play Music, Stitcher and all the other mustbe-heard destinations.

Contact Investorideas.com: 1 (800) 665-0411 dvanzant@investorideas.com www.investorideas.com

Canadian Securities Exchange | 31

FEATURE

Tips on Writing a Press Release to Reach a Changing Audience

By Newsfile 2020 has been a year of change.

At no other time in recent history have our lives been so significantly altered. The way we socialize has changed. The way we do business has changed. And the way we consume – food, products and the news – has changed. As a public company, you have an investment audience that has changed, too.

The press release will remain the best tool for communicating with your investors. However, now may be the time to adjust your strategy to reach a changing audience. Here are two groups that consume data in very different ways. Keep them in mind when creating your digital communications strategy.

The new retail investor

Rise of the machines

The global pandemic and ensuing lockdown pushed many of us indoors.

With more free time and increased disposable income, too, an unprecedented rise in retail investing has occurred.

Many of these retail investors are young and new to equity investing. They also consume information differently. So, how do you embrace this new generation of investors?

Create a visual story – Use multimedia (photos, videos, info-graphs and downloadable “extra” content), which can be embedded or linked directly from your press release. This creates a modern and interactive feel to your message.

Consider ethically focused investing – New investors are more likely to invest in companies focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Investors want to know that you have a handle on material issues. Small companies aren’t exempt, either; consider making ESG a part of your disclosure.

Reach your investors – Use a trusted newswire to deliver your message, but build your own network, too. Use social media to connect directly with journalists, influencers and investors, and they will help share your story.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms are already being developed and used to analyze public company disclosure.

And soon, machines will be guiding investment decisions based on press releases before humans have even finished reading the headline. How do you prepare for this?

Stand out by using words that AI can clearly recognize and quantify (“growth,” “exceed,” “increase,” “improve,” “outperform”). Using clear language will matter more than ever when your news is being screened by a machine using AI and NLP. Use identifiers to make it easy for the machines. Your newswire can add meta data to your release (content categories, subject codes, NewsML tags, corporate actions, hashtags).

Give humans a chance by issuing material news outside of market hours.

This helps to level the playing field by allowing your retail investors to read and digest news before AI has utilized its speed advantage.

Although we all look forward to putting 2020 behind us, the changes that we encountered will remain long after COVID-19 disappears. Retail investors and AI will continue to have a significant impact on the market as we move further into the decade. So, the question is: Do we stick to what we know best, or do we move forward and embrace the change?

32 | Service Providers December 2020

FEATURE

The Benefits of Cross-Trading in the United States

By OTC

F

or many Canadian companies, the successful listing of their security represents an important milestone. It’s a sign of recognition, prestige and success, demonstrating to the market a desire to be open and transparent.

There are many reasons why a company may choose to list its shares – to raise capital, increase its valuation and diversify its shareholder base. But many companies are unaware that there are limitations as to what can be achieved by listing solely in Canada. They may not be cognizant of the fact that many US investors are unwilling or unable to invest in foreign markets and that the information they make available locally may not be widely available to US investors. So, what is the best way to bridge this gap and access the world’s largest market for capital expansion and growth? Cross-trading.

There are numerous benefits to cross-trading in the US: Diversifying your shareholder base Making your financial information, research, pricing and risk assessment more broadly available to US investors Appealing to those investors who prefer securities traded domestically ($USD) Enhancing visibility among broker dealers by supporting broker and sell-side compliance

A national exchange, such as the NYSE or Nasdaq, may be perceived to be the natural home and fit for most foreign issuers looking to access a deep 34 | Service Providers December 2020

pool of institutional investors.

However, foreign issuers, such as those in Canada, are subject to US exchange requirements and different accounting standards that can become duplicative, time-consuming and cost-prohibitive for global IROs with limited budgets.

On the contrary, cross-trading on the OTC Market allows a company to leverage its existing reporting standards to make its disclosure available in the US. The simplified requirements to trade OTC remove duplication, are less resource-intensive and require fewer expensive experts. This secondary trading solution helps to remove trading restrictions and complements the company’s home-market reporting process. In turn, a company improves its ability to maximize shareholder value, be more visible and achieve a fair valuation in the US public market while also increasing the effectiveness of its investor relations program.

Cross-trading also presents both Canada and the US with reciprocal opportunities for issuers to enhance market liquidity, creating additional investing opportunities in a company’s home market and abroad, and providing a cost-effective trading environment in which to raise capital and build global investor awareness.

In addition to cross-trading, OTC Markets Group Inc. and the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) developed a first-of-its-kind North American capital formation and visibility solution for start-ups looking to go public. This alliance offers issuers the benefits of the IPO listing on the CSE combined with secondary trading on OTC Markets’ OTCQX Best Market/OTCQB Venture Market. This affords investors and the broker dealer community greater access to a breadth of financial information, increased global investing opportunities and more efficient trading of international issuers shares. Simple processes and fixed-fee structures remove many of the barriers of cost, time and complexity typically associated with going public on an exchange.

Helping companies bridge the gap and expand their footprint – paving the way for capital expansion and growth.

For more information, please contact: Chris King OTC Markets Group Inc. Tel (212) 896-4459 Cell (347) 383-5521 cking@otcmarkets.com

Trust & Transfer Agency Service Providers

Capital Transfer Agency is a Canadian transfer agent and registrar, providing comprehensive transfer services to clients listed on the TSXV, CSE or NEX, as well as OTC, pre-IPO, private or capital pool companies. We are proud to be part of the Pacific Services Group, and through this affiliation, Capital is easily able to service issuers on both Canadian and American exchanges.

Registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a member of The Securities Transfer Association (STAI) and STAC, we are dedicated to servicing the needs of domestic and international companies, both public and non-public.

Contact Capital Transfer Agency: (416) 350-5007 smorrison@capitaltransferagency.com www.capitaltransferagency.com

Market Access Service Providers

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX® Best Market, the OTCQB® Venture Market and the Pink® Open Market for 10,000 US and global securities. Through OTC Link® ATS, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors.

Contact OTC Markets: cking@otcmarkets.com www.otcmarkets.com

Canadian Securities Exchange | 35

FEATURE

Harnessing the Power of Video Marketing During Times of Crisis LOCKDOWNS, QUARANTINE AND QUALITY VIDEO CONTENT

By Market One Media

A

collaborative form of communication within the investment community is an integral component of a well-managed public company. This communication can range from traditional and digital media to conferences and networking; however, social media and video marketing are the key elements here, raising brand awareness most effectively.

Videos are one of the most effective tools to reach investors because they are easily digestible and more memorable than plain text. In a world where content can be shared among peers online within minutes, millions of people can now view your content much quicker than ever before – and this has been especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With many people spending more time at home, we have seen digital-content consumption increase – Cielo24 points out that this increase is about “80% of consumers” who are partaking in online activities in higher volumes than pre-COVID. The video-solution technology company also notes that “66% of businesses have used video to communicate with key stakeholders during the global pandemic.”

The way in which content consumption has increased makes it paramount

36 | Service Providers December 2020

for public companies to get on board and create compelling videos to engage not only your current audience but also prospective retail and institutional investors, who may have more time to surf the web now.

Here, we will outline how you can create this compelling content and use social media advertising to further reach your target audience.

COVID-19 HAS RESULTED IN INCREASED SOCIAL MEDIA USE When quarantine measures were enacted in March, suddenly face-toface relationship-building became impossible without fear of contracting the virus. As a result of people staying at home, major social platforms had an influx of users who used Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and more to communicate with one another, receive up-to-date information regarding the pandemic and move their business to an online model, if they hadn’t done so already.

Nielsen’s studies show that homebound consumers have led to a 60% increase in the amount of video content watched globally. With more eyeballs surfing the web, looking for legitimate information and using social media to satisfy all of their needs, this was

the time for companies to provide the forthright and truthful content and information that the online public was seeking.

ONE MINUTE CAN SAY IT ALL When creating content during a pandemic, it is important to consider how your information will be relayed to the public, especially when aiming to stand out and extend beyond your audience base. The main goal is to reach a wider scope of people in order for your company to get discovered by new investor eyeballs, receive higher engagement rates and build a positive reputation.

Market One Media Group utilizes top-tier business publications such as the Financial Post, BNN Bloomberg and Kitco to reach a high-quality investor audience. Through these partnerships, we are able to tap into a network of over 2.5 million potential investors and are able to amplify our reach through strategic and targeted advertising on social media.

Social media advertising is an important next step for a video once it has been published on our networks because it helps broaden the scope of our investment-based audience. Based on the knowledge that social media networks utilize user information to serve relevant content to interested viewers, setting up the correct targeting specific to each piece of video content is crucial.

To successfully promote a video on social media, the following questions should be considered:

1.

2.

Based on the specific industry, who is your target demographic?

Where does the majority of your target audience consume their information?

3.

Where is your target audience located?

4.

Who are your competitors, and who is their target audience?

With these questions in mind, it is much easier to generate an effective audience base who is more

Source: https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Consumer-Media-Usage-2019through-April-2020.pdf

likely to engage with your content.

Subsequently, these digital ads are then able to generate better brand awareness, keep existing investors satisfied and tap into a new investor network that would normally be much smaller.

VIDEO IMMEDIATELY GRABS ATTENTION When it comes to sourcing quality news and information on the web, investors, in particular, will look at websites that provide a wealth of information on prospective companies.

Additionally, due to the current climate and the increased propagation of fake news, the importance of company integrity when distributing information should be the utmost concern. Now is the time to show how your content is authentic and uniquely positioned so that it is not lost in the sea of false content, especially during a time when people need guidance and legitimacy.

A successful and respectable website that is catered toward investors includes reputable video pieces that encompass different elements of a company’s business. This can be done easily by incorporating video content that features the CEO, drone footage of mining sites, a discussion of corporate social responsibility or live conference footage. Social media is an important tool because you can create great footage that encompasses your company’s

mission but also have great raw footage depending on what your message is.

Make sure to utilize the right one in your marketing plan.

As a company looking for potential investors, you should remember these reasons why adding video content to your website is helpful: Effectively deliver your message Increase engagement Add personality to your brand Stand out among competitors Be memorable

It’s important for your website to contain dynamic components, including video, in order to draw investors in; however, it is equally crucial to ensure that these investors learn more about your company after leaving your homepage.

Creating multiple touch points with website visitors is imperative for public companies, and the best way to do so is through setting up a Facebook pixel.

The Facebook pixel works to target your ads to the right people based on your website’s traffic patterns. This tool can really improve your marketing strategy by guiding your ads to the people you want to reach as well as the people who have already shown an interest in your company.

PLAY TO YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS’ STRONG SUITS With almost 5 billion videos watched on YouTube daily, and over 8 billion videos watched on Facebook every day, these platforms have proven to be immensely powerful and visually engaging. Social media is a great tool that a company can use for pushing out their most important information in a creative and digestible manner; however, some platforms have different advantages when delivering video content.

Different platforms have pros and cons when it comes to distributing video content. Here, we break down which platforms are most effective depending on what your business end goal is.

FACEBOOK: Best for short, informative videos that work without sound TWITTER: Best for snippets of information (60 seconds) LINKEDIN: Best for “how-to” content and case studies YOUTUBE: Best for longer, educational content that answers questions

Video content has proven its potential to transform journalism and traditional content distribution.

Sharing a company’s brand organically, in the form of a visually moving story, is much easier to do now. Videos have drastically changed the audience’s experience when interacting with an organization. Pair this with strategic social media advertising, and you’ve got a solid marketing plan for your company.

Video isn’t dying down anytime soon, so we suggest adding it to your content marketing strategy because it has the ability to encompass your company’s voice in a short span of time, can be optimized to reach the right people, and is inherently sharable.

For more information on how you can inform or entertain investors by creating custom video content, visit our website: www.marketone.ca

Canadian Securities Exchange | 37