Smaller IFAs can reap the benefits of public relations. Linda Winder tells Paul Robertson how.
Essentially, this boils down to an understanding that the world does not revolve around your company and what it finds fascinating.
Making your voice heard
“One thing I think is really important for a business when they are thinking about doing PR, what I have seen a lot of businesses through the years really struggle with, is that ability to step back and not be inside the story. If you are spending every day making something successful, it is hard to know what someone else might find interesting.
“You might think this should be on the front page of The Telegraph, when actually nobody else finds this interesting. And that is really quite hard to do. But it is absolutely essential if you are going to be good at communicating. If you go out there and you get it wrong, it is hard to build that back up again. It takes time.”
This all boils down to a signal to noise ratio: your firm needs to make sure that it can stand out and that it can be heard above others. If you know the people that you are trying to target, if they know you are credible, if you always send them interesting stuff, they are going to listen to you.
“If you just push out whatever it is you feel like saying, output that is not targeted, if you do not know the publications that you are targeting, you do not sit and read them before you send them an email or pick up the phone so you know what they actually write about; you will fail. Quite simple stuff, but you would be surprised at the number of people who do not do that.”
Is it at this point that we would expect Winder to suggest someone like yourself steps in, but she is an advocate of firms having a go themselves first.
“If you have people internally who are able to think like that, sometimes it is just being aware about the outside world a bit more and what consumers or the industry are actually going to find interesting.
“The main thing if you are going to do PR is understanding who it is you are trying to reach, your end audience and how it is that you are going to get there. Just think about what they are genuinely going to be interested in, not what you think they should be interested in.” Give it a go. Linda Winder thinks you should, and she should know.
