Are you still reading? Unfortunately, those opening words often cause readers' eyes to glaze over.This time of year, many companies are working on their annual reports, one important element of which is the "Dear Shareholder" letter. The purpose of this letter is to summarize the past year, highlight key milestones and preview what's ahead. The challenge is to tell a story that is compelling, engaging and most importantly, inspires confidence in the organization. Not an easy task, but keeping a few important best practices in mind can greatly improve your "Dear Shareholder" letter:

• Be concise - This seems to be a huge challenge for many companies. Yes, it's tough to summarize an entire year's performance in a brief letter. But remember - let the letter serve as a summary of performance, and get into more detail in later sections of your annual report. Although there's no hard and fast rule, the best examples we've seen keep their letter to approximately 1,000 - 1,500 words. Take a look at Genentech's shareholder letter - the company conveyed its story in two pages and went into greater detail in other sections of the annual report.
• Provide guideposts along the way - Even 1,000 words is a LOT of content. Break it up with bolded headlines that help guide the reader through your story. A nice summary paragraph or pull quotes can also help carry the reader along and ensure they are absorbing the content. Gilead included a summary paragraph right off the bat, so even if a reader went no further, they would leave with a sense of the company's progress.
• Use a conversational tone and clear language - Yes, most of your readers are investors, but keep in mind that lots of other stakeholders will be reading this - including consumers, the media and anyone who is interested in learning more about your company. Pfizer did a great job of capturing their CEO's voice and telling the company's story in clear language.
• Design matters - Generous use of whitespace, graphics, pull quotes and paragraph breaks can make a big difference. Trust your designers to create a layout that will draw in readers. And take advantage of those graphics and pull quotes to reinforce your most important messages. Both Gilead and Pfizer did a nice job of balancing text with white space, graphics and pull quotes.
• Don't be afraid to get creative - No, we can't all be Warren Buffet. But as communicators, it's our responsibility to push for a bit creativity, even in something as classically corporate as a shareholder letter. Rather than a traditional "Dear Shareholder" letter, Adidas included a Q&A-style interview with their CEO. It was a great way to keep the letter light and reflect the CEO's voice.

Are you working on your company's annual shareholder letter? What challenges have you run into? What are you doing differently this year? Let us know in the comments below.@annmelinger