As AR professionals, it is our responsibility to drive strategic and meaningful relationships with analysts on behalf of our organizations. But, this might seem especially challenging if your company currently isn’t investing in analyst firm subscriptions. 

While investing in subscriptions can certainly open the door to analyst research and advisory, there are still ways to strategically engage with analysts and develop relationships without a subscription. It’s all about getting creative. 

Below are a few tips for engaging with analysts without a subscription:

Be in the know about analysts’ POV

While you may not have access to direct syndicated research, there are still ways to read up on and become knowledgeable about your key analysts and their POV on the market. Check out analysts’ blogs, social media, and LinkedIn for ungated access to their POV on the market. You may also be able to find reprints of key reports by other vendors. 

Have a diverse set of content for briefings 

While analyst firms require subscriptions to have inquiries and advisory days with analysts, any company can request a briefing. This means sans subscription, you will primarily be managing a briefing-heavy cadence of interactions. You’ll want to make sure that you have a diverse set of content to justify a regular cadence of briefings without overwhelming your analysts. A few examples of varying content types are:

• Company introduction: The first briefing you conduct with an analyst should be to build awareness about your product/service and set the stage for growing your relationship.
• Company updates: Once an analyst knows who you are, pencil in a quarterly cadence of updates as a way to showcase momentum, new investments, acquisitions, new leadership, and strategic adjustments.
• Deep-dive or demo: Give the analyst further insight into your product, by demonstrating a specific capability, sharing details on an analysts’ area of interest, accentuating strengths and/or shoring up weaknesses 
• Roadmap briefings: Use these to highlight planned roadmap initiatives that align to analysts’ area of interest and seek feedback on product capabilities
• Client or partner briefing: Client and partner briefings can be a great way to pay off the work you’ve done with the analysts and have the client or partner tell his/her success story about your product/service

Get creative in how else you engage with analysts

Briefings may seem like the only option you have when it comes to interacting with analysts, but there are other creative ways to engage. Here are a few ways you can interact with analysts outside of briefings:

• Comment, like, or engage in dialog via the aforementioned blogs, social, and LinkedIn sites when an analyst posts something relevant to your organization.
• Develop email campaigns following analyst briefings to pay off the stage-setting you’ve done. If you outline your organization’s strategic vision in a company update briefing, follow up by sending the analyst email announcements, thought leadership, and customer testimonials validating that vision. 
• Identify opportunities for face-to-face interactions with analysts. Industry events (once they’re rescheduled, of course) are a great place to run into analysts. You can often see what analysts will be attending by taking a look at the event web page and monitoring analysts’ social media. While you’re there, reach out to them and offer to buy them coffee, lunch, or a drink to catch up!

Not having a subscription can be tough, but building relationships with analysts is not impossible. All you need to do is think outside the typical AR box to get your name out there!