Three Top Tips for PR

by Sophia Dass

​There is rarely a single approach to a problem, a finite answer, or a correct way to create a campaign, and so the variety of skill sets seen in PR teams brings something valuable and unique to each client. As they say, three is a magic number, so here are our top three tips to make your PR in the financial and tech sectors as effective as possible!  

Make press releases timely. 
Crafting a purposeful press release can be achieved by leading with the story, keeping the headline short and snappy, and most importantly, sharing the ‘why’. Why something is newsworthy is the most crucial factor in any press release! Grab your audience’s attention and make them care by sharing facts and background knowledge that helps them understand the significance of this news.
For example, you might highlight an industry need by piggybacking off a piece of news. Rather than simply stating ‘Growing demand for data scientists is outpacing hiring of accountants at EY’, it would be more advantageous to write ‘Growing demand for data scientists is outpacing hiring of accountants at EY, a sure sign of the industry’s growing appetite for technology’.

No one likes a show off. 
Yes, a brief background on your client is required. However, a hype about valuation can be considered irksome in the technology sector, where many companies are still at the start-up stage of their journey. It is also worth remembering that the press are largely unimpressed by company awards, so best to avoid traversing this territory.       

Keep quotes conversational and clear.  
Injecting personality into a quote makes the narrative far more believable. The main problem with press release quotes from CEOs is that it is painstakingly clear that they’ve never actually made it past anyone’s lips. If you are writing a quote on behalf of someone, it may be helpful to briefly talk with him or her in order to effectively capture messaging and tone. Ditch the jargon, and instead, describe customer needs and how your services can solve them in a conversational manner – don’t be afraid of using layman’s terms!