1) Do you NEED solid, consistant media exposure…week after week, or are you
satisfied with “occasional” exposure? Now, this question alone is important…
but not enough. The main component of this question is the IMPORTANCE of
PR.

2) Do you have the internal staff and expertise to commit the internal
resources to your PR efforts?

If you have the internal staff, and they understand Guerrilla PR principles, then
there may be no reason to hire an outside agency.

Paradoxically, the busier you get, the easier it is to parlay, or “set aside”
consistant, important PR activities. Don’t get caught in that trap!

3) Finally, Public Relations is a craft that requires PASSION. You may need PR,
and you may even have the people to conduct your PR campaigns, however,
that’s not enough.

In order to be truly effective, it’s important that your PR campaigns are
conducted with PASSIONATE CONSISTENCY.

Here’s a quick “checklist” you can use to “size up” any PR firm you are
considering to hire:

• Do you get along with the members of the firm? Hiring a PR agency is a
collaboration that you can benefit from, month after month, year after year.
Quality rapport is an essential ingredient.

• Are they realistic, in terms of managing your expectations, or do they
promise you “pie in the sky”? It’s one thing for a PR firm to promise you results.
It’s another thing for them to promise you “specific” results. Maybe you’d like
to get on Oprah Winfrey from the start…so would everyone else.

Be prepared to take advantage of several secondary media opportunities before
you get to the top tier.

Several base hits can score you more runs than going for grand slams every
time.

• Is the PR firm creative? Creative PR people will be more likely to come up with
more “angles” to test.

• Do they understand how to pitch your story? A progressive PR firm will be
effective AND efficient at telling your story…thus, yielding you more media
coverage.

• Do they listen to what you say? Let’s face it…your PR needs are constantly
evolving. Your PR firm should listen…and respond to your unique, evolving
needs.

• Are they using a “hard sell” to get you to sign? A good PR firm is a busy PR
firm. They don’t need to sell you. Their track record will allow you to decide
based on the evidence.

• Do they have local AND regional AND national media contacts? When you go
to a great PR firm, they have cultivated several strategic media relationships,
over many years of time. Are you confident that they have the necessary
Rolodex® to place your story in front of the appropriate media?

• Did they outline a campaign game plan for you? You can predict the
effectiveness of a PR firm by the soundness of their overall strategic approach.

• Have you seen samples of their work? Track record comes in the form of
QUALITY of exposure, in addition to the QUANTITY of exposure.

• Do you believe they undersand your needs and goals?

• Do you feel that they will carry out your PR campaign with consistant
PASSION?

Finally, • Do you should feel comfortable with the fee and the contract?
Getting good PR is a process. It requires well thought out plans, implemented
with passion, and a focus on results in the form of getting your story told to
the world.

So, whether you conduct your PR efforts from within your company, or whether
you hire an outside PR firm…

If media exposure is valuable to you, then you will commit to PR as an ongoing,
systematic part of your overall marketing mix.

Joe Nicassio designs marketing campaigns, and coaches entrepreneurs to improve their bottom-line profits. His website is http://RapidResultsMarketing.com.

To get your free CD “Joe Nicassio Reveals Marketing Philosophies And Secrets That Advertiser Don’t Want You To Know”.

Article Source.

Tags: outsourcing public relations, public relations, financial public relations, PR

Advice about business and life often gets around to one of those “80-20” rules. As in, “80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers or activities.” Here’s my twist on this for publicity and marketing:

Build no more than 20% of your publicity and marketing activities around yourself.

I know. Sounds crazy. “What else besides me would I showcase in my promotions?” a sane person might ask.

But hear me out. Think of all the advertising and marketing messages you’re barraged with all day. Do you welcome them? Do you feel, right now, like hearing from one more person, one more time, about how great their product or service is?

Well, neither does anyone else.

So there’s the problem with building your whole marketing or PR campaign around your credentials, or the superb service or product you offer. Sorry to break the news, but most folks just don’t care.

So the question becomes, what do they care about? And what should you build 80% of your PR around?

Here’s my simple to answer. You even knew it all along, because it applies to you too. Most people care most about one thing.

Themselves.

And that’s why any financial planner should build 80% of their publicity around what the prospect cares about.

Here’s what I mean: Your service helps people. You help them solve a problem, or enable them to delegate a task they’d rather avoid. Every day, you share and apply the highly specialized expertise and professional knowledge you’ve acquired over years.

So that’s what your PR should be all about – 80% of it, at least. Especially your media publicity. Because in the media, information rules. It’s the fuel that drives our society’s vast media machine.

The media love only one thing more than information, and that’s people’s problems. And didn’t we just say that you’re an expert on solving those, too?

The formula’s simple: talk to your prospects–via the media–about their needs and the problems they face. Share the information and insights you have on these topics. If you do a lot of retirement planning, send information on the latest changes in IRAs. I you specialize in mutual funds, send them information about the newest and best places for people to put their money. If you do, the media will quote or interview you on the topic. Believe it or not, reporters can’t live without articulate experts to interview. Approaching them, and offering your services, is not difficult. Instant—and free—publicity for you!

And finally, if and when you are compelled to mention yourself, do yourself a favor. Skip the adjectives and superlatives. All of them. Because media folks aren’t impressed.

The remaining 20% of your PR? Go ahead and write some press releases about the awards you won, about the new office you opened, about your great skills. It can’t hurt. But don’t think for a minute the media will embrace it as big news.

So remember the 80-20 rule. Give the media and your prospects useful information they need, and let them reach their own informed decision that you’re a good resource. I have seen countless professionals and businesses become media successes following this route. Share your expertise and wisdom. A little bit of it, you’ll find, goes a long way.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele’s MediaImpact, he is the author of “102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice.” To learn more visit his website.

Article Source.

Tags: financial public relations, public relations, financial planning, PR

Financial PR

Financial PR Tips for Hedge Funds

I read a recent article by Bill Blasé within the Emerging Manager Monthly Newsletter. Here are the tips that I gleaned from this article:

• TV viewers and interviewers love contrarians, conflicting views make for interesting television
• Take a pass on issues where you are not an expert and don’t have any value-added insight on the issue
• Media appearances might not bring in a windfall of new business but a well coordinated PR plan combined with grass roots relationship develop and an online presence can be very effective
• Michael Barron who is the CEO of Knott Capital Management commented in the article, “Everyone knows the Fidelitys, the Putnams and the rest of the larger firms in our industry. For some of the smaller firms, this is aw ay you can build recognition and credibility
• Ignore the monitor and the audience, imagine speaking to a single viewer
• Maintain eye contact with the interviewer and not the camera
• Speak slowly and match the interviewers tone and pace
• Short brief 30 second sound bites are ideal for TV appearances

– Richard

Subscribe To this Blog via Email | Or RSS

Articles Related to Financial PR

1. Hedge Fund Marketing
2. Marketing to Institutional Investors
3. Raising Capital
4. Hedge Fund Jobs
5. Third Party Marketing
6. Hedge Fund Public Relations
7. Top 9 Hedge Fund Database Selection Tips
8. Financial Public Relations
9. 3rd Party Marketing
10. Hedge Fund Seed Capital

Permanent Link: Financial PR

Tags: Financial PR, Financial Public Relations, Investment PR, Pr for Finance Firms, Financial PR Consultant, Financial PR advice, Financial Public Relations Consultant

Financial Public Relations

Guest Article: Financial Public Relations

Below is a guest article provided by Dukas Public Relations. It focuses on financial public relations and how some hedge funds are using PR experts to help them navigate the waters of mainstream media outlets.

While it is illegal to promote hedge funds, there are ways to indirectly do so. And the SEC is considering new rules that could allow financial PR groups more room to maneuver.

Hedge funds, one of the fastest-growing corners of the financial industry – one insider calls them the new dot-coms – remain an elusive domain for Public Relations experts. Vaguely understood by the public, largely unregulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and dabbled in by only wealthy or institutional investors, the $850 billion hedge fund world does not lend itself easily to publicity.

For one thing, promoting hedge funds is illegal: Only investors accredited by the hedge funds are allowed to get information about them. If a fund is promoted beyond accredited investors, the SEC can halt money going into it and even level sanctions.

Hedge funds are the purview of large financial investors, like investment banks, and the well-connected wealthy who can stomach sharp windfalls. Like mutual funds, their regulated cousins for the common man, hedge funds pool investors’ money and then invest in generally high-yield instruments.

Without much oversight, pretty much anything goes – financially speaking – when it comes to this investing, according to the SEC, including speculative practices like leveraging that can amp up the risk of big losses. All such funds have high investment minimums – at least $1 million in many cases – that keep them within the domain of accredited investors legally allowed to play their investments close to the chest. Many now are becoming part of retirement funds.

The SEC estimates that hedge fund assets have exploded 15-fold since 1993. A Factiva search of “hedge funds” turned up 30,720 media mentions in the 36 months from January 2000 through December 2002, but 34,201 mentions in just the last 19 months. Still, hedge funds seem secretive to the public, says one financial expert, and even to the business media.

“I think there’s a perception by the general public that hedge funds are opaque, secretive, and mysterious,” says George Lucaci, MD of capital markets at hedgefund.net, a web source for hedge fund news and performance data. “And unfortunately, the media has propagated that myth.”

“There are rules to how much you can say and when, so they have not traditionally done [Public Relations],” says Howard Zar, IR partner at Porter Novelli, of hedge fund managers.

How, then, do the funds promote themselves? They do, in fact, find ways to use Public Relations – though staying within the bounds of the law is tricky. And if proposed rules by the SEC are passed, they might be using financial public relations firms even more.

Promotional tactics
The promotion of hedge funds is different from other financial public relations efforts and it demands one rule of thumb, really: They can’t advertise or engage in general solicitation. Because only accredited investors can come on board, usually hedge fund managers seek out investors among people they know – family, friends, colleagues – and wealthy people, as well as institutional investors.

Still, hedge funds can take two approaches to, in a roundabout way, promoting themselves.

Hedge funds can publicize the expertise of their portfolio managers if they also manage other registered products. Those managers can talk up the company and the registered products – they just can’t talk about any hedge funds the company maintains. “One of the things you often find in hedge funds is people who have a lot of expertise,” says Zar. “So they can speak as experts and gain exposure for themselves.”

A company also can promote registered products that are similar in management to the hedge funds – but, again, it is not allowed to talk about the hedge funds themselves.

Richard Dukas, President of Richard Dukas Communications, a financial public relations firm that advises hedge funds, gives an example of these promotional approaches in action. A hedge fund manager his firm counsels, Keller DiLeo Cohen & Co., has about $500 million under management. It also handles M&A arbitrage, and its CIO is an expert in M&A. When speculation over a merger between Disney and Comcast swirled in June, Dukas’ PR firm touted the CIO to the media for his expertise in M&A. Media reports involving the CIO noted that he worked for a hedge fund manager, and the reports named the firm.

But the key, as Dukas and others point out, is that the hedge fund itself, such as its strategy and performance, was never promoted – only the expertise of its CIO.

This promotion has a two-fold effect. The manager’s name is out there, raising visibility and credibility for the hedge fund, Dukas says, and it also bolsters the fund’s reputation with existing and potential investors.

But one problem with this approach is the subjective nature of whether a company slides into promoting the hedge fund. Promotion, in this case, is like the classic definition of obscenity: People know it when they see it. The SEC does not define what it means by “general solicitation” or “advertising.” And what those terms mean to different hedge fund professionals seems to vary.

“There’s no prohibition: Thou shalt not be quoted,” says Michael Robinson, director of Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, DC, and a former public affairs director at the SEC. “But you have to be careful what you say.”

Without clear guidelines, hedge funds must make their way carefully.

“There’s not a uniformity of opinion here, but as a general rule, all of these interests and funds are privately placed,” says Eliot Raffkind, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a law firm based in Dallas and New York that works with hedge funds. “There are no sort of black-line tests here under existing laws. So the question is, at what point are you giving so much information to a reporter that you’re engaging in general solicitation or advertising? My view is you shouldn’t be mentioning the name of your fund; you shouldn’t give any of the specifics of the fund.”

To contact Richard Dukas regarding financial public relations or hedge fund PR services or to answer any questions you may have you may email him at Richard@DukasPR.com or visit his website at http://DukasPR.com. This article was first published here by Tom Acitelli.

Articles Related to Financial Public Relations

1. Hedge Fund Public Relations
2. Hedge Fund PR
3. Hedge Funds & Media Exposure
4. Hedge Fund Marketing

Permanent Link: Financial Public Relations

Tags: Financial Public Relations, Financial PR, Financial Services PR, Financial Services Public Relations, Financial PR Firms, Public Relations Firm, Boston Public Relations Firm, New York Public Relations Firm