Communication and PR: Spinning A Positive Story
This article by Finch PR explores how public relations can help financial and investment firms increase visibility and establish industry credibility through independent media coverage.
We all communicate, and some of us spend much of our days doing it, by Whatsapp, email, or that latest chat app that your IT people tell you the whole company should be using, but you haven’t quite figured out yet. Sometimes you’re contacting someone for the first time; very often you’re in touch with the same small group of people on an almost constant basis.
PR sounds scary to some people, because bad PR is exhibited by politicians on our screens on a daily basis and it’s not always clear what benefit they extract from being grilled by a news anchor early in the morning. But PR is just communication to a wide audience, outside of your organisation, and the precise results, like message and wording and timing, are outside of your control. If you’re a control freak, then marketing, which involves a high degree of control, from a logo placement to the voice on a radio ad, will suit you more than a journalist who doesn’t report to you.
So why bother with PR at all?
Isn’t social media and advertising just as good? Well, the thing to consider about PR is that it’s not you saying it. That’s an advantage. Every company emphasises the advantages of their products and services and plays down their weaknesses; so even if it’s a trusted brand, you’re not getting a balanced view. Editorial media coverage is different - it’s a third party giving a perspective, and often it’ll be an informed perspective, usually from a journalist who has spent some time learning about the sector or asset class that they’re reporting on. Unlike the national TV news end of the media spectrum, financial journalists aren’t usually after a sensational soundbite. They want to be first with the news, but they also want to be accurate and balanced and inform their audience.
Media engagement can be a trusted third party giving an easily digestible update on a company or its products. Even when a brand isn’t the subject of a news story or feature, journalists need contributions from industry players, and this gives opportunity for leadership to be presented as experts in their field. A wealth management magazine like Wealth Briefing wants to include the views of not just wealth managers, but also adjacent companies like service providers or fintechs who may be focused on a specific aspect of the industry.
Broad features are often the best read among articles and the way in which your brand name is first seen by people in your industry, encouraging them to find out more.
The ability of PR to reach people you don’t know is unrivaled.
It doesn’t rely on people actively searching for your website or your social channels, instead it pushes the brand to them via the publication or channel of their choice. They know they’re being informed by someone who is unbiased and doesn’t have to say nice things about a company, and this conveys a level of endorsement, which is enhanced by being factual and devoid of superlatives.
PR isn’t a binary alternative to marketing, indeed they often work well together. Ask any SEO expert and they’ll tell you how good media coverage is for a brand, especially if there’s a back-link involved. A post on LinkedIn will get many more views if it links to a news article, which pulls through an image from the news outlet, and if you include it in a company newsletter, readers will be intrigued as to what you said that achieved media coverage.
However, PR doesn’t work for everyone. If your services aren’t distinguished or your leadership team are shy, then it’ll be a struggle to get full value. You’ll also only get out what you put in. So it’s best to see PR in context as a powerful weapon in a communications arsenal, albeit one which won’t be right for every situation.
“The alts and family office space is an area where PR can add great value”
-Matt Fincham, Finch PR
The alts and family office space is an area where PR can add great value; not, perhaps to the FOs themselves, who may prefer to have a more discrete profile, but certainly for funds and service providers. Imagine a boutique consultancy firm started by a financial services veteran; they have oodles of experience and credibility, but they no longer have a big brand behind them that they used to have, and no-one knows what their new firm does. That’s a communications challenge. Good PR can explain what they do, highlight their experience and USPs and enhance their credibility, by getting them quoted in articles alongside big firms, making them seem larger and more established. Their size is turned from a disadvantage into a strength as a spokesperson for a smaller, newer firm can provide quicker and punchier expert comment for journalists than a spokesman for a larger firm, and thus that leader can become a respected industry commentator and will be viewed as a subject matter expert, which in turn benefits their new business.
Finch PR works with wealth managers, hedge funds, fintechs, service providers and others in the investment world, assisting with PR and marketing. We are proud to represent AYU. If you’d like to know more, please get in touch.
Finch PR - An official AYU Partner
The Finch PR team offers unrivalled media relations expertise, including the ability to engage with and achieve coverage in publications like Bloomberg, broadcast coverage on Sky, or specialist trade magazines. The team includes writers capable of producing engaging copy of the sort that pleases editors, and resonates with readers.
