|
|  |
|
|
Connections
Business Development: How Public Relations Helps Professional Services Firms Gain a Competitive Edge
In today’s challenging marketplace, business-development efforts are becoming more sophisticated. In particular, executives with professional services firms are searching for new ways to gain a competitive edge. Many are turning to public relations programs to support their efforts.
For a lawyer, accountant or consultant, the best advice “centers on being genuinely different and relying on publicity rather than advertising,” Jennifer McFarland wrote in the February 2002 issue of Harvard Management Update.
Public relations is considered the best marketing investment because it is much more cost-effective than advertising and, because news articles cannot be purchased, it leads to much greater credibility.
In this issue of Connections, we’ll discuss ways that public relations can help to generate higher visibility and new business for professional services firms.
|
Speaking of Success
A comprehensive public relations program typically includes several components: media relations, civic involvement and marketing services. Because each professional services firm will have unique needs, its executives should work with public relations counselors to develop customized strategies and tactics that are designed to meet specific objectives.
However, there are some general guidelines that professional services firms should follow when developing comprehensive public relations programs:
- Start by conducting a communications audit to gain a better understanding of your company’s current situation and identify its public relations needs.
- Identify your target audiences. Many executives don’t spend enough time on this and direct their resources toward audiences that are unlikely to become clients or referral sources.
- Get to know your target audiences. What are their business needs and motivations? What are the best ways to reach them?
- Determine ways that your firm’s expertise can be matched with topics that interest your target audiences.
- Create collateral materials that support your company’s positioning. Develop e-newsletters, Web sites, media kits and other tools necessary to help you communicate your messages.
- Identify reporters at media outlets who can help you communicate to your target audiences.
- Identify “news hooks” and maximize the value of the newsworthy activities at your firm. One of the greatest challenges in implementing public relations programs for professional services firms is finding ways to generate interest from the media. Most firms don’t have major news on an ongoing basis, and some of the work they perform is confidential. Therefore, the PR firm you select must be adept at creating media opportunities for your firm.
- Become known to the media as an expert in your field. You should consider placing a greater emphasis on print rather than broadcast media.
- Obtain third-party endorsements, which are powerful selling tools. Interview your clients and write testimonials that may be published as articles in trade publications, posted on your Web site and included in media kits and other communications materials.
- Write articles under your byline for publication in consumer and trade publications.
- Consider sponsoring networking events, such as seminars or receptions, to put your executives in front of your target audiences. To capitalize on this investment, your executives must follow up with the individuals they meet.
- Develop effective direct-marketing tools, such as letters and promotional give-away items, that can help you best reach your prospects. This is an effective means to target your prospective clients and referral sources only if you take the time to follow up with phone calls and use the direct-marketing component as part of an integrated program.
- Be a good corporate citizen. Develop a community-outreach program and make it a priority for members of your firm to participate.
|
Headliners
In the April 2002 issue of Ad Genius, publisher Kim Peek interviewed Patricia Thorp about how marketing and public relations help professional services firms differentiate themselves from the competition in meaningful ways.
“The personal touch involves repeated communication,” Peek wrote. “Patricia Thorp, president of Thorp & Company, one of the three largest independent PR firms in Florida, says that, since Sept. 11, professional services firms are finding that it takes more touches or points of contact to close a sale.
“Her firm advises clients to stay away from single-channel marketing programs. She believes that in this new environment, a firm cannot do just PR, just advertising, just community involvement or just special events. Today, it takes more touches than ever to close a sale.”
To read the entire article, click on this link: Marketing Professional Services
|
Interesting Reading
In their recent book, The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR, Al and Laura Ries discuss the expanding role of public relations in marketing plans. Here are a few excerpts:
“A recent study of 91 new product launches shows highly successful products are more likely to use PR-related activities than less successful ones… ‘We learned that the role of PR, while underutilized, was extremely significant when leveraged,’ said the study.”
“Most companies spend way too much money trying to build a brand with advertising (when they should be using that money for PR) and way too little money defending their brands with advertising after they have been built.”
“Creating a brand and defending a brand are the two major functions of a marketing program. PR creates the brand. Advertising defends the brand.”
“Advertising has lost its power to put a new brand name into the mind. Advertising has no credibility with consumers who are increasingly skeptical of its claims and, whenever possible, are inclined to reject its messages.”
“Publicity provides the credentials that create credibility in the advertising. Until a new brand has some credentials in your mind, you are going to ignore its advertising. You need to manage both public relations and advertising properly if you are going to be successful in building a brand. The general rule is: Never run advertising until the major publicity opportunities have been exploited.”
|
Making it Happen
To develop successful media relations campaigns for professional services firms, public relations counselors must be skilled at creating story ideas and publicity opportunities that draw the media’s attention. Most of the activities at professional services firms cannot be publicized because they’re either routine or bound by client confidentiality, so public relations counselors should focus on positioning the company executives as industry experts who provide commentary on issues and trends and write articles for publication.
Surprisingly, only 5 percent of the 2.3 news articles secured daily since 1996 for one of our clients, a major national law firm, have focused on the firm’s deals or transactions. Most of the news coverage we obtain – in fact, 95 percent of it – has involved the lawyers serving as commentators on trends. It’s important to work closely with your public relations agency to maximize the visibility for your firm:
- Before discussing deals or transactions with the media, remember to first obtain approval from your clients.
- Give your public relations firm two days’ notice in advance of any major announcement so that the communications tools may be prepared and approved by all parties involved (including your clients).
- Allow public relations counselors to screen calls from reporters in most situations.
- Keep public relations counselors informed of important changes in legislation, major mergers and acquisitions and other news in your field of expertise. These events allow your PR counselors the opportunity to offer reporters the chance to interview you as a knowledgeable source on the topic.
- Help your public relations counselors stay ahead of trends and late-breaking news by copying them on client updates.
- Keep public relations counselors informed of speaking engagements. Whenever possible, provide them with copies of the speeches for use as bylined articles.
- Strive to build ongoing relationships with reporters by being accessible and respecting their deadlines. Return reporters’ calls within two hours. Remember that 3 p.m. is often the final deadline for reporters at daily newspapers.
- Conduct research before interviews to provide reporters with historical perspectives as well as relevant data and statistics.
- Prepare three key points to discuss during your interviews.
- Speak in sound bites. The more attractive that your quote sounds, the more likely the reporter will use it.
- Remember that your company’s relationship with its public relations firm is a partnership that can prove instrumental in the growth and success of your business for years to come.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
