B2B PR Strategy

12 ways to maximise your B2B PR strategy

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B2B PR doesn’t often grab the headlines, especially when it is compared to what is seen (incorrectly) as more creative consumer communications. But the benefits of good PR for business to business activities are plentiful, and clear to everyone working in this industry both in-house and in agency.

To gather the best expert advice for anyone putting together a B2B public relations strategy, we submitted an enquiry through the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service. The response was enormous, and very clear – B2B PR is valuable and for many businesses, vital to their success.

James Murray, client services manager at Definition Agency spelled it out quite simply: ‘PR is about building brand awareness so organisations feel comfortable aligning themselves with you. After all, brand trust is an important part of the buying decision.’

Trust is at the heart of every relationship, and relationships are what PR are all about. As Claire Lamb, director at B2B agency Skout said: ‘A B2B relationship marketing renaissance is coming. Companies need to get human interaction back into their businesses. And remember, people don’t want to be sold to, they want to be helped.’

While some of this advice may prove valuable for all PR, B2B requires special attention. Sarah Carpin, head of PR for Spike explained: ‘Effective B2B coverage, whether it be coverage for brands looking to increase their wholesale client base, or to position themselves as respected and trusted brands within their sector, needs specialist management. B2B PR also covers things like non-competing brand collaborations and charity partnerships, providing client support at trade shows and conferences; hosting customer networking events; submitting award entries and supplying relevant content for LinkedIn, blogs and email newsletters.’

Without further ado, here are 12 tips to improve your B2B PR strategy:

Think about your business strategy
‘A well-thought out, strategically driven media relations programme that’s closely aligned with your business goals will deliver impact, credibility and authenticity, drive loyalty and communicate values. You want the reaction from your customers that they see you “all over everywhere”. If you’re front of mind, you’ll be first on the call list.’ – Felicity Read, managing director, Leapfrog PR

‘It all begins with your objectives – tell us what they are, and we’ll deliver a holistic strategy which is measurable. That’s because we may love words, but we’re big fans of data too. Every decision we make and piece of content we write, all loops back to those long-term ambitions.’ – Katie Mallinson, founder and MD at Scriba PR

‘As a business, pretty much everything you do is public relations so connecting your business strategy with your PR strategy will help you create impactful campaigns that communicate the right messages to the right people at the right time. It will also make you aware of new opportunities while keeping you ahead of the competition.’ – Anastasia Psarra, account director, Cerub PR

Connect through thought leadership
‘When crafting a B2B PR strategy, it’s important not to forget that people buy from people. B2B PR provides an invaluable opportunity for businesses to authentically connect with their target customers through thought-leadership.’ – Julia Clements Roche, Write Thought Communications

‘Thought leadership remains crucial to B2B PR strategies, as it helps to build trust, credibility and influences brand perception and purchasing decisions. To make an impact, thought leadership needs to be original and deliver real value and expertise to the intended audience.’ – Gemma Eccleston, associate director at PR Agency One

‘A strong thought leadership led public relations campaign helps businesses to get heard above the background noise and create brand awareness that amplifies other marketing campaign elements, while also providing critical ‘air cover’ to the sales campaign.’ – Ashley Carr, founder and managing director, at Neo PR

Build up internal profiles and personal brands
‘Contributing articles, making yourself available for comment and securing interview and podcast opportunities will all help to build your organisation as a trusted source of information and opinion and hopefully someone that other companies will want to consider doing business with.’ – The PR Team at Progeny

‘Newsrooms are shrinking, content is increasing digitally and editors are looking for vendor neutral thought leadership bylines on an ongoing basis. If you have subject matter experts on your team, you are missing a huge PR opportunity if you are not writing and having your PR agency place these articles with your target media.’ – Joanne Hogue, partner at Smart Connections PR

‘Think about smaller-scale, but potentially more effective, comment opportunities around industry news and trends. Although the client may not have a huge pull to their name, and may not get featured in nationals, don’t forget to send these insider comments to lesser-known, but still extremely valuable, industry-relevant blogs.’ – Lydia German, marketing and outreach coordinator at Tao Digital Marketing

Think digitally
‘Join things up. B2B can provide fundamental support to other marketing functions, such as lead gen and SEO, so make sure you fully leverage the opportunities available.’ – Louise Findlay-Wilson, funder and managing director of Energy PR

‘Not only does digital PR help with building brand awareness, but it can also be used to increase the overall domain rating of your website, drive traffic to specific product pages and help to rank above your competitors for certain terms.’ – Chloe Deans, PR and content manager at Access Mintsoft

‘Over 70% of B2B purchase decisions start with a search, according to Google. Allow PR to do what it can do best – leverage relationships, create link-worthy PR stories and earn coverage with links.’ – Proactive PR, which specialises in B2B technology PR

Make your content work for you
‘PR is not an isolated tool – amplification is a core part of any PR strategy. Simply sending out a press release or a thought-leadership article is not enough. It deserves more. So, make sure you’re using your other assets – your blog, social, email – to amplify that message to your core audience. Make your content work as hard for you as possible.’ – Tom Bestwick, content marketing and PR consultant at Hallam

Keep it simple
‘Make your copy to the point, jargon free and easy to understand. If the journo has spent three years writing for Coil Winding Intl and then moves to Mobile Europe as feature editor, they are not going to understand the importance of the 5G frequency spectrum for connecting to multiple IOT devices in the first few months. Guide them.’ – Mark Casey, founder and CEO of Dais Comms

‘Simplicity is at the heart of B2B PR. Not simplistic ideas or lazy thinking, but the ability to make complex and nuanced information understandable. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.’ – Lynsey Barry, co-founder of B2B PR agency Five not 10

Provide context in your content
‘We’ve found that a greater focus on macroeconomic data helps. Adding more background to communications can help clients make sense of what’s happening in the wider world and how the service/product you are marketing resonates in context. We’ve been focusing on this over the past year and saw an almost 50% increase in coverage in 2021 as a result of this and other actions.’ – Leor Franks, business development & marketing director at Kingsley Napley LLP

Be creative and collaborate
‘Reach out to other brands who aren’t direct competitors but whose service offering can interlink with yours. At the very least, propose a blog post exchange. Or go bigger with a podcast/webinar!’ – Heather Wilkinson, content manager, Addition

‘There are now various mainstream examples of B2B brands being as creative, if not more, as their B2C counterparts. The likes of Slack, Salesforce and NICE are all investing huge sums in ad space that would historically be reserved for B2C brands, often with big name celebrity endorsements. So, you shouldn’t feel restricted in your creativity as a B2B brand.’ – Lee Simpson, account director at Fourth Day PR

Uncover opportunities in your data
‘If content is king, data is queen. Many B2B companies are already sitting on a wealth of useful data that can be used for PR. Highlighting product/service trends, regional variations or industry insights within a particular targeted sector is usually really appreciated by journalists and has the resulting effect of positioning the organisation involved as an expert on the subject.’ – Ali Cort, client services director, Browser Media

‘Data is your friend: Make the most of the research and the data team. Find out what they can pull from customer experience or from the back end of the site and see if there is a story within it.’ – Jodie Harris, head of digital PR at www.BlueArray.co.uk

Maximise your social channels
‘Social media can be your biggest asset. A little bit can go an awful long way to drive additional reach and engagement with a brand, if you get your strategy right. Don’t let clients tell you their audience isn’t on social – they just haven’t found them yet.’ – Louise Watson-Dowell, PR & digital strategy director at Definition

Understand your audiences
‘Really understanding your audience — PR at Degreed is about building our authority as a market leader. We cannot achieve this if we aren’t hyper-focused on the major opportunities and pain points facing our target market today. Our PR outreach is global, so instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, we tailor everything to each region including our angles, research, experts, and even our timings.’ – Jade Emmons PR manager at Degreed

‘Know your verticals – B2B brands often have very specific sectors they’re selling into and the message and offering may change wildly from sector to sector. As a PR professional, you must be able to adapt the message and adapt your pitch to secure coverage in a range of publications, across different verticals.’ – David Clare, head of PR at B2B tech marketing agency Fox Agency

Adapt for a sectorised approach
‘In the property sector, the best B2B results often come from integrated corporate and consumer campaigns, with audiences sourcing news and information from a range of sources.

‘Whether developers, agents, funds, charities or other, all organisations working in real estate need to earn trust from their stakeholders to achieve their objectives – if you’re considering whether to grant planning permission or invest millions, that market-wide reputation really matters to seal the deal. That means B2B PR in the property sector needs to ensure you’re building authenticity in your brand, in everything that you do, whether it’s how you show up in your audience’s LinkedIn feed and your share of voice in the investor circuit to what is being said about you or your projects in the weekend papers they read, by an influencer they trust or by your customers.’ – Laura Leggetter, one of SEC Newgate UK’s heads of communications

For more information on how Vuelio can help your B2B public relations and marketing, find out more here.

Want to try out the Journalist Enquiry Service for yourself? Start contributing relevant data, expert comment, product news and much more to the UK media – book a demo.

Brand personality

How to showcase your brand’s personality

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This is a guest post from EverBold marketing executive Orla McCormack.

If you asked a marketing director or public relations manager what is meant by the term ‘brand personality’ twenty years ago, you may have got a response along the lines of, ‘What did you put in your coffee this morning?’

Nowadays, you are more likely to come across a human being lacking in personality traits rather than a brand that lacks them. Brand personality is a central focus for all marketing and public relations efforts of any brand looking to stand out among the crowd.

Here are some tips on how you can best portray the personality of a brand within a competitive sector, using the car insurance industry as an example.

Identifying and defining your brand personality
Just as an individual’s personality affects how others view them, your brand personality will determine how your customers view your brand. Therefore, it’s important that you strategically outline the traits of your brand’s personality from the get-go, rather than leaving the development of the brand personality to chance. So, the first thing you should ask yourself is simply, ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What are your core goals?’

Look: Brand appearance
Sectors like insurance can be perceived as quite boring and mundane – a task that requires lots of paperwork. But with the right brand appearance, it could be aligned with the liberation of being able to travel anywhere we like, alongside the security of knowing you’re covered. For our work with MissQuote.ie, for example, we use fun, bright and bold colours – orange, pink and white.

Sound: Brand voice
The next thing to identify is the tone of voice of the brand; in other words, how do we want to be heard? The voice of your brand contributes significantly to the perception of the brand personality. Should your tone of voice be formal or casual? Serious or funny? Traditional or on trend?

Once you have decided the tone of your brand’s voice, it is critical to keep the sound of your voice consistent – consistency is essentially the only way to build a recognisable and memorable voice.

Action: Brand behavior
Once you have established the appearance and voice of your brand, you need to start emulating this defined sound and look within the behaviour of your brand. The brand behaviour is demonstrated through the way in which your brand interacts with real customers. Essentially, you need to show that your brand can walk the walk. Engaging with your community online and offline through the content you post on social media, sponsorships and online interactions are all fantastic ways to engage with the brand’s community.

It’s vital to ensure that the content you are posting to your social media channels is emulating the brand’s personality; this could be funny, yet relevant memes, question polls and compelling blogs. You should also put real effort into replying to messages, comments and posts from social media followers, with all comments consistently relaying the brand voice.

Those working in the marketing, comms or public relations departments of any company, big or small, that operate within a competitive industry will appreciate how difficult it can be to get your brand to stand out among the rest. Consumers are more likely to trust and engage with a brand that resembles traits of their own personality. Therefore, it is important to really focus on the target market of the brand when defining your brand personality. Ultimately, it’s better to have a defined personality rather than one that is undefined and unheard, even if it means you won’t catch every fish in the pond.

For ensuring your brand is finding the right audience, book a demo of Vuelio’s monitoring, insights and media database solutions.

Want more on brand personality? Here are 3 tips for keeping your brand consistent across social media platforms , top tips for finding an effective tone of voice for your online brand and how to pick the right ambassador for your brand.

Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah

Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah becomes Vice Chair of the PRCA Race and Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB)

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The PRCA’s Race and Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB) has appointed Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah as Vice Chair.

Having originally joined REEB in January 2021, Emmanuel leads the ethnic men in PR and social mobility work stream. He works to create long-term change for diverse talent in public relations and comms and has mentored professionals from diverse backgrounds throughout his career to help them in their own journeys in the comms industry.

Alongside his role at Mercer as Acting UK PR Lead, Emmanuel serves as a Board Member for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Black Business Association, is part of the UK Black Comms Network, and is a Board Member of South Quay College. Adding to his credentials, Emmanuel also recently gained a qualification from the University of South Florida Muma Business College focusing on Diversity and Inclusion within the workplace.

‘This week is Race Equality Week and Emmanuel exemplifies why we need an annual reminder that racial equality along with gender and social mobility can’t be taken for granted,’ said REEB Chair Barbara Phillips.

‘We should never forget that most of us intersect across at least three protected characteristics where race is the foundation. Appointing Emmauel as Vice Chair of REEB sends a message to Black, Asian, Mixed Race and ethnically diverse men that your voice is as important as anyone else’s especially in the ongoing battle to achieve greater racial equality in our industry.’

Emmanuel himself is encouraged by the work the PRCA is doing when it comes to equality within the industry:

‘As Race Equality Week begins, I am encouraged by the progress we have made through our Ethnicity Pay Gap report and our PRISM mentoring scheme,’ said Emmanuel.

‘We want to see visible, equitable representation among senior decision makers. I am personally committed to ensuring that more black men like myself can occupy senior roles and thrive. I look forward to working with Barbara and the REEB members to create meaningful change.’

For more on the work of PRCA’s PRCA Race and Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB), read our previous interviews with Chair Barbara Phillips and Vice Chair Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah.

How to tackle vague requests from journalists

How to tackle vague requests from journalists

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While the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service enables the UK media to send out targeted requests to PR and comms professionals, sometimes exact detail on what would be most useful to them isn’t included.

If you’ve received a vague but intriguing request from a journalist, here is how to approach it.

1) Check all of the information that is available to you
When filling in the Journalist Enquiry Service form, a journalist has space to add plenty of detail on what they’re looking for in the ‘Query’ field but, like PRs, journalists are often working to set deadlines and might not have time to include everything. That can occasionally mean a short and slightly vague description of what they want coming to your inbox.

However, there will be useful detail included in the request. Enquiries sent out via the Journalist Enquiry Service have to include certain details before they’re distributed to the PRs signed up to receive them – giving you a good start on determining their relevance to you, even without a lengthily-written Query section.

When a journalist fills out the form, they will have picked out what they’re ‘Looking for’:

What journalists are looking for

They will also have picked from the ‘Select categories’ section, choosing which PR sectors they want to receive contributions from for the request (which will be decided by the sectors and topics they’re writing about as well as the audiences their content is being written for – meaning you’ll know if their audience is also likely to be yours):

Categories on the Journalist Enquiry Service

If you’ve received the request, there’s a good chance you can help, but there are other elements to check first:

Don’t: Pitch news about products, even if you think it might be related to their topic. Quotes and expertise are what is being asked for here – they aren’t working on a product piece this time.

Do: Offer time with a person who can offer expertise, obviously, but you could also send over a recent press release with information about a related project your expert is working on, with how journalists can get in touch.

2) React to their deadline
Dreaded deadlines – everyone working in the creative industries has them. And as in comms, the research that goes into the writing/filming/production of a piece or project for a journalist has its very own timeline, separate from the filing of the finished piece, and its sharing with the wider world.

The deadline a journalist adds to a request distributed via the Journalist Enquiry Service will be for the research gathering part of their piece – not for the filing or the finishing. That doesn’t mean you have extra time to play with when collaborating with them.

Don’t: Offer something you won’t definitely, absolutely be able to provide in time for the journalist to finish and file their piece with their editor. Check your client is available before you arrange a time to call, make sure you can post a product to the journalist before they need to hit ‘send’ on their copy. A journalist will remember a PR who has let them down.

Do: Be clear about what exactly you can provide and when, making sure it’s before the deadline on the enquiry. ‘I might be able to to…’ won’t work – a journalist isn’t likely to take a chance on a lead that won’t lead to anything.

3) Use the opportunity to introduce yourself as a useful connection – not as a hindrance
The Journalist Enquiry Service is a great first step for creating a connection with media contacts you want to keep working with. Like introducing yourself in person, first impression is important. You might not know at the start exactly what the journalist wants, but be cautious and clever with your introduction.

Don’t: One thing to never do is send something only very vaguely connected to the subject the journalist is writing about. It’s too much of a long-shot. Rather than be filed away for another day, the irrelevant press release, product info or offer of expertise could get you added to a ‘not a helpful PR – possible spammer’ list in the journalist’s memory bank, or even straight-up blocked from their inbox.

Do: If the journalist is someone you’d love to work with, but this request they’ve sent just doesn’t seem to be for you? Hold back this time – there will be another request you can help with in future.

Not signed up to receive requests from the UK media via the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service yet? Book a demo here, and check out why it might be more effective for you than searching #JournoRequest on social media.

Bold Communications in Regulated Industries

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Managing comms and PR in regulated industries can be challenging. With additional rules to know and follow, it can sometimes feel like your comms is being stifled.

But the greater the restrictions the more creative the solutions, and brands across regulated industries have been forced to find news ways to reach their audiences, deliver cut-through content and achieve campaign success.

In our latest webinar, Bold Communications in Regulated Industries, we were joined by Lisa Stone, Director, Client Strategy at Edelman and Luke O’Mahony, Head of PR at Investec, who shared their secrets to finding success in controlled industries.

Fill in the form below to watch the webinar and learn

  • What you need to know when communicating in a regulated industry
  • How reactive comms can still be part of your playbook
  • The secret to (regulated) creative success
Regulated industries

6 tips for being creative and compliant in regulated industries

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Compliance doesn’t have to stop the flow of creativity when putting together campaigns within regulated industries. For our webinar Bold Communications in Regulated Industries, Edelman’s director, client strategy Lisa Stone and Investec’s head of PR Luke O’Mahony shared solutions for sectors including healthcare, pharma, fintech and financial services.

1) New KPIs mean new opportunities
‘In healthcare, it’s really difficult because we can’t promote products,’ said Lisa. ‘I see that as an opportunity. We don’t have that as a KPI – there’s no “how many brand or product mentions did we get?” Instead, we really get to focus on the cultural insight, the patient population we’re trying to track.

‘When we talk about product in healthcare, it’s actually about client need. What is the trigger we’re trying to solve? If you take product out of it, it becomes a lot easier.’

2) Parameters can provide you with a blueprint
‘From the outset, we have a basic understanding of what you can and can’t do in a regulated industry,’ said Luke of working in the financial services sector. ‘That’s the key constraint, more than money in many cases.

‘When agencies are involved, there’s an interesting tension there. You want an agency to be aggressive with their ideas and push you, but it’s also got to be sensible.’

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3) Make the most of your clients’ and agencies’ existing knowledge
‘Because we’re all in the same space, we all usually understand the parameters,’ says Lisa.

‘Clients are really involved in that journey. If we’re talking about a new drug launch, we’ll need to consider from a client or healthcare professional perspective, and in a way, that’s freeing. Instead of talking about a drug, how instead do we talk about the challenges in a way that will really resonate and encourage a dialogue that will lead them to consider other treatment options?’

The same is true in the finance sector, says Luke: ‘The business understands what’s required of us, in my experience; nobody’s saying, “Well, why didn’t you do a load of TV ads?”

‘The way we like to work with clients is to consult. We’ll engage with them. Sometimes they’ll say, ‘maybe you’ve been overcautious’ – we work compliance in right from the beginning, rather than at the end.

4) Compliance considerations covered = quicker sign off from stakeholders
‘Involving compliance from the get-go really helps with getting the sign off,’ says Lisa.

‘KPIs should be built into your programming from the beginning. In the healthcare industry, so many of our clients are trying to build trust within stakeholder groups and that’s something we can really measure effectively. There’s lots of room for us to look at how perception has changed and how the campaign has impacted that. There is value in investing in that kind of work.’

See the impact of your content with Media Monitoring

5) Use caution – find different ways to be creative
‘Be cautious,’ says Luke. ‘You’ve really got to read the room – it’s really important that your campaign ties into something broader in regulated industries.’

‘We find that personality can come through when it’s a personal communication. As a company, we have to have a certain tone, but we encourage our research analysts, for example, to let their own tone of voice shine through in comms. I think that reflects positively and makes the content more engaging.’

6) Anticipate change to get your sector ready for what’s on the horizon
Is your sector not regulated yet, but it’s on the way? Act like you’re already regulated, advises Luke.

‘The worst thing a business can do is think “let’s make hay while the sun shines.” Be a trusted company before the regulation comes in – that pays off in the long term.’

‘The latest Edelman’s Trust Barometer found that businesses are the institution most trusted by the public,’ adds Lisa.

‘This represents a huge opportunity – know your audience. Share thought leadership – as a trusted sector, you can really take the lead.’

More Vuelio webinars sharing best practice for both agency and in-house comms and public relations practitioners can be found here. 

Expanding into Europe

Supporting your clients in their European expansion: 4 points to consider

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This is a guest post from Nikki Scrivener, director & co-founder of Fourth Day PR.

It has been a challenging couple of years for UK businesses and pandemic-driven uncertainty has forced many to adapt their strategies. Budget cuts – paired with restrictions on international travel and events – have also made launching in a new market difficult.

But, while the complexities brought about by COVID-19 and Brexit are not completely behind us, organisations are still optimistic about expansion. For many, this might mean entering a new market or region.

Your client may be looking to replicate their UK success in Europe, particularly where there are opportunities in the sectors they are targeting. Energy, healthcare, and manufacturing are growth industries in France, for example, while automotive, food, and electrical engineering are buoyant markets in Germany.

Regardless of the industry your client is in, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to international comms. Don’t be tempted to just replicate what’s worked in the UK. Here are just a few things to consider when planning a PR campaign across multiple countries.

1. Understand the landscape
The PR landscape differs greatly across Europe. The UK, for example, is more open to direct PR approaches, due in part to the ratio of journalists to PR practitioners. With smaller newsrooms, many outlets will accept PR content that is of editorial standard – making it possible to place the right stories in high quality publications.

The numbers are different in Germany, however, with two-thirds of journalists to one-third PRs. When the PR landscape is vastly shaped by journalists, they are in firm control of what makes it onto their pages. Understanding how the media operates in a new territory, and the types of stories that resonate, will help you to adapt your strategy and content.

2. Adapt your tactics
Your usual PR tactics might yield different results across Europe, so it’s important to understand media preferences when planning your launch.

Obviously, in the UK, journalists expect a quick turnaround on content and often request last-minute, data-rich quotes from top-level executives. Companies that can be agile and act quickly can land the best coverage, including in national titles.

Bylines are also a powerful PR tool in the UK, but mainly in the B2B media arena. In France, however, national newspapers regularly accept bylines from company execs, provided they address a newsworthy, trending topic.

In Germany, the PR landscape is slightly more traditional. The importance of print is undeniable, and there’s a certain prestige attached to magazine coverage. With deadlines months in advance for B2B print media, companies often pitch stories in May and have them published in September, so a long-term content strategy is needed for this market.

3. Build relationships
As face-to-face meetings slowly make a comeback, knowing how to network with journalists in a new market can be a real boost for your PR campaign – whether you are setting up a meeting to introduce your client to a journalist, or simply trying to build connections with local editors yourself.

Europe’s bustling events calendar – packed with annual trade shows and industry showcases – presents a great opportunity to meet with journalists, introduce your client, and build meaningful connections. While these opportunities do exist in France, French journalists often prefer one-to-one lunches or desk-side briefings.

Knowing where the media are based in each market is also important when trying to secure quality time with journalists. In the UK, for example, most (but not all) trade publications are based in the South of England, whereas in Germany, trade outlets tend to be located in sector-specific hubs. So, you will typically find more tech outlets clustered in Munich and more financial outlets in Frankfurt. And unlike the UK – which has strong regional business outlets – most French news outlets are headquartered in Paris, so meetings with journalists will need to take place in the capital.

4. Localising your content
My last piece of advice is simple – localise! At a very basic level, content should be translated and adapted using local insights where possible. Having local spokespeople is also advised if you are planning to make a lasting impression with the media. In Spain, for example, a local country manager who can talk about local plans will be more interesting than an English-speaking CEO addressing the ‘global picture’.

And when it comes to the subject matter, proceed with caution when it comes to promotional or product-led content. The UK media are sometimes happy to include product details if it ties in with a feature, but the German press are less lenient and will more than likely offer you a paid opportunity instead.

Once you’ve had a taste of success launching your client in one market, it’s great to be able to replicate that elsewhere. However, with each location having its own cultural nuances, it’s crucial to have a tailored communications plan that can work in each region. To launch successfully in Germany, France – or beyond – take your time to assess the PR landscape, adjust your tactics, and localise, localise, localise!

For targeting the right journalists with the right content internationally, try the Vuelio Media Database – book a demo here. 

BBC

PR needs the BBC

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Dead cat or party policy, the very real threat to end the BBC licence fee announced by culture secretary Nadine Dorries – before she partially backtracked – should be a concern to all in PR.

The announced two-year freeze to the BBC licence fee will impact its output, and director general Tim Davie has said ‘everything’s on the agenda’, including news and programming. While commentary on the small amount of money the freeze is saving each household – compared to the costs of rising energy bills or tax changes – suggests this move was politically motivated during ‘partygate’, the conversation around BBC reform and its replacement has been present in Westminster for many years.

Jessica Morgan, owner of Carnsight Communications, believes the end of the BBC ‘Would be devastating for so many.’ She added: ‘We are so lucky to have a quality national broadcaster in the BBC and I’ve benefited from it so much, both professionally and personally.’

The BBC is by no means perfect, questions continue to be raised on its editorial position on certain subjects, and its funding model is not as progressive as public broadcasters in some neighbouring countries. But it has the biggest audience, its output and content streams are vast and, though it is often criticised for not achieving it, the corporation is required to be impartial and deliver content without commercial association.

This is one of the reasons the BBC gets such a hard time in much of the press – in a digital age, it has become one of the news sector’s biggest competitors and it is not reliant on consumer payment to justify its content.

But for PR and comms professionals, this should be seen as one of its virtues.

Jessica said: ‘It’s still incredibly discerning – you always have to have a very strong angle to be featured, and I think that’s fantastic. No commercial tie ups ever come into it, certainly within the UK, and I think that makes the content all the more powerful.’

PR rightly focuses on the increasing threat of mis and disinformation, audience trust and journalistic independence. The BBC, despite its flaws, generally manages these issues to a high standard and trust in the organisation remains high. Securing PR coverage with the BBC means your story has passed quality control and will have a greater impact on your target audience.

And if your target audience is niche, which organisation is better able to serve them appropriate content than the BBC? Not needing consumer payment for content cuts both ways in this respect. All things to all people is usually a terrible approach – and the BBC has at times wildly missed the mark – but it is required to serve as much of the population as possible, often giving unique or underrepresented communities a greater platform.

Media strategist and How to make your company famous author Jon Card points to niche audiences as something that would be lost if the licence fee was scrapped: ‘The BBC produces such a broad range of content any reduction in its output would spell bad news for people in comms and PR.

‘It covers a lot of areas which are either quite niche or the public interest. I very much doubt the commercial sector would fill these voids if it stopped doing that.’

The BBC is under threat but 2027 is still a long way off and PR and communications is well placed to support and campaign for improvements to the BBC now, so it can benefit from the BBC of the future.

As Jon concluded: ‘Overall, we are better off for it and anyone working in media would miss it.’

Vuelio media monitoring covers BBC news and programming as well as every other media outlet and publisher.

Feeling blue? Here's some things that you can do

Feeling blue? Here are some things you can do

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While the PR and comms industry is working hard to better support the mental health of practitioners, we can probably all do with more of a boost. Here are some extra ideas for maintaining your wellbeing from a fellow PR, an HR expert and a fitness aficionado.

Pointers from a PR peer: Natalie Trice, author, PR director, career coach
‘Clients, bosses, journalists, colleagues, KPIs and deadlines, is it any wonder that Blue Monday resonates with those working in the PR industry? Add in family commitments, skyrocketing energy prices and Covid and you might want to crawl back into bed and hide under the duvet, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

‘One way to help keep your mood in check is to have a routine that you stick to. Whether you are back in the office or working from home, set your alarm, get up, get showered and get ready for the day ahead. Have a start time, planned breaks, get away from your desk at lunchtime – ideally outside – and set a finish time. This isn’t always possible but long days, sat at your desk, with no fresh air and eating junk food, washed down with gallons of coffee, will not do your mental or physical health any good. These are the foundations for new boundaries and if you block out time in the diary, be strict about saying yes, when you mean no, and are kind to yourself, as well as others, you can start to feel more energised and less blue.

‘Getting away from your desk at least once a day can really help you to not only soak up some vitamin D but blow away the cobwebs, step away from any tricky situations and just let things go for a little while. A walk in the park, a run by the river, a quick bike ride or even lunch with a friend on a bench can be really beneficial for your mood. Block out that time in your calendar as busy so no meetings pop up, grab your coat and feel your shoulders loosen and the tension in your neck release, and remind yourself that you matter as much as that press release with 25 tracked changes that needs “urgent attention”.’

Resources from Human Resources: Access Intelligence’s Head of HR Kate Fraser
‘At Access Intelligence, we’ve been working to normalise conversations about mental wellbeing. As many as 1 in 6 of us experience common mental health issues every week – our mental health is sacred and needs to be nurtured just as much, if not more, than our physical wellbeing.

‘Our own Wellness Manager is both a body transformation coach and a behavioural change specialist and a trauma-informed coach who is aware that focusing on physical fitness is not the complete solution to wellness. She stresses that to achieve long lasting results we may need to change behaviours that often exist as coping mechanisms wired into our brains from childhood and supports us by integrating neuroscience, fitness and holistic approaches to wellbeing and providing an empathic, trauma-informed service (as well as making us sweat in her HITT classes!).

‘Over the past two years of homeworking and Covid travel restrictions, it’s important to retain a distinction between work and home and of taking holiday at intervals over the holiday year. We have seen how important it is to plan regular mental breaks from work, even as we have seen benefits from homeworking.’

Wisdom from a wellness expert: Roxy Danae, Wellness Manager at Access Intelligence
‘It’s so important to value our mental health in the same way as we value our physical wellbeing. Depression, stress and anxiety will affect all of us in varying degrees throughout our lives.

‘Respected clinicians like Gabor Mate say we are experiencing collective trauma with increased levels of substance abuse, dependence on anti-depressants and addictions to things like social media, work and consumerism. It’s no wonder, in the dead of January, post-festivities and half a month in to the ‘new year, new me’ cliche we may be experiencing signs and symptoms of low mood, anxiety and a lack of motivation. What can you do to start the new year feeling as good as you possibly can?

‘1. Find a somatic therapy and do your research. Somatic therapies are about connecting to the body’s innate intelligence. We are so in our own heads, we often dismiss our own intuition or can’t recognise it. Our minds do the decision making for us but actually, it’s our bodies that know best. We just don’t know how to tune in. Somatic therapies include breathwork, somatic experiencing, sound healing, Kambô, ecstatic dancing and movement, meditation and Yoga amongst others.

‘2. Give yourself the ultimate gift of self-love by doing ‘the work’. Did you know that suffering from anxiety is usually a result of us not dealing with underlying problems in our life? By finally opening that Pandora’s box we can finally get to know and understand ourselves, understand our triggers, our trauma, what’s holding us back and what we can do to live the very best version of our lives. I’ve encouraged many of my clients and friends to pick up the amazing book, ‘How to do the Work’ by The Holistic Psychologist Dr Nicole LePera.

‘3. Set an intention for yourself. Just one. And it doesn’t have to be overcomplicated, in fact it needs to be simple. ‘My intention this year is to work on my negative self talk,’ or ‘my intention this year is to feel stronger in my body.’ Once you have the intention you can put small steps in place to achieve it. Those who overpromise, set themselves up for disappointment. Be kind to your future self; a phrase I always ask people to consider before setting goals and intentions.’

Looking out for the mental wellbeing of your colleagues and employees can help take the blue filter off of the day-to-day – here are just some industry initiatives helping to support mental wellbeing in PR and comms. 

Getting through Blue Monday and beyond in PR and comms

Getting through Blue Monday and beyond

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While the term ‘Blue Monday’ has no real basis in fact, you might be feeling extra blue today. It’s January, we’re in year three of a global pandemic and PR just happens to be an incredibly stressful industry at the best of times.

Looking out for the mental wellbeing of your colleagues and employees can help take the blue-filter off of the day-to-day – here are just some industry initiatives helping to support mental wellbeing. Have the best Blue Monday you can, everyone.

Flexibility
‘I always encourage my employees to go for a walk and stretch their legs,’ says Marketing Signals’ managing director Gareth Hoyle.

‘Although our mantra is “work from anywhere”, most of the team work from home, which can start to take its toll on your mental health if you don’t take regular breaks, so I’m happy for my team to close their laptops whenever they need to. Whether it’s to go for a walk, pick the kids up, take a long lunch or just switch off. Doing this helps improve my employees’ wellbeing and makes sure that everyone is taking the time they need to relax out of hours.’

Team Bonding
Missing being in close enough proximity to your team mates to steal post-it notes can be tough – that’s where online groups come in:

‘23red recently set up a wellbeing working group,’ says PR communications assistant Dylan Brown. ‘On Tuesday 18 January, following Blue Monday, 23red have enlisted the help of environmental drag artist Timberlina, where they will be having a fun full agency virtual bingo session to brighten up staff. 23red were really keen to lift the mood when working from home and decided to recently send all members of staff a peace lily to brighten up workspaces.’

Glass Digital also encourages relationship building outside of work:

‘Some of our teams get together every week to deliver a Fri-YAY session, involving members of the team going round to say who they are proud of in the company that week and what they are proud of themselves for. This not only boosts morale, but allows people to reflect on the good work they’ve done that week.’

Bootcamps
Fox Agency has introduced plenty of wellbeing initiatives to keep the team in tip-top mental shape, according to senior operations manager Natalie Noble:

‘We offer weekly bootcamp style personal training sessions in worktime, now held remotely to ensure all can join. We also do yoga, meditation, mindfulness and even gong sound bath therapy sessions to help us find a little zen in the sometimes hectic agency world.

‘There’s a 24-hour confidential helpline for people to get help on any matter, and as our trained mental health first aider, I am always available to chat with colleagues.’

Cake!
‘When we started WFH we would have ‘Coffee & Cake’ days,’ says Francesca De Cata, marketing and communications executive at Mr Lee’s Pure Foods. ‘We would jump on a call at 10 in the morning every Wednesday and talk about anything that was not work-related. We also arranged quite a few events online; we celebrated Pancake Day by having breakfast on a call, we had online lunch breaks together and we also did a little Easter activity online.’

Learning
‘For this Blue Monday, SEO agency Blue Array, are making it Blue Array Monday instead,’ says Jodie Harris. ‘Each week, the agency has an all-hands meeting, but this Monday’s will be a special one, as it’ll include recent industry news and guest speaker, Adnan Ebrahim, co-founder of a new mental health app called MindLabs.

‘These meetings are normally for Blue Array employees only, but for Blue Monday, it will be open to anyone in the industry to attend. Afterwards, we can grab a virtual coffee and have an industry catch-up. For anyone who would like to attend, see this post for details.’

Music
‘We have a flexible working model in place, so we’re always looking at new ways we can stay connected when working remotely and still feel the benefits of our office culture that has been built over 20 years,’ says Liz Lean PR’s account manager and culture & welfare officer Shona Byrne.

‘For Blue Monday, we’re treating the team to a proper coffee on us and we will then regroup for a virtual coffee break to discuss why January doesn’t have to be depressing. The team has also built a motivational playlist to blast loud and proud during the day (which can be found by searching LLPR Team Motivation Playlist on Spotify).’

Putting people first
‘Gone are the days when organisations can afford to pay lip service to mental health – we have a duty to recognise colleagues as people, not just employees,’ believes Grace French, Head of Culture at Stand.

‘Our evidence-based approach to mental health is proactive, not just reactive. We provide £250 annually to spend on wellness, however you define it. We embrace flexible and hybrid working. Our mental health first aiders lead activity to maintain positive wellbeing and provide support. Everyone has a tailored Wellness Action Plan (an evidence-based resource backed by charity Mind) detailing how they can maintain positive mental health at work. A colleague-led approach helps ensure support is authentic and impactful.’

Charity
Helping others helps everyone, believes the team at Full Fat:

‘We donate time and money to charities and organisations like The Trussel Trust and Show Racism the Red Card,’ says senior account manager Cheryl Chia. ‘We also work pro bono with charities each year. It brings staff together with a common aim to do good. We’ve also organised volunteer days and external workshops with charities such as LGBTQ+ ‘Not a Phase’ for a recent trans-inclusivity talk.’

Sleep
Did you get enough zzzs over the weekend? HR manager Greg Diamond at Finn Partners encourages it:

‘We have an agency Wellness Collaborative to coordinate activities and information for employees aligned to the five pillars of wellness: a good night’s sleep; a sense of community; exercise; healthy foods; and stress reduction.’

For help with getting back into work in January, check out advice from mental health practitioners and your peers in PR here as well as our accessmatters session with Katie Phillips, KDP Coaching & Consulting on avoiding burnout.

How to make the most of your PR internship

How to get the most out of your PR internship

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This is a guest post from Miriam Chumbley, account executive at Red Setter.

When I first joined Red Setter this past summer, I knew that an internship was the perfect way to kick-start my career in the PR industry, learning on the job from talented practitioners around me with years of experience under their belt.

With lockdowns and restrictions putting many opportunities at risk, securing a placement during a pandemic was a triumph in itself – so I’m doubly proud to have turned my internship into a full time, junior account executive role (and promoted to AE in the last week!).

While the learning is always ongoing for me, here are some ways to help you make the most out of an internship in PR.

Get stuck in
Starting at Red Setter in the summer of 2021, I was lucky to get to be physically in the office and to dive into live client projects from day one. From the get-go, my day-to-day involved direct facetime with clients, building relationships with key journalists and brainstorming with my team to arrive at the best ideas. My eyes were opened to a whole new world of agency PR, and I realised my ability to adapt to different tasks working across several projects at a time.

It’s simple, but the bottom line is to get as much experience as possible – seize every opportunity to contribute, and you’ll get as much out of it as you put in.

Use your voice
For a career in PR, communication is key – and this goes hand in hand with confidence. I learned early on that sharing my unique point of view as a newcomer could help my team test ideas. Don’t be afraid to speak up, share your opinions and challenge ways of doing things – your perspective will always be appreciated.

PR is also a people business: the relationships you build with your clients and the media are important, and those with your team are vital, too. Ask away and get to know their passions as much as possible – you’ll collaborate better, learn better and ultimately help to make sure you’re enjoying the work you’re doing!

Be honest
While sharing your point of view is key, what’s equally important is being totally honest with yourself and your colleagues about where your blind spots are, and what you know you need and want to learn. Always ask people for help when you need it.

In an industry as rapid and reactive as PR, your team are there to share their expertise and guide you. We have a ‘no stupid questions’ rule across the company where I’m never scared to ask about something at the risk of feeling penalised for not knowing the answer.

Feed your passion
I studied modules in Graphic Design and Public Relations at university, so I really hit the jackpot with an internship at Red Setter – a PR agency for world-leading design studios.

Having a genuine passion for design was a crucial part of my interest and success in my role, and I think the same applies for any industry you want to be in. Find that thing that you find yourself doing outside of work, then channel that into your day-to-day to enrich your process and improve your output.

Don’t be scared of socials
LinkedIn can be an intimidating place, a constant stream of everyone else’s success. For employers, it’s a fundamental way to find out about who you are. So just as it plays an important role in getting you the internship in the first place, LinkedIn is also a huge resource for once you’re in it. Build your profile and keep active!

Apart from the obvious of monitoring your client’s social pages, it’s an important tool to connect with key journalists, industry figures and follow key publications and hashtags as a quick and easy way to keep up-to-date with the latest news.

Make time for you
It’s easy to get swept up in the momentum of PR and start to blur the boundaries of work-life balance when you’re trying to prove your worth in a new role. Taking care of you is crucial for your wellbeing and will help you be better at work as a result. Find your go-to for completely switching off and re-energising for the next day or week ahead. For me, that’s yoga class at home with Adriene or BODYCOMBAT at my local fitness studio. Getting moving is a great way to let off steam when your day hasn’t gone quite right, and there’s nothing like a downward dog to get the creative juices flowing or throwing some boxing punches to release built-up tension from a busy day!

Believe in your team – and yourself
Heading into the world of work isn’t going to be perfect, there’s always going to be the pressure and nerves that come with this big step. Hopefully these tips will make the step a little easier, and remind you that you aren’t alone, so you can focus on doing your best. Relish in the creative energy of those around you and above all believe in yourself – you never know where an internship could lead you.

For more insight into the day-to-day of a career in PR, read this guest post from Prezzybox Alex Spencer, who offers a whole week’s-worth of wisdom. 

Global Women in PR Annual Index

Gender barriers still need to be broken down in the boardroom

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Imbalances in the boardroom continues to be a major issue in the public relations industry, according to the results from the Global Women in PR’s 2021 Annual Index, produced in partnership with Opinium.   

The Index finds that little has improved when it comes to women leaders in comms. Despite the fact that two-thirds of the global industry’s workforce are female, the majority of boardrooms are still made up of male decisionmakers.  

The survey questionnaire, designed to measure the fortunes of women working in PR and comms across the globe, asked respondents about their working environments, the pressures of PR, barriers to leadership, the impact of parenting, workplace sexual harassment and the gender pay gap.  

Asked what could help women take on more senior roles, 57% of respondents felt that remote working was important, with 73% saying they would be more likely to take a job that offered flexible working (an increase from the 69% in 2020). And flexibility is where there has been real evolution over the last year – 91% of PR professionals are currently working flexibly; most believe that hybrid working will continue post-pandemic, also. 21% said they will be working remotely full-time over the next 12 months. 

Barriers to leadership positions highlighted in the Index are, perhaps unsurprisingly, childcare and caring responsibilities. Three-quarters of those taking part in the survey feel that a lack of flexible working and family-friendly policies stop women from achieving promotion to leadership level.  

The belief that having women in the boardroom improves productivity and creativity is held by over four-fifths of the PR professionals who took part in the study. 82% also believe that this improves working practices, with 81% believing women on boards clears barriers to promotion for other women.   

‘With the changes to more flexible working practices being brought about by Covid and a real recognition by businesses that women, and a truly diverse workforce, really do make a difference to the profitability of a company, there is light at the end of the tunnel,’ said Angela Oakes, Joint President and Co-Founder of GWPR.   

‘We hope that our 2022 Annual Index will show that the dial has moved to a better place for all of us in our industry.’ 

Download the full Global Women in PR Index for 2021 – including data on mental health, burn out, in-house versus agency and more – here on the website.  

For more on the trends to come for PR and communications in 2022, check out our expert contributors’ predictions.  

Top 10 PR and comms guest posts from 2021

10 top PR and communications guest posts of 2021

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Upskilling and investing in yourself is always worthwhile, and what better time to get started than the beginning of a new year?

Our PR and comms community shared plenty of know-how and experience throughout 2021 – here are ten of our top guest posts from practitioners on topics including digital campaigning, influencer marketing and ESG.

1. How to nail a PR story to an awareness day
There are over 1,500 awareness days each year – how do you determine which ones to include in your content plan? From Gorgeous Grandma to Lost Sock Memorial Day, Bottle PR’s lead publisher Jamie Wilson highlights how to pick out the most interesting and relevant examples for your, and your clients’, upcoming projects.

2. Ideation tips for successful digital PR campaigns
Are your creative juices running a little dry at this time of year? Inspiration doesn’t have to come from places particularly grand or fateful – practical planning works well, too. I-COM’s digital PR strategist Chloe Rowlands shares steps to include in your ideation process and some evergreen topics to get you started.

3. Reactive PR: Turning something out of nothing
Reactive PR isn’t just for counteracting brand or celebrity scandals – it’s a skill worth having in every PR’s toolbox, believes Fibre’s digital PR specialist Alice Wilks. Boost your company’s online presence and improve your own SEO prowess by taking notes from this guest post on what can be a positive and proactive approach.

4. Influencer marketing: 5 dos and don’ts
The influencer marketing industry continues to grow, despite occasional controversy regarding creators, their processes and differences to ‘traditional’ media professionals and journalists. Investment in influencers is smart strategy, as is avoiding the potential pitfalls – here Smoking Gun’s managing director Rick Gutteridge lists the dos and don’ts.

5. 4 reasons why introverts make great PRs
An enduring stereotype about public relations is that the industry is made up of extroverts ready to network at a moment’s notice – Prezzybox’s Alex Spencer advocates for the introverts among our ranks, pointing out why there’s room for everyone in the creative industries.

6. Building on the lessons of 2020 for 2021’s opportunities in PR and communications
Working through a pandemic (we managed to get through half of this post without mentioning it) has been a very steep learning curve for the majority of us, who hadn’t faced times as stressful or unpredictable in our professional lives before. With the lessons to be learned came opportunities, writes Kerry Sheehan in this guest post.

7. Stress Awareness Month: How to support staff wellbeing
And on the subject of stress (another enduring issue in PR and comms), this piece from Hotwire’s head of people and culture Kam White has ideas for managing how it impacts you and your team. Stress Awareness Month isn’t until April, but it’s never too early to get a start on looking out for yourself and your colleagues.

8. How to implement a PR strategy for a local charity
‘More than ever before, it matters to do good things, not just for your clients, but for those who need it the most’ believes Spike’s PR & Outreach Manager Andre Gwilliam, whose step-by-step guide to working with a local charity explains how to make the most of your PR skillset to help others in your community.

9. 6 reasons why ESG is something comms should care about
Environmental, Social and Governance – a huge trend for last year in comms, and one you definitely need to care about this year, too. The Media Foundry’s associate director Kat Jackson has the main reasons ESG isn’t just a trendy initialism.

10. How to build a close-knit team when working from different places
Hybrid working has changed the way teams interact – is it really possible to form lasting bonds with your colleagues when water cooler conversations about Bake Off aren’t possible? Yes, says Degreed’s global head of comms, content & client advocacy teams Sarah Danzl – read up on how teamwork really can make the dream work (for business-related matters, and important TV catch-ups).

Have knowledge you’d like to share with others working in the PR and comms industry as part of our PR Club? Get in touch: [email protected].

Stay connected with the media and up-to-date with the latest trends and big stories – find out more about the Vuelio Media Database here.

PRCA Ethnicity pay gap

Report on your ethnicity pay gap, says PRCA’s Race and Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB)

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Ahead of tomorrow’s Ethnicity Pay Gap Day in the UK, the PRCA’s Race and Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB) is calling for full transparency from the PR and comms industry on its ethnicity pay gap.

Open conversations about inequality with pay are long overdue – data from the 2021 PRCA UK PR Census showed the industry’s pay inequality as being at 16% – £8,084.50. Research launched this week from networking group People Like Us underlined the work that still needs to be done on pay equity, finding that the majority of PR and marcomms practitioners taking part had been denied a pay rise; 30% surveyed felt that their race, nationality, or ethnicity had negatively impacted their salary or promotional potential. Over a third of those surveyed shared that they believe white colleagues are more likely to be successful when asking for a pay rise than those from diverse backgrounds. Almost a third believe that white colleagues are more likely to receive a pay increase or promotion without having to ask.

‘Nobody should earn less because of the colour of their skin, their sexual preference, gender or anything else that isn’t related to their performance,’ said People Like Us co-founder Sheeraz Gulsher. ‘Salary and job progression should be based on merit, but the data here makes it patently clear that currently, they aren’t.

‘Organisations need to get better at identifying pay gaps and progression bias within their companies because without understanding the issue, you can’t fix it.’

To aid organisations to track and fix their ethnicity pay gaps, PRCA’s REEB is urging decision makers to make use of its Ethnicity Pay Gap Guide, featuring advice on reporting as well as how to improve on disclosure.

PRCA REEB Chair Barbara Phillips FPRCA said:

‘The PR and comms industry is in rude health. We are making a great recovery. According to reliable sources including the PRCA, we have regained previous high levels of client confidence and can get back to the business of exploring creative ways for clients to build and maintain important relationships with customers, investors, partners, and most importantly, employees who are often all of the above. We are ready to tell their new stories, that once again, will lead to a mutually lucrative ending. And while we all pour ourselves excitedly into 2022 with anticipation – my outpourings (and those of anyone who looks anything like me) will be worth around £8K less a year than my white counterpart on average. The basis of the gap? My ethnicity. That’s it.

‘In October 2020, REEB launched an ethnicity pay gap guide. It’s free, and it’s readily available to use, should you choose to pay your Black, Asian, and non-white team members the same pay you find for their white peers in identical roles. This action even has its own day – 8 January, Ethnicity Pay Gap day! But I’m sure closing your EPG was already a top 2022 priority. Right?’

Find out more and download the Ethnicity Pay Gap Guide from PRCA’s Race and Ethnicity Equity Board and read our previous interview with Barbara Phillips on the formation of the Board and its work here.

Wadds Inc Almanac

Wadds Inc. publishes Almanac to provide guidance on the big issues for PR in 2022

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To ready the public relations industry for the big issues ahead, Stephen Waddington has published the Wadds Inc. Almanac: Challenges and opportunities for public relations 2022.

The eight short essays, with links to further reading for more information, provide guidance on topics including strategy, misinformation, inclusion and even office politics.

Among the issues highlighted for PR practitioners to include in strategic plans for next year are investment in artificial intelligence – an area touted by many in the industry, including CIPR’s AIinPR group, as ripe with opportunity as well as the potential for misuse. Upskilling and investment is also recommended for ESG concerns including climate risk and carbon as a metric. The lessons from COP26 this year will reverberate through the work of the comms sector, in-house, agency-level, political and public affairs-side next year – find out more in the essay here.

‘Misinformation: The internet is a sewer’ includes worrying statistics on the continuing spread of incorrect data across social media and the growth of mistrust in the Government and asks whether this can be curtailed by clever comms.

Diversity and inclusion is, finally and rightfully, a big conversation happening in the comms sphere – as mentioned by The Unmistakables’ Asad Dhunna in our accessmatters session in November, many clients are now asking how they should approach inclusivity and do a better job of engaging with every audience going forward. The Almanac’s guidance includes data to remind us all how far the industry is from true parity and highlights the work of initiatives including A Leader Like Me, warning that this will take longer than a generation to fix.

And while shared office working has always been fertile ground for the growth of long-term grudges and hostility, hybrid working may very well provide similar, and new, avenues for work-related anger. How can managers help those working from home? Check out advice and supporting data in ‘Home comforts and office politics’.

Inspired by what Stephen Waddington calls ‘the noisiest conversations in our community of practice’, you can read all eight essays included in the Almanac online, or download in PDF or HTML, here.

Want more on what to plan for in 2022? Check out our round-up of trend predictions from practitioners across the industry, as well as our look back at the challenges and triumphs of 2021.

Challenges and triumphs of 2021 in comms

What were the biggest challenges and triumphs for comms in 2021?

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And we thought 2020 in comms, marketing and PR was difficult – 2021 brought yet more challenges, forcing everyone to adapt to the constantly changing environment we found ourselves in.

In this part of our series of features looking back at this year, and forward to the next, seven practitioners from across the industry share what they saw as the biggest challenges of 2021 and some of the organisations, people and brands that did great work in 2021.

Sarah Waddington, Astute.Work and #FuturePRoof
Main challenges of 2021?
‘The biggest challenge for comms practitioners this year has been battling fatigue. Working practices and client expectations have changed throughout the pandemic, in part through people working from home, and it seems to have exacerbated the ‘always on’ culture we’ve been trying to move away from. The biggest challenge for the year ahead will be managing this and re-establishing boundaries so the workplace is a happy and healthy one.’

Comms winners this year?
‘I thought the Don’t Be That Guy video by Police Scotland was particularly well thought out and timed in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard and following the wave of anger up and down the country relating to violence against women. It actually looked at the cause of the problem, rather than place responsibility onto women to stay safe.’

Sudha Singh, The Purpose Room
Main challenges of 2021?
‘The world has changed and like everyone else comms practitioners have had to adapt to the fast-changing world. I think the biggest challenge has been to understand how best we can serve our clients’ needs, help them to stay authentic and relevant. The other big challenge was providing adequate support to the disparate (and ever evolving) needs of team members and employees.’

Comms winners this year?
‘Brands that were true to their core purpose and were authentic were the winners – Zoom, IKEA, UK Gov Comms (…not politicians), Deliveroo, football campaign against racism, Raheem Sterling’s campaign, and the Aldi Free Cuthbert campaign.’

Gavin Devine, Park Street Partners
Main challenges of 2021?
‘Maintaining focus has been really difficult in 2021. The year has been a rollercoaster of lockdowns and normality, international travel being impossible and then opening up, office working prohibited, frowned upon and then encouraged. It hasn’t always been easy to know how in practice to deliver for clients and to keep colleagues motivated and positive. These challenges are not unique to comms but we perhaps feel them particularly acutely because often we have been called in to help clients shape and communicate their responses to COVID-19. Entering more of a ‘steady state’ of near-normality in the last couple of months has been an enormous relief.’

Comms winners this year?
‘I can think of so many individuals and organisations who had a bad year in terms of comms in 2021. There were few real winners, although it would be hard to argue that Kate Bingham and Nadhim Zahawi didn’t have a great year in terms of their personal ‘brands’.’

Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah, Mercer
Main challenges of 2021?
‘One clear challenge has been constant news flow and sheer amount of change since the pandemic hit. This has made it harder for clients and stakeholders stories to penetrate into the mainstream. PRs really need to think about what they are sharing externally and what key messages they want to get across. There has also been a shift with organisations focusing more on ESG and sustainability issues which has required practitioners to think outside of the box to get their stories heard.’

Comms winners this year?
‘I was blow away by the FIFA and EA Sports campaign for The Kiyan Prince Foundation and QPR. It was a genius creative idea from Engine Group with such a strong and moving message following such an unfortunate incident. I know many young people will be inspired by the campaign.’

Anne Gregory, University of Huddersfield
Main challenges of 2021?
‘Resilience and stamina, given the relentless nature of the on-going crisis. Working remotely – the watercooler moments are so important to ‘temperature check’ the organisation, particularly what is happening internally. Major flop to digital/online working. Educating senior managers on how to be really competent in genuine communication and not talking in soundbites.’

Comms winners this year?
‘Pfizer, Unilever and health scientists!’

Tolu Rachel Akisanya, Ariatu PR
Main challenges of 2021?
‘Not just this year, but for several years now, is the industry has struggled with the ability – or lack of – to switch off. This has always been an issue, however with the pandemic and working from home, it’s been harder to separate work life and personal life. Especially when both happen in the same room now (my front room is both my office space and leisure space). Additionally, with the growth of new social media platforms and media outlets, it means we’re constantly consuming media, even in our downtime, which often means we never really ever switching off. Whether we consciously or subconsciously realise it, we’re always looking for the next opportunity or connecting with a new contact online or horizon scanning – it can sometimes be information overload.

‘However, this has led to a positive movement and we’ve seen the wider industry acknowledge this issue and work towards raising awareness, providing support and resources, and creating more open and wider discussions about how to improve the mental health and well-being of PR practitioners.’

Comms winners this year?
‘I’ve really enjoyed seeing the work Ariatu PR has done with podcasts, such as Broccoli Content and Coiled. In a market that is oversaturated, being able to ‘cut through the noise’ and deliver impactful campaigns, generate coverage (in the likes of the Financial Times and Stylist magazine) to raise awareness and lead to listeners, for shows that are not celebrity led, has been incredible.’

Stuart Thomson, BDB Pitmans
Main challenges of 2021?
‘In public affairs, we have had to put up with seemingly continuous outrage caused by the behaviour of some serving and former Parliamentarians and their lobbying activities. It has done little to help the reputation of politics or public affairs. The CIPR and PRCA have been very firm in their condemnation of the activities but sadly such behaviour damages us all.

‘A large part of public affairs is the development of relationships and, however good online activity is, there is nothing to really replace face-to-face interaction. The extended lockdown at the start of the year and now worries about another wave has curtailed that. We really do need to get back to normal in-person political activity.’

Comms winners this year?
‘The Beatles. The brand of a band that ceased to exist before even I was born continues to astound. The release of Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary Get Back has been trailed and tantalised for more than a year building up on the anticipation of its release on Disney+. A great piece of communications.’

Read predictions for the trends PR and comms professionals can expect in 2022 here and start your campaign planning with Vuelio’s media, PR, public affairs and political services – find out more here.

Trends in PR and communications for 2022

10 PR and Communications Trends For 2022

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2022 has certainly been… a year. At the start, hopes were high for an easing of the setbacks caused by the pandemic and that the lessons we’d all learned would help us evolve our purpose and ways of working. Did this happen?

In some ways, yes. And despite the challenges we’re all still working through, we can do even better as an industry in 2022.

Here are predictions from nine public relations, communications, marketing and public affairs experts on what the big trends to plan and prepare for will be for the year ahead.

1) Sustainability and purpose
‘It feels to me like purpose is becoming more and more important for organisations, and communicating it is a really important task. A big plank of that is of course sustainability but we have been talking about the environment for years; a big growth area in terms of messaging is likely to be fairness and social inclusion. Particularly in a time of inflation and with the UK Government still trying to define what it means by ‘levelling up’, being able to talk about the impact of clients on less advantaged areas is going to be more important than ever.’
Gavin Devine, Park Street Partners

2) Inclusion
‘There has been an increased focus on diversity and inclusion within the industry with many new initiatives launched. As a Board Member of the PRCA’s Race and Ethnicity Equity Board I am keen to see how firms continue to push for greater equality within our industry. It is important to see leaders from diverse backgrounds and we just do not have enough within the PR industry. A key challenge will be moving from talking about increasing diversity to now making it a reality at more senior levels.’
Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah, Mercer

4) Net Zero
‘We have hundreds of businesses who are signed up to science-based targets… but there are hundreds who haven’t.
‘We can’t just do this in 2029 when it’s too late – this needs accumulative reduction.’
Luke Herbert, The Climate Group

5) AI + human effort
‘AI will transform the tactical, ‘doing’ bit of our work even more, leaving space for us to be more strategic… are we up to it? We need to regulate the social media platforms and ourselves – the basic business model that drives the social media algorithms needs changing. We have to do something about the polarisation in society. The ESG agenda will become more pressing, too.’
Anne Gregory, University of Huddersfield

3) Hybrid working (for good and bad)
‘Finding, keeping and training more junior colleagues looks set to be a major issue in 2022 and beyond. Working from home and even hybrid working is great for people with comfortable home offices and at a more settled stage of their careers; it is self-evidently less so for those at the start of their careers. And honing your skills is so much less easy if you and your senior colleagues are not in the office every day. At the same time, the pandemic has led many people to question their career choices and think about alternatives. All of this means we are likely to see a shortage of high-quality people with a few years’ experience. That will fuel a race for talent; retention will be an issue.

‘One way that this will manifest itself may well be in pressure on pay. This will be part of an economy-wide challenge, the like of which we haven’t seen for years: inflation. Life is about to become more expensive and this will be true for comms agencies as much as it is for anyone else. We will also have to think of new messages for our clients to use in the media and with stakeholders about why prices are going up.’
Gavin Devine

6) Personal development, with healthy boundaries
‘Working practices and client expectations have changed throughout the pandemic, in part through people working from home, and it seems to have exacerbated the ‘always on’ culture we’ve been trying to move away from. The biggest challenge for the year ahead will be managing this and re-establishing boundaries so the workplace is a happy and healthy one.

‘PR practitioners can help businesses deliver their objectives in terms of articulating purpose, managing change and communicating with stakeholders. With the right skillset, there are plenty of opportunities to be had but personal development is crucial to success.’
Sarah Waddington, Astute.Work and #FuturePRoof

7) Flexibility to new working models
‘Both a challenge and opportunity for the industry will be how we continue to adapt and evolve new working models. A lot has changed in just two years, new social media platforms, media outlets, key stakeholders, and influencers are developing at a rapid pace, the industry is constantly learning, paired with the pandemic and working from home, stricter/looser social distancing restrictions (depending on what the Government feels like that week), we have successfully made it work to our benefit and for our clients. I think we must embrace this and try not to rush or force employees to return back into the office and rigid working conditions. What the last few years have proven is that we as PR practitioners are resourceful and creative. We must continue to adapt and be flexible.’
Tolu Rachel Akisanya, Ariatu PR

8) Realistic risk management
‘We need to be realistic about the economic situation and the potential for growth.  It is likely to be a challenging year and if growth isn’t as high as hoped then that could affect the spending available to government.  The implications would be enormous.

‘Government will want to continue to be interventionist and any organisation that simply leaves them to it is playing a very dangerous game. Engagement with government should focus on the development of trusted relationships, which needs to be built over time.  For those that choose not to invest in their engagement there could be a lot of emergency public affairs required.  Aside from the obvious failure to manage risk, the success of that approach is much more variable and more expensive.’
Stuart Thomson, BDB Pitmans

9) New metrics and measurements
‘One of the big challenges for measurement is the starting point of any campaign – do we have clear measurable business objectives; do we have data on the starting point or audience insights? In the last year we have definitely moved from impressions/clicks and likes to measuring engagement and that is going to be the direction of travel.’
Sudha Singh, The Purpose Room

10) Listening
‘You can involve everyone in the process of D&I. I’ve learned about navigating my own space, my own bias and what I bring. And really listening. Taking that time to stop my voice and hearing what people are feeling.’
Asad Dhunna, The Unmistakables

Want more from the above thought leaders sharing their predictions?

accessmatters with Asad Dhunna from The Unmistakables

Interview with Sudha Singh and Mark Webb on fairer representations of disability in PR

BDB Pitmans’ Stuart Thomson on public affairs in 2021

The Climate Group’s Luke Herbert on the New Statesman panel Making Sense of Net Zero 

Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah on PRCA’s Race & Ethnicity Equity Board

International campaigns

Ensuring effective and successful communications across different cultures

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This is a guest post by Life Size‘s PR Intern Martha Lane.

If you’re running an international communications campaign, adapting your approach towards each individual audience is essential. However, this means much more than simply translating content into the appropriate language. Instead, a deep understanding of each of your target cultures must form the basis of your campaign. Here is how to achieve this and set your international communications campaign up for success.

Stage 1: Check the relevance of your topic in your target country
A good place to start is to dedicate some time to researching how the topic of your campaign is viewed in your target country. While it would be easy to assume that consensus on your topic is similar to your native country, this won’t necessarily be the case. Your research should provide answers to some key questions, such as:

– Is your topic widely discussed in the news there? Is it discussed by the mainstream media, or is it limited to industry press?
– What is the political importance of this topic? Is there any relevant legislation in place in your target country that you should be aware of?
– What are the current societal or environmental impacts and benefits relating to this topic? How do they meet the current discussion about the environment or other ongoing social issues?
– Has it received any negative press, or do you get the impression that it is a sensitive topic? If so, it would be worth offering a fresh perspective that can provide a positive spin on the topic.

It is worth noting that negative or lukewarm press coverage on your topic does not have to be a disadvantage. Rather, you can utilise your communications campaign to be one of the first to highlight the benefits of what you are offering, giving you a unique position in the target market.

This is also an excellent time to identify your audience and decide who will be the best group to direct your campaign in a particular country. Once you have identified who you are communicating with, you can move on to the next vital step: working out how to talk to them.

Stage 2: Take the time to understand the culture of your country
At this point, it’s essential to get to the very root of your target country’s culture, such as identifying the values and beliefs that form its basis. This may sound quite overwhelming, but some useful models can be used to break down cultures into a handful of the most important underlying characteristics.

Hofstede and Trompenaars are two cultural experts who have created models that, though built with business management in mind, are equally applicable in the world of international communications. Both see culture as existing on various spectrums, within which any culture can be placed with considerable accuracy. This way of quantifying culture makes the job of communicators slightly easier.

Of course, there is variation within cultures, so the models should be applied with a degree of caution to avoid stereotyping, as personal experiences within cultures create differentiation. But the research of these experts has found that there are some predictable ways in which people within a certain culture are the same, especially when it comes to the workplace, making them valuable guides.

Stage 3: Use research to adapt content to your culture
Having researched the reception of your topic in your country, now is the time to use the understanding you have gained from the cultural models to adapt your tone. Ask yourself, how does your audience want to be spoken to? This is a crucial stage of the process that requires thorough planning. It’s easy to lose your audience in the delivery of your campaign due to cultural misunderstanding, no matter how relevant your product or service is to them.

Final stage: Don’t forget the simple things
There are the more routine details of a communications campaign to consider that may seem obvious but can be easily missed when dealing with the more complex aspects. Before releasing content, make sure to consider:

– Translation: aside from making sure your communications are translated accurately into your target language, check the translation of your product or service – make sure it isn’t offensive or hasn’t got a confusing double-meaning.
– Time zone: what time are you sending out content for your campaign in your target country? Make sure you respect any time difference and different working days.
– Visual materials: the images you use as part of the campaign may also need to be adapted. For instance, make sure that images such as landscapes are relevant to your target country as they will then resonate more with the audience there.

Following all these steps should ensure that your international communications campaign will be a success. Admittedly, it can be a long and sometimes monotonous process. However, the potential negative impact if done incorrectly, and the high rewards if the time is taken to do so properly, make the thorough process outlined above worthwhile.

Connect with the right journalists, political contacts and influencers from around the world for your international campaigns with the Vuelio Media Database – find out more and book a demo. 

Combating COVID

Communications and Combating the Omicron Variant

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This is a guest post by Louise Flintoft, associate director at Onyx Health.

The UK’s public health is in a precarious position. We’ve all seen in the news that the Omicron COVID-19 variant has been identified as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization.

At the time of writing, there are still a lot of unknowns about the new variant. However, early indications are that it is likely to be more transmissible than the dominant Delta variant and that our existing vaccinations are less effective against it.

In response to the uncertainty, the Government has announced a series of new measures to reduce the spread of the new variant. These currently include compulsory facemasks for public transport and retail, expanding the booster jab programme to all UK adults, new requirements PCR tests and isolation for people entering the country, and ten-day quarantine for people in contact with an infected person

The last cycle of lockdowns and compulsory COVID-19 restriction prompted one of the biggest acts of civil obedience in our peacetime history. With new restrictions looming, the Government will need to communicate behaviour change again to avoid a potential crisis. At Onyx Health, we are healthcare communication specialists and have some ideas about how we use the power of PR to re-engage the public.

Fighting COVID-19 fatigue
Let’s be honest; we’re all sick and tired of the pandemic. The success of the Government’s initial vaccine rollout and the removal of official legal restrictions earlier in the year had led many people to conclude that it was mission accomplished. However, the threat has never gone away, and it risks getting worse again.

One of the biggest dangers from a public health communication perspective is that complacency, and an unwillingness to take the potential new threat seriously, derails the effectiveness of the new rules. Re-engaging the public will be essential to make the latest changes work in practice. There is also a balance to be struck between taking things seriously and avoiding mass panic. This needs a strong, emotionally resonant message that the public can connect with.

Encouraging people to get masked up and booster jabbed to save Christmas can link behaviour change to a shared desirable outcome. Last Christmas was tough for us all. We all want to make this year’s festive season better than the last.

Helping our healthcare heroes avoid a winter crisis
The NHS is always close to the nation’s heart, but this is especially true during a public health crisis. It is arguably the closest thing we have to a national religion. During the first lockdown, the weekly clap for healthcare workers brought the nation together to thank those frontline staff who risked their lives to help us through the pandemic.

Today, the NHS faces a perfect storm of a new COVID-19 variant, the seasonal spike in winter flu cases and a general public fed up with the pandemic. Calling on people to follow the rules to help our healthcare heroes has the potential to reconnect people with that shared sense of solidarity we saw at the beginning of the pandemic. People may be willing to go the extra mile to help those who got us through the COVID-19 crisis by caring for our friends and loved ones.

Accelerating booster jabs and getting people doubled dosed
The booster jab programme was originally targeted at the elderly and vulnerable to increase their immunity to COVID-19. This week, the Government announced that it will be extended to all adults over 18 in the UK. Problems beset the initial rollout of booster vaccines for complex reasons, including the rollout’s speed, limited uptake, and confusion over eligibility. The expansion of the programme magnifies the scale of the communication challenge.

There are specific audience demographics that require specialised targeting. Increasing the immunity of those most at-risk through medical education is a key priority. We need to reach out to the elderly, vulnerable and underrepresented groups using community groups, local champions and NGOs to foster grassroots engagement and build trust from the ground up.

Another big issue is getting younger people doubled dosed. The figures show that people aged 25-29 are more vaccine-resistant and statistically less likely to have taken up the offer of a single or double vaccine dose. Targeting young people through viral content, social media influencers and pop-cultural icons provides part of the answer to create a generational mindset change. Getting through the latest stage of the pandemic requires a renewed collective national effort; as communicators, we need to do our bit.

Keep track of the conversation in the media with Vuelio’s Media Monitoring services and our sister brand Pulsar’s series of social listening solutions. 

Successful email campaigns

How to build strong foundations for a successful email campaign

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Elliot Ross, Email Evangelist, Taxi for Email (a SparkPost company), discusses the foundation of a successful email campaign, and it all starts with your messaging.

How’s your inbox looking? If you are anything like me you receive dozens of emails every day, a good chunk of which you don’t have the time or the inclination to open, let alone read.

The question of how to get your branded email messages opened has been focusing the minds of marketing managers for well over two decades now. As the number of emails people receive has increased, so marketers have been forced to adopt ever more cunning ways of securing an opening. But why is it that we read some emails and consign others to the junk folder?

In spite of what some gurus claim there is no magic formula to getting your brand’s emails opened. There are however some golden rules to follow which will maximise your email’s chances of success and set you on the path to becoming an expert at creating the right branding and messaging for your emails.

Begin with a strategy rooted in your brand’s values
Before you even think about sending your first branded emails you need to ask yourself a few questions. Why am I sending emails as opposed to engaging on other platforms? What am I hoping to achieve? And most important of all, what does success look like?

There are five key things to consider when you are setting out your strategy:
1. What are your email goals? Think about what you want to achieve from the emails you are sending and whether email really is the right channel to help you reach that goal.
2. Who is your audience – your subscribers? What email clients do they use? What’s the support for these devices/web clients?
3. What is the one thing you want your reader to do after opening your email? This is another key place to ask yourself if email is the right channel to use?

Think about the timing of your email send. Don’t just guess when the best time to send your email will be. Look back at previous send data and make a decision informed by this previous data. 5. Outline success measures before you start. Tracking things like downloads, clicks, opens, and revenue is great, but consider setting up A/B testing for different copy or segments.

By detailing the above into an overarching strategy before you start sending your emails, you can make creative emails whilst not going off-track with the email’s overall purpose – keeping you emails in sync and recognisable to subscribers.

What kind of language are you going to use?
The most important factor when writing copy for the email is that the wording should be authentic and reflect your brand. If you work for a B2B company whose target is senior executives write in an appropriate way for that audience. Authenticity is essential for building trust and ensuring that people know that what you are saying is legitimate.

Being able to personalise email content could also help build up authenticity and trust. Is there a way you can address an individual that takes into consideration the data you already have on them? Optimising your email by making it relevant to specific audience groups will also help. Think about geographical regions, types of customers, customer preferences, etc. That way you can deliver relevant messages to either audience as opposed to one blanket email.

Remember what your email’s primary role is too. Do you want it to be informative and supportive in building a relationship between you and your customer or are you more focussed on seeking instant clicks through to your website?

The winning formula for effective email design
Creating an email strategy also encompasses working on design guidelines. These are not just helpful for designers, but anyone involved in the email process. Guidelines can be a huge time-saver and enable you to produce high-quality emails without spending too much time going back and forth with your designer. You will need to consider ideas around fonts, colours, spacing and dimensions to keep your emails recognisable with your readers.

Ultimately the two key principles of email design are:
· Create something that is both beautiful and functional that will entice your recipients into reading to the end.
· Create a design that reflects your existing brand values, which are then consistent across every communication you send.

The answer? Use an email design system (EDS), where you can set up structured templates that empower your designers creatively, but at the same time enable them to work quickly and efficiently within set boundaries.

Once the structure is agreed you can work on the design elements and start to bring in other elements of your brand, such as bespoke imagery or illustrations, GIFs and embedded videos.

Consistency is king and the importance of branding
No matter who is making and sending your branded emails, they should always be consistent, even if you work with dispersed teams who are responsible for creating emails for different products or services.

Unless it is the first email you have sent, it won’t be seen by your reader in isolation. They will have seen and interacted with your branding on other platforms, so in order to strengthen your brands perception, your email design needs to be consistent with these.

Creating a library of assets your team can use to speed up email creation whilst adhering to consistency will help. If you have a core EDS for all parts of the business, updating brand assets will be much more manageable and spotting anomalies will be far easier. You could also look into building a set of sub-templates for each product or service within the brand, with altered footers, contact details and logos, so anyone creating an email will have the elements they need to create something aligned with the brand.

Navigating the minefield that is dark mode and accessibility, and how to get it right
One of the biggest challenges for email designers is to create striking emails that also work in dark mode – the extension that helps you quickly turn the screen (browser) to dark at night-time.

To ensure your emails adapt to recipients using dark mode, you may want to consider using transparent PNGs and add a white outline around elements in your EDS. You will want to think about designing your default images for dark mode, such as social icons, logos, link colours etc. and how they’re going to contrast with the dark background.

You will need to think about accessibility too. Smaller text and thin fonts might enable you to pack more into your email, but if short-sighted readers can’t see what you have written then you have wasted your time. It is also imperative to avoid walls of text. If the copy looks too cluttered, try to split it into a few paragraphs.

Summary
Preparation, strategy and messaging are everything to an email marketer – giving customers a consistent experience regardless of where they see your brand. And if you can construct creative, yet stringent guidelines you will save yourself and your design team so much time.

Email isn’t a website, but it is a good opportunity to replicate key website aspects such as navigation and CTA style. The chances are, if someone has seen your website you will be retargeting them at multiple touchpoints. And email needs to sit within the brand framework to offer users the consistency they would expect.

Find the right journalists, influencers and high-profile people in politics to target with your upcoming campaigns with the Vuelio Media Database – find out more and book a demo.