Corporate Website
Generally, most users will access an online report through the corporate website. To promote a report in the best possible way, we recommend the following measures:
- Placing a large teaser on the landing page of the corporate website during the first few weeks after publishing (see example above)
- Placing a teaser in the service panel of the corporate website throughout the entire year
- Placing permanent links on the landing page of the IR or sustainability section and under “Publications” or the appropriate equivalent
- Linking to the report from other corresponding pages and reports
Screenshot: Landing page teaser for the Bayer Online Annual Report 2016
Animated GIFs
Animated GIFs are a ongoing trends in Social Media. By use of animated GIFs companies can communicate key results of the fiscal year and promote the digital report. For Bayer we prepared GIFs for different topics with deep-links in the report.
Social Media
Animated GIFs are only one option to use existing social media channels to promote the online reports. Users should be encouraged to give direct feedback or “share” the page (e.g. through sharing options such as a tweet button). In the social web, the number of multipliers grows with every “like”. Furthermore, we recommend the following measures:
- Posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StockTwits and other platforms whenever a new online report is published (see example below)
- Posting certain interesting facts and figures bit-by-bit throughout the year
Screenshot: Facebook Teaser for the BASF Online Report 2015
Internal Communications
“Good communication begins at home”. It is precisely the employees that frequently have a great interest in new publications of their own company. Therefore, they should be informed whenever a new publication is available. Two options are:
- E-mail notifications from the directors or CEOs to all employees which contain a link to the online report
- Announcement of the online report on the intranet and other internal media channels (e.g. employee newsletter or magazine)
Print Reports
Even print reports offer possiblities of promoting the online version. The three most important options are:
- Mentioning the online report in the coverletter when the print report is distributed, ideally by pointing out the special and interactive contents of the digital version
- Pointing out additional features or the added value of the digital version (e.g. videos, animations, interactive key figure comparison, etc.) in the print report
- In the case that the online report has been optimised for mobile devices: adding QR codes to the print report
Publication Order Service
Increasingly, e.g. for sustainability reasons, companies refrain from printing their reports. In this case, order requests can be answered by an e-mail information including the link to the online version.
Public Relations
In press and public relations, online versions of annual and sustainability reports can be used as a simple and safe reference to further information. Especially for online journalists, this has become an increasingly attractive tool. They use HTML reports to directly link to certain pages or topics. We recommend the following measures:
- Featuring the report in the Corporate News, including the corresponding links
- Integration in newsletters
- Linking the online report as a reference or source whenever key figures of the company are updated in online portals (e.g. Wikipedia)
- Making the report available on web portals for annual and sustainability reports
- Submitting the report for online reporting awards
Screenshot: Media Release for Clariant’s Online Annual Report 2015