We all know that while public relations (PR) is still one of the most effective tools in the financial services marketer’s kit, best practice calls for an integrated approach that will amplify your company’s PR and drive leads. And you don’t need a magic wand to get great results.
Instead, try an integrated PR/marketing approach that uses earned, paid and owned media tactics to promote your content. Here are some quick tips on how to get started.
If you have some stellar media coverage you want to share further, use paid tools to amplify your coverage across multiple channels to increase the reach.
An example of this tactic in action is the company selling low-end consumer goods online which placed one article on Buzzfeed. Tracking showed this one article drove $30k worth of traffic to their website, a huge deal for this relatively small outlet – especially given the low spend.
The company tracked the source of this traffic using Google Analytics – which showed exactly how many of the people who read the article went on to buy the product.
The company got further mileage from the article by running a paid media campaign using AdWords, which kept the article in circulation, reinforcing the return on the earned media and earning them another $22k in revenue.
The moral of this story is: track with analytics and amplify with paid media.
Ideally, all of our earned online media coverage would include links back to our company websites or products, but when you are not in complete control of the content this can be difficult to achieve.
The good news is that even if you have a great online media article without a link back to your content, there are other ways of attracting visitors to your website.
One tool that helps to do this is Snip.ly, which enables you to overlay a call-to-action on third party content that you are linking to in your paid ads. Snip.ly adds a pop-up box to the article, which links back to your company page or prompts readers to give you their email address.
Whatever you do with your earned and owned media content, it should always be aligned with your social media content and your social media content should always reflect your overall branding.
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are great tools for amplifying your key messages and maintaining engagement, and each platform also has paid components which can boost your content even further.
Here are some examples:
This year, BlueChip worked with our client Hyperion Asset Management to develop and execute an integrated PR/marketing campaign, promoting the new launch of their active exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The aim of the campaign was to generate awareness of the active ETF, generate high-quality leads, and encourage both retail investors and advisers to invest into the listed fund.
Our approach included:
Results:
So the message is: get your integrated hats on now! It’s a simple strategy that can deliver results for your company way beyond traditional PR.
Check out Hyperion Asset Management's successful active ETF (ASX:HYGG) launch and ASX Ring the bell ceremony below.
If you’d like to discuss adjusting your communication strategy for the current times, please call us or fill out our contact form here.