Proactive and effective media relations

Effective, proactive and well-informed media relations is at the core of any productive public relations campaign. Successful PR in today’s always-on 24/7 news cycle encompasses paid, earned, shared and owned media. With media relations focusing almost entirely on generating positive and valuable earned media coverage: establishing and improving the relationship between a company or brand and the media.

In order to tell your company’s or brand’s story well, a targeted and well-executed media relations campaign is essential. Spreckley’s seasoned and experienced PR practitioners nurture and develop their own relationships with the best, most relevant broadcast, digital and print media outlets and journalists. This enables us to ensure the right media outlets are regularly covering your business’s news and running interview-based features, positioning your key executives as thought leaders in their chosen field.

Whether you wish to increase your visibility in the media, or want to better manage your company or brand’s messaging, our media relations experts are here to help.

Our PR consultants provide a critical link between your marketing team and the world’s leading specialist, national or broadcast journalists. Through constantly engaging and interacting with the editors, news writers, broadcasters, columnists and other correspondents that are covering your industry, our media relations teams make sure that your message is heard.

Understanding the media

A vital component of ensuring that your message cuts through the noise and is communicated effectively to the media is understanding how the media works and what individual journalists want.

Reporters and media outlets exist in order to inform their readers, audiences and the wider public of any relevant news, trends and other developments of interest. From stories with national or international news value, right down to stories that are of value to very specific industry sectors. Spreckley’s media relations experts liaise closely with the right print, broadcast and digital journalists in order to understand and craft the news and story angles they need to do their job well.

The art to successful media relations is in balancing a client’s marketing objectives and messages with the media’s need to report the news that matters, in an engaging, educational and informative manner.

The value of media relations

Unlike advertising or other forms of paid-for marketing, the real value of proactive and effective media relations is achieving recognition and positive endorsements for your company or brand from trusted news or industry media outlets.

That’s exactly why our media relations specialists work so hard to craft our client’s marketing messaging into news releases, media alerts and interview pitches that just do the job: getting your message across to the right reporters, journalists or broadcasters in a timely manner, in order to deliver high-value media coverage that helps you meet your business objectives.

It is the job of a media relations team to constantly develop, create and pitch the news stories, trends pieces, thought leadership features and other newsworthy content of value to your company or brand. Spreckley’s PR consultants use their skills, knowledge, contacts and deep experience of national and international news media or specific B2B specialist media to craft the content you need to get your message across to your target audiences.

The most widely-read and trusted journalists and media outlets value their editorial integrity above and beyond anything else. Which is exactly why receiving their recognition or endorsement for your company, brand, product or services is so valuable. Spreckley’s media relations experts are here to make this happen.

Insightful and hands-on analyst relations

Analyst relations is an increasingly important field in technology and business-to-business public relations. Expert and knowledgeable analysts have a deep understanding of their specialist industry or field. They are able to offer invaluable insight on current and forthcoming industry trends, technologies and business strategies to marketing directors and CMOs.

In addition to helping to develop your business strategy, having a proactive analyst relations team is also invaluable in terms of adding expert credibility to your marketing and PR messaging and content.

Spreckley’s B2B and technology analyst relations teams nurture and manage relationships with some of the world’s leading experts on behalf of our clients. We work closely with both independent specialist analysts and some of the leading global research groups, including Gartner, Forrester, IDC, 451 Research, Ovum, HFS Research, Everest Group, IHS Markit, NelsonHall and Global Data.

Fintech, retail, healthcare and B2B tech specialists

Spreckley’s analyst relations experts assist clients across a number of B2B verticals, specialising in fintech and financial services, health tech & healthcare, retail and enterprise technology.

Our consultants help clients to establish and maintain valuable long-term relationships with the best-suited specialist industry analysts and experts, helping them to meet their business and marketing objectives.

Depending upon your specific business needs and PR or marketing goals, our experts can help you to identify the right independent analysts or research firms to work with. We will then work closely to develop a tailored analyst relations strategy or program, to leverage our relationships with leading business and technology analysts.

Winning business strategies from leading industry experts

Spreckley’s analyst relations experts work closely with clients to develop and execute strategies that enable their businesses to build great relationships with influential and objective third-party experts, industry analysts and research firms.

In addition to nurturing and managing relationships with the right industry analysts, Spreckley’s consultants help clients to develop and create the content that’s needed so support your business goals.

From industry white papers, customer case studies and specialist market research reports through to facilitating analyst briefings, our analyst relations specialists provide both analysts and clients alike with timely and vital industry insights, information, data, networking opportunities and more, Spreckley’s analyst relations teams are here to help you get what your business needs from the world’s leading industry experts.

Creating valuable content

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of relevant, educational and informative content to attract, acquire and engage clearly defined audiences. The key to a successful content marketing campaign is crafting high quality, relevant content that is of high value to your specific target markets. Delivering content that offers valuable insight, information and news on specific business solutions, insights and trends, delivered to the right reader, viewer or listener, at the right time.

There are multiple types and formats of content that can be used in a content marketing campaign, from short-form blogs and social media posts, through to email newsletters, long-form white papers, market research reports, thought leadership articles, ebooks and multimedia content such as webinars, podcasts, videos and infographics.

Developing a successful content marketing strategy

Spreckley’s dedicated content marketing team, headed up by veteran technology journalists and B2B copywriters, is here to advise our clients on content strategy and to assist them in developing the best content ideation, creation and distribution to meet their business needs and objectives.

A successful content marketing strategy is built around creating great content that your target audiences, customers and potential investors or business partners want to read, watch or listen to. Content that genuinely ‘adds value’ and that gives the reader, viewer or listener some new business insights, information or knowledge that they previously did not know or possess.

Why use a content marketing agency?

Spreckley offers clients access to highly skilled and experienced B2B and technology content marketing teams, from high-level content strategists with decades of experience, through to expert writers, videographers, designers and other content specialists.

Our content marketing strategists and experts assist clients across a number of B2B verticals, specialising in fintech and financial services, health tech & healthcare, retail and enterprise technology.

Spreckley’s content strategists are here to devise both short-term and long-term content strategies and content plans that meet your specific business needs or sales and marketing goals.

Great content that cuts through the noise

From developing an overarching content strategy, through to writing, designing, editing or recording specific pieces of content, our teams provide you with all the content skills, experience and know-how to ensure you get the most out of your content marketing. Our experts are dedicated to creating the highest value paid, earned, social and/or owned content you need to help your business grow.

Whatever your content marketing needs: whether you want to attract customer attention and expand your customer base, generate new sales leads or simply increase your brand awareness and credibility in the market, Spreckley’s content marketing team is here to help.

Getting your message out there and cutting through in today’s always-on, 24/7 news cycle is an immense challenge. Spreckley’s content team creates great content that does the job and cuts through the white noise to tell your story through engaging and informing your customer base and target audiences.

Proactive and strategic crisis comms

Proactive and strategic crisis communications and expert reputation management are both increasingly essential in today’s always-on news media landscape. After all, as Warren Buffett famously said, “it can take 20 years to build a reputation and only five minutes to ruin it.”

Potentially damaging news, leaks, rumours or other sensitive business information travels faster than ever in todays connected social media world. Which is exactly why businesses and brands need crisis communications experts and reputation management specialists to maintain a high level of trust and credibility with their customers, investors, business partners and other members of the public.

Over 30 years’ crisis comms experience

For over 30 years, Spreckley’s crisis communications and reputation management specialists have pooled together their extensive skills, knowledge and experience of developing a wide range of proactive and strategic crisis comms programmes for our B2B and technology clients.

Our crisis communications and reputation management experts have successfully helped numerous businesses and organisations to overcome various PR crises, threats to credibility or challenges to their brand or business reputation.

Preparation is key

While it is, by definition, impossible to foresee a crisis, it is still absolutely necessary for businesses and brands to plan how best to respond to potential crisis situations or threats to their reputation or credibility.

For any business or brand, a crisis can be defined as any event, news, rumour, information leak or other situation that, if left unmanaged or unchecked, can do serious damage to its credibility, reputation and, ultimately, the bottom line. This is exactly where a proactive crisis communications strategy and reputation management action plan comes into play.

Planning is everything

Spreckley’s crisis communications and reputation management teams are here to help our clients devise and put in place the best crisis comms practices, tools and processes. Our experts ensure that our clients are fully equipped to deal with any PR crisis, threat to their reputation or challenge to their credibility in the market.

You may not be able to predict when a crisis is going to occur, but by formulating and putting in place an effective crisis comms strategy and plans, you can ensure that you are well-prepared to deal with any eventuality.

Spreckley’s crisis comms motto is simple: planning is everything. The best way to deal with any PR crisis or threat to your reputation is to have a clear, consistent and well-coordinated response. After all, without the ability to avoid panic and to respond calmly, efficiently and rationally, there is always the risk of further PR or reputation damage.

Putting a strategic crisis communications plan together ensures that you and your team are always best-prepared to deal with any reputation-damaging issue or PR threat to your business or brand’s credibility.

Developing an effective PR strategy

Contrary to popular opinion, developing an effective public relations strategy is not only about media relations. A PR strategy is both a long-term plan and an agile tool that helps a company, brand or organisation achieve its business goals.

In today’s always-on, 24/7 social media age, any useful PR strategy is an ‘integrated’ strategy, comprising media, social media, physical and virtual events and more. An integrated PR strategy has to encompass all forms of paid, earned, shared and owned media, in line with the industry-wide accepted ‘PESO model’ (see below).

That’s primarily because it is no longer useful or possible to think of media in the pre-digital siloed manner, where ‘paid media’ was the preserve of advertising and ‘earned media’ was the primary focus of PR. In today’s world, an effective PR strategy helps to build, establish and a business or brand’s reputation through a deep understanding of the impact of the convergence of paid, earned, shared and owned media on the organisation.

The PESO approach to PR strategy

What we call the PESO approach to PR strategy demands that brands, businesses and organisations develop a long-term, holistic and strategic approach to public relations.

Taking such a strategic approach helps to gain a deep understanding of how multiple different PR tactics and elements – from media relations to analyst relations, content strategy, social media and influencer marketing through to event management and more – can best be deployed and work together to achieve an organisation’s long-term business goals and objectives.

Owned media most often refers to the content that is published on your website, in addition to other owned marketing content such as brand magazines, blogs, eBooks, white papers, podcasts and other owned media assets. At Spreckley, we have the resources you need to ensure you create the best owned media content and assets to meet your business needs.

Shared media most often refers to content that is hosted on and shared via your social media platforms – primarily channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others. At Spreckley, our social media experts ensure that our clients’ PR content and messages are always publicised and amplified via these shared media channels.

Earned media most often refers to traditional media coverage, achieved by pitching news, features, interviews and other stories of interest to specialist journalists, influential bloggers and social media influencers with large followings. At Spreckley, our media and influencer relations teams leverage deep relationships with journalists, bloggers and influencers to obtain valuable earned media coverage, boosting search engine optimization (SEO) for your business, brand or organisation.

Finally, Spreckley’s paid media specialists look to add value to all PR campaigns by developing the best strategies to publicise and amplify a client’s PR messaging: from pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on Google or LinkedIn and promoted posts on social media platforms through to native content (or sponsored content) campaigns with established media outlets, platforms and channels.

PR strategy informs business direction

At Spreckley, when we develop a PR strategy for a client, we always start by identifying a business, brand or organisation’s long-term goals and objectives.

Clearly setting out these long-term goals is the key building block that helps us to plan and deliver effective strategic PR advice and counsel for our clients. This PR strategy then informs the range and mix of specific communications strategies, tactics and campaigns that are needed to achieve these business goals.

That’s also why employ and work closely with the best specialists and sector experts that your business needs to develop and execute the right PR strategy to help you achieve your business goals and objectives. From experienced technology journalists and content strategists to veteran specialist B2B media and analyst relations consultants, the team at Spreckley is built to ensure our clients create, develop and execute the PESO content and campaigns that add measurable business value.