What people say about PR firms...
Catching up with some C-suite colleagues today I heard some recurring themes about PR firms.
Sadly for the PR profession they were not particularly flattering.
"They're just not that smart"
"They don't get the business"
"Appalling to deal with"
"Would never hire them"
You get the general picture. While it's tempting to defend the good work done by many great PR people, I thought it might be more constructive, from inside a consultancy, to offer some ideas about how to sort the truly terrible firms from the potentially great ones.
Top 3 things to ask your PR firm
Here are things I'd now want to know about my PR firm if I was in house, hiring a consultant again. These are not, in my experience, the usual pitch-type questions you probably already know, and ask.
1. Do you have any client satisfaction data you can share with us?
Yes, you and everyone else can show us great results....but how good are you at managing the relationship? Do you have proof that you do it well across all clients? Actual numbers or client survey data?
2. What do journalists say about you? Can we talk to them?
As revealing as media feedback might be, the list of journos NOT offered, especially in a small industry trade media circle, may be as revealing as the names of those who are offered as potential referees.
3. How do you manage your team?
PR firms, like other consultancies, can be demanding (and rewarding) places to work. Ideally your chosen partner gives a lot of thought and resources to developing and looking after the people who will work with you. Their happiness, and how well they are supported, will have a big impact on your results.
These are just three of many possible questions. My team, reading this, will most likely have even better questions - some of which would be way more searching than my suggestions.
Aiming for excellence
Our team shares a value of excellence - in our world that doesn't mean just hitting a certain standard - it also means continually lifting the bar to deliver ever better results or improve how we work.
Asking ourselves the hard questions is one way of continuing to improve - what we do, and how.
I'd be interested to hear other ideas...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
R.E.S.P.E.C.T...what it means to me
R.E.S.P.E.C.T…what it means to me
To paraphrase Aretha, my team has a very particular meaning for the word respect. Several meanings in fact.
First, “respect” (in our business) means seeking first to understand, before seeking to be understood.
Often, that simply means listening. It also means asking questions, before jumping in with solutions.
It’s not something that came naturally to me when I started as a consultant in 2003. In fact, I was pretty confident that whatever the problem was, I had a solution, and sometimes before my client had finished their sentence. Funnily enough, seven years later, with way more consulting experience I am often less sure of the communication solution. Ad I spend way less time talking.
My listening skills, however, have improved remarkably with practice.
And thus the solutions I recommend are enriched by a far deeper understanding of what’s really going on for our clients’ businesses – whether that be with respect to their clients, colleagues, investors, media or industry gatekeepers.
In practice as communication consultants that means seeking to understand not only our clients but also our clients’ audiences. And we encourage our clients to also think deeply about what exactly is going in for those audiences before any of us start trying to talk to them. We talk about “getting inside their skin”.
Data helps but personal experience is essential.
The most sophisticated market research is no match for a frank conversation about what really matters to individual clients.
I’ve recently had some experiences with consultants that caused me to reflect on the whole notion of listening. These consultants have plenty of things to tell me. Some of the wisdom they offer is confronting, some exciting, and almost all they have to say is useful.
But whether or not I use what they have to say has everything to do with whether I feel listened to or not.
In one case, I felt listened to… right up until the point a young guy who hasn’t run his own business or been a communication consultant started to tell me (with absolute certainty) how I should spend my time, and what BlueChip Communication should be doing about strategy, pricing and a few other bits and pieces.
In another case, I’ve had some very constructive conversations with a wiser and more experienced consultant. That person took the time to do their research, get to know more than the superficial facts, and only then engage in a conversation…or at least that’s what it felt like even though it was advice. I felt listened to.
Which brings me back to respect.
If, as consultants, we listen well enough, we should be able to pick up the verbal and non-verbal cues from clients. It’s not our job to tell clients what they want to hear. But it is our job to find a way to tell them what (in our best judgment) we think they need to hear.
So in seeking first to understand (to listen well) we can then be of most use to our valued clients.
It’s basic but even the big firms don’t necessarily have it right.
With that, I’m off to continue practicing my listening skills.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Breakfast with the Prime Minister today
Squeezed tightly between two clients I listened intently to Kevin Rudd talk this morning.
I say "squeezed tightly" because the sold-out event drew the financial services industry in force to the Shangri-La ballroom in Sydney to hear Chris Bowen, Minister for Financial Services, Craig Dunne, AMP CEO, John Brogden IFSA CEO and the Prime Minster.
Chris Bowen told a great story about a Prime Minister who began a national savings system yet left the office before he could complete the vision. He went on, of course, to say that last weekend another Labor Prime Minster finished the job by announcing the phase in of a 12% Superannuation Guarantee Charge.
The Prime Minster positioned super as a buffer that helped Australia avoid the worst of the global economic slowdown, and as one of our greatest national strengths - contributing both to the nation's economy and the security of Australian families.
Certainly there wasn't a lot of talk about banks today - as the PM went on to say super gave depth to domestic investment markets, diversification in the financial system and provided a source of capital for business.
What he didn't say was that all the talk about retail term deposits being granted concessional tax status, of say 15%, came to nothing. There was a firm view, pre-Henry announcement, that we would see a product created that enjoyed the same tax benefits as super and also provided a ready pool of onshore bank funding.
The Prime Minster also talked about Australia in 2009 and painted a picture of a nation that, in 2009, remained an attractive source of capital globally, with a strong financial sector making up the single largest sector of our economy.
Australians' expertise in funds management, risk analysis and financial markets, he argued, should encourage us to take what we have learned here and apply it in the region to make Australia (and Sydney) a regional hub for financial markets.
Continuing challenges for super? Adequacy, fairness and efficiency.
So what of the future for super?
Many in the industry have called for regulatory certainty around super in order to give investors full confidence in the system - and the impetus to invest more with certainty.
Short term, it sounds as though the Government plan is to let the dust will settle.
I'm sure I heard an assurance there would be no more changes to super in next week's Federal Budget.
Longer term the promise is for "a fair system" that is "simpler and more efficient".
And I'll still be interested to see if that much-written about long term deposit product appears on Tuesday night in the Treasurer's speech.
I say "squeezed tightly" because the sold-out event drew the financial services industry in force to the Shangri-La ballroom in Sydney to hear Chris Bowen, Minister for Financial Services, Craig Dunne, AMP CEO, John Brogden IFSA CEO and the Prime Minster.
Chris Bowen told a great story about a Prime Minister who began a national savings system yet left the office before he could complete the vision. He went on, of course, to say that last weekend another Labor Prime Minster finished the job by announcing the phase in of a 12% Superannuation Guarantee Charge.
The Prime Minster positioned super as a buffer that helped Australia avoid the worst of the global economic slowdown, and as one of our greatest national strengths - contributing both to the nation's economy and the security of Australian families.
Certainly there wasn't a lot of talk about banks today - as the PM went on to say super gave depth to domestic investment markets, diversification in the financial system and provided a source of capital for business.
What he didn't say was that all the talk about retail term deposits being granted concessional tax status, of say 15%, came to nothing. There was a firm view, pre-Henry announcement, that we would see a product created that enjoyed the same tax benefits as super and also provided a ready pool of onshore bank funding.
The Prime Minster also talked about Australia in 2009 and painted a picture of a nation that, in 2009, remained an attractive source of capital globally, with a strong financial sector making up the single largest sector of our economy.
Australians' expertise in funds management, risk analysis and financial markets, he argued, should encourage us to take what we have learned here and apply it in the region to make Australia (and Sydney) a regional hub for financial markets.
Continuing challenges for super? Adequacy, fairness and efficiency.
So what of the future for super?
Many in the industry have called for regulatory certainty around super in order to give investors full confidence in the system - and the impetus to invest more with certainty.
Short term, it sounds as though the Government plan is to let the dust will settle.
I'm sure I heard an assurance there would be no more changes to super in next week's Federal Budget.
Longer term the promise is for "a fair system" that is "simpler and more efficient".
And I'll still be interested to see if that much-written about long term deposit product appears on Tuesday night in the Treasurer's speech.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Fear versus cautious confidence - how context changes everything
As 2010 proceeds at a cracker pace it's interesting to reflect on the difference a year makes. The context (although not all the content) is completely different.
In financial services public relations, marketing and communication the game has changed - along with the context.
Last year the context was fear. This year it's cautious confidence. One can be paralysing, the other galvanising.
As professional communicators we hold true that "context" is everything
The same statement can mean opposite things depending purely on context. Context (in our world) includes how the audiences is thinking & feeling and what they already believe. It includes, in financial services, what markets and economies are doing, and what we hear respected colleagues say about their business and their expectations for the future.
Last year the context was like a dark blanket thrown over us all - with a few weak pinpricks of light shining through.
Late in 2008 and throughout 2009 I talked with many of you about fear.
Even naming it felt brave.
We all felt it, but (almost to a person) no one wanted to say it out loud. And yet when we finally talked about it, senior executives were palpably relieved that the real context had been named...and we could get on with business...with the emotion out of the way.
Once named, fear lost some of its power
Once explored, we could use our understanding of that context to work out how to communicate properly -to industry colleagues, consumers, media, government and our own people.
The context (in this case a strong shared emotion) was only a problem when it wasn't acknowledged and planned for.
This year's context is completely different
Fear is taking a back seat to cautious confidence. To generalise about what we've seen in 2010 (okay it won't reflect everyone's experience!) in financial services communication:
1. Decisions are being made - both off the back of a long process (delayed from 2009)
2. Aggressive growth plans in are play again - supported by a greater focus on acquisitory (as opposed to retention) marketing
3. Money is moving in retail and wholesale (and the moves have to be explained)
4. Retention is still a focus - although on an industry basis the quality of client communication is highly variable
5. Internal communication is rising in importance - to help keep valued people and to ensure they know how (and want to) execute on strategy.
Markets are up, bonuses may be back and portfolios look vastly improved.
Cautious confidence
Cautious confidence seems the right description for what we seeing though retail investor research and hearing in institutional funds management. It also describes the vibe we hear from consumer financial companies through to industry participants dealing only with others in financial services.
And fear?
As for fear, well it's not left us completely. It's just sitting in the back seat.
With cautious confidence as the context, our messages, tone of voice and methods of public relations and communication have subtly changed.
Action
The bias to act (rather than hold on) is back.
Communication is now less reactive to world economic events and more proactive.
Forwards, with purpose. But ever so carefully.
In financial services public relations, marketing and communication the game has changed - along with the context.
Last year the context was fear. This year it's cautious confidence. One can be paralysing, the other galvanising.
As professional communicators we hold true that "context" is everything
The same statement can mean opposite things depending purely on context. Context (in our world) includes how the audiences is thinking & feeling and what they already believe. It includes, in financial services, what markets and economies are doing, and what we hear respected colleagues say about their business and their expectations for the future.
Last year the context was like a dark blanket thrown over us all - with a few weak pinpricks of light shining through.
Late in 2008 and throughout 2009 I talked with many of you about fear.
Even naming it felt brave.
We all felt it, but (almost to a person) no one wanted to say it out loud. And yet when we finally talked about it, senior executives were palpably relieved that the real context had been named...and we could get on with business...with the emotion out of the way.
Once named, fear lost some of its power
Once explored, we could use our understanding of that context to work out how to communicate properly -to industry colleagues, consumers, media, government and our own people.
The context (in this case a strong shared emotion) was only a problem when it wasn't acknowledged and planned for.
This year's context is completely different
Fear is taking a back seat to cautious confidence. To generalise about what we've seen in 2010 (okay it won't reflect everyone's experience!) in financial services communication:
1. Decisions are being made - both off the back of a long process (delayed from 2009)
2. Aggressive growth plans in are play again - supported by a greater focus on acquisitory (as opposed to retention) marketing
3. Money is moving in retail and wholesale (and the moves have to be explained)
4. Retention is still a focus - although on an industry basis the quality of client communication is highly variable
5. Internal communication is rising in importance - to help keep valued people and to ensure they know how (and want to) execute on strategy.
Markets are up, bonuses may be back and portfolios look vastly improved.
Cautious confidence
Cautious confidence seems the right description for what we seeing though retail investor research and hearing in institutional funds management. It also describes the vibe we hear from consumer financial companies through to industry participants dealing only with others in financial services.
And fear?
As for fear, well it's not left us completely. It's just sitting in the back seat.
With cautious confidence as the context, our messages, tone of voice and methods of public relations and communication have subtly changed.
Action
The bias to act (rather than hold on) is back.
Communication is now less reactive to world economic events and more proactive.
Forwards, with purpose. But ever so carefully.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
2010 - the year of video & online PR
As we all know predictions are a dangerous game. Particularly when it comes to social media.
Last year and my colleagues and I listened to people who know better than us, we heard some interesting things.
This included:
1. The mobile device is set to soar thanks to iPhone
2. Video popularity and accessibility would follow as bandwidth and download speeds improved (particularly on mobile phones)
3. Social media and content marketing really do matter in financial services - both retail and institutional.
And here we are, barely into 2010 (January often doesn't count in Australia), yet flooded with requests for help with, guess what? Video. Online PR strategy and campaigns. Content. And a serve of social media monitoring on the side please.
The parts of financial services looking at social media is interesting - and completely diverse. We expected large consumer brands to lead whereas we've now seen everyone from industry institutional asset managers to retail direct players take up online PR or more social-media-friendly forms of online communication and engagement .
When my favourite monolithic bank added an iPhone app to their existing mobile banking platform on the holidays I was a little surprised and delighted. Yes, the functionality is rubbish but it does look good. I'm sure version 1.1 is just around the corner.
Apparently the predictions were right. Of course it's early days so it will be interesting to see if the increased investment in interactive communication and online PR holds until the next holiday season.
We suspect it will.
Last year and my colleagues and I listened to people who know better than us, we heard some interesting things.
This included:
1. The mobile device is set to soar thanks to iPhone
2. Video popularity and accessibility would follow as bandwidth and download speeds improved (particularly on mobile phones)
3. Social media and content marketing really do matter in financial services - both retail and institutional.
And here we are, barely into 2010 (January often doesn't count in Australia), yet flooded with requests for help with, guess what? Video. Online PR strategy and campaigns. Content. And a serve of social media monitoring on the side please.
The parts of financial services looking at social media is interesting - and completely diverse. We expected large consumer brands to lead whereas we've now seen everyone from industry institutional asset managers to retail direct players take up online PR or more social-media-friendly forms of online communication and engagement .
When my favourite monolithic bank added an iPhone app to their existing mobile banking platform on the holidays I was a little surprised and delighted. Yes, the functionality is rubbish but it does look good. I'm sure version 1.1 is just around the corner.
Apparently the predictions were right. Of course it's early days so it will be interesting to see if the increased investment in interactive communication and online PR holds until the next holiday season.
We suspect it will.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Lessons from 2009 and what it means for 2010 for financial services communication
Tonight as we held drinks with colleagues in our Sydney CBD office one client jokingly asked "GFC. What's that?"
And it was actually funny because for the smallest moment we'd forgotten how this year began.
As 2009 started most of us working in financial services could think of nothing else.
As the year ends most of us are thinking about next year - how to capture more of our markets, how to take a new market or to re-establish ourselves.
The themes our clients are talking & asking about are now completely different to this time last year or to just a quarter ago.
Just a few months back we were talking about fund retention, preserving reputation, staying in front of investors or clients to build trust, and cutting costs.
Now it's all about proactive communication, educating or engaging investors, content marketing, building brands and marketing ROI.
In a year where there were plenty of hard lessons what are the stand outs and what does it mean for 2010?
So what are the communication lessons from 2009?
I've put this short list together based on the experiences shared by our clients and the work we've done this year.
1. Earning clients or investors trust is an ever-present task....the more we do now, the most goodwill we'll 'bank' for a rainy day
2. Educating clients and investors is now a requirement, not a 'nice to have' for most financial services marketers
3. Marketing budgets are in fact largely discretionary...but strong communication is not. Businesses were threatened when communication was poor enough. And others thrived this year thanks to better-than-average communication.
4. Return is everything, cost is not. Dollars spent now have to work harder to deliver outcomes and show a return on objectives or investment. In this new, more thrifty paradigm, "cheap" can be good in marketing as long as it delivers a return - the same is true of larger spends.
5. Good people are still worth their weight in gold. The businesses who managed to keep their best marketing and communication people continued to deliver the best marketing, media and communication results.
What's ahead in 2010?
Predictions are dangerous but what the hell...it's my last post for the year and I think I've got a clear bead on what CEOs and marketers want from us in 2010.
Here are the top four things I think we'll see in financial services marketing communication in the year to come:
1. Cost pressures will remain - forcing ever more efficient results from all marketing spends and driving the "evolution of evaluation" and online delivery
2. Financial services PR will come to mean both traditional and online PR as financial services and wealth management firm migrate their traditional PR online (here's how to do that!)
3. Direct-to-consumer will rise as the new perceptual battle ground for PR. While media outlets will remain hugely influential, financial services brands will now be battling harder for the first page of Google, not just media coverage dominance
4. Education, particularly via content marketing, will come of age in financial services. Where once it was the lone voice of BT, in those long copy ads of the 90s, it's now going to be micro sites such as the Perpetual one - populated not with a few key themes but with a veritable library of content - "markeducation" to investors.
On that note, I'm signing off for the year. Posts will resume in late January, and I'll be moderating comments in the meantime...and of course still interested in your views as we talk on or offline about the posts and all things financial services communication.
Thanks for reading, and for your comments this year...and happy holidays.
And it was actually funny because for the smallest moment we'd forgotten how this year began.
As 2009 started most of us working in financial services could think of nothing else.
As the year ends most of us are thinking about next year - how to capture more of our markets, how to take a new market or to re-establish ourselves.
The themes our clients are talking & asking about are now completely different to this time last year or to just a quarter ago.
Just a few months back we were talking about fund retention, preserving reputation, staying in front of investors or clients to build trust, and cutting costs.
Now it's all about proactive communication, educating or engaging investors, content marketing, building brands and marketing ROI.
In a year where there were plenty of hard lessons what are the stand outs and what does it mean for 2010?
So what are the communication lessons from 2009?
I've put this short list together based on the experiences shared by our clients and the work we've done this year.
1. Earning clients or investors trust is an ever-present task....the more we do now, the most goodwill we'll 'bank' for a rainy day
2. Educating clients and investors is now a requirement, not a 'nice to have' for most financial services marketers
3. Marketing budgets are in fact largely discretionary...but strong communication is not. Businesses were threatened when communication was poor enough. And others thrived this year thanks to better-than-average communication.
4. Return is everything, cost is not. Dollars spent now have to work harder to deliver outcomes and show a return on objectives or investment. In this new, more thrifty paradigm, "cheap" can be good in marketing as long as it delivers a return - the same is true of larger spends.
5. Good people are still worth their weight in gold. The businesses who managed to keep their best marketing and communication people continued to deliver the best marketing, media and communication results.
What's ahead in 2010?
Predictions are dangerous but what the hell...it's my last post for the year and I think I've got a clear bead on what CEOs and marketers want from us in 2010.
Here are the top four things I think we'll see in financial services marketing communication in the year to come:
1. Cost pressures will remain - forcing ever more efficient results from all marketing spends and driving the "evolution of evaluation" and online delivery
2. Financial services PR will come to mean both traditional and online PR as financial services and wealth management firm migrate their traditional PR online (here's how to do that!)
3. Direct-to-consumer will rise as the new perceptual battle ground for PR. While media outlets will remain hugely influential, financial services brands will now be battling harder for the first page of Google, not just media coverage dominance
4. Education, particularly via content marketing, will come of age in financial services. Where once it was the lone voice of BT, in those long copy ads of the 90s, it's now going to be micro sites such as the Perpetual one - populated not with a few key themes but with a veritable library of content - "markeducation" to investors.
On that note, I'm signing off for the year. Posts will resume in late January, and I'll be moderating comments in the meantime...and of course still interested in your views as we talk on or offline about the posts and all things financial services communication.
Thanks for reading, and for your comments this year...and happy holidays.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
10 steps to take your financial services pr & marcomms communication online
This morning my colleague Paul Cheal and I presented a seminar about how Australian financial services marketers still have a window of opportunity to achieve “first mover advantage through online PR”.
This afternoon we also published an eBook focusing on the most practical take-away from that seminar - the ten simple steps to take your pr and marketing communication online.
Yes, it’s a new era of consumer sovereignty (post-Ripoll, post-GFC & mid-online PR (r)evolution).
Yes, transparency in retail and institutional markets is, or will be, greater than ever before
And choice of information channels & sales channels will proliferate…
At the same time the rise and rise of social media means choice of marketing tools can be overwhelming.
Where to start?
By taking the same principles we learned in traditional PR, communication and marketing online – and playing by the new rules of the social media world.
The sweet spot for financial services is online PR.
By online PR we mean:
- 1. Quality and quantity content that earns you search engine superiority and viewer attention
- 2. Communication direct to clients in both institutional and retail markets
- 3. All linked back to an effective website AND
- 4. Engaging your audiences with the next “P” in financial services marketing – philosophy.
Because in the new digital democracy it will be what you stand for, what you do and how interesting you can make it, that earns you the attention of the people who matter most to your business.
So what are YOU going to do to tell your business’s story more effectively online?
Download BlueChip Communication's ten steps to online PR for financial services here.
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