Being quoted in the national, trade, or industry sector press read by your clients, establishes you as a thought leader in your area of expertise. Because they are trusted by their respective readerships, an important third-party endorsement of your knowledge and expertise is created when your comments or articles appear in these publications. Passing through their editorial filter of quality delivers significant PR value: confirming your authority in your marketplace and making potential clients sit up and take notice.
For the national and international press and broadcast media, all we need from you is a few short sentences. We can help to ensure that these are topical and interesting – but above all, they must be timely. The clue is in the word: ‘news’ needs to be new. Ideally, we will liaise with journalists on your behalf within a few minutes of a story breaking. Better still, we will work with you to prepare comments ahead of a development which we can track in advance – for example, a Bill going through parliament, a change in the law, a consultation paper, a judgment, or an event such as The Budget.
We encourage our clients to speak in simple phrases which bring ideas to life. Likewise, you may only get 15 seconds to make your point on television – but you can say a lot in 15 seconds.
Raising your profile
We encourage our clients to speak in simple phrases which bring ideas to life. Likewise, you may only get 15 seconds to make your point on television. But you can say a lot in 15 seconds. We can help you make the most of your time, as well as preparing you for radio interviews, such as with the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, where the questioning may be robust, but a large slice of your target audience will be listening.
To reach potential clients who are not listening or reading on the day, we upload your coverage to the News or Blog section of your website, and search engine optimise this so that your comments will appear on page one of an organic Google search.
Your own industry trade press is important to raise your profile within your sector or industry. It encourages referrals and makes your company more attractive to lateral hires.
But you can also reach your clients directly by being quoted in the industry trade press dedicated to covering sectors in which they operate, be this retail, energy, shipping, mining, banking, healthcare, technology, charity, management consultancy or wealth management, to name but a few. We sometimes call these the “Have I Got News For You” publications: they do not usually have huge readerships, but those who subscribe to them are frequently key decision makers in the industries which they serve.
Establishing your voice
In addition to these ‘vertical’ publications, we can also target your audiences ‘horizontally’ – for example, in the Boardroom Press. Typically global in scope and focused on anything from M&A news to leadership tips, these publications are read by C-Suite executives: the CEOs, COOs, CIOs and CFOs whom many of our clients are seeking to reach.
By appearing in such niche publications, you are establishing yourself and your company or firm as a specialist adviser to that industry or level of senior executive. By combining this with raising your profile in the national press and broadcast media, you then have the full range of PR tools in your arsenal. This will reinforce your existing sales efforts and generate sales by driving search traffic and referrals straight to your door.
