Articles - Whiteoaks PR

When you’re currently operating from one country with a great PR or integrated marketing agency on board, taking the leap to an organisation that wants to expand to other territories is, well, a big leap. If your company fits or is about to fit this bill, there are some questions to ask yourself. How do you know when to expand your PR and marketing efforts to complement the business expansion? What are the indicators which tell you that multinational PR and communications is a good use of your time and budget in the short to medium term? This article sets out to help you along that decision-making process.

The two main options

If the following two routes sound familiar to you, you’re not alone. At a minimum level, you could consider distributing company news to international newswires from HQ and/or working with in-country freelancers. This level of international PR is hard work – translating or approving copy and managing that freelance network – but it’s relatively low cost, low risk and flexible. It may suit some companies at the beginning or test phases of international expansion.

At the other end of the scale, full-service international PR may seem like the next step. This route however best suits mid-to-large sized multinational companies, for many reasons:

To make it work, you need a local sales team, who can efficiently do the comparative job of your home country’s sales team;
An office or sufficient operational structure with a meaningful presence in each additional country;
The time and resource, in-house, to effectively brief, manage and deliver the PR and marketing campaigns; and
Budget – here, I’d say money does matter to a degree. Your company needs to have ‘enough’ money to allow each in-country agency to focus on making sure your business scales, reaches and achieves company goals in local markets.

Working with us in this way means that we deliver you our International Performance Management (IPM ), agency-agnostic approach. There are four different options, from working with some of the pre-selected, independently owned and managed WIN PR Group agencies, one of which is Whiteoaks, to mixing and matching us with other agencies that you may have an existing relationship with.

But, back to the budget.

For example, if you spend £5k per month in the UK or your home country on a PR and communications agency. A lot of prospective and existing clients tell me that they can allocate around £2k, maybe £3k each for example, for an agency in Benelux, France, Germany and the Nordics. You can choose to do this, but I think it’s simply not going to change anything. It’s not enough budget to deliver the same or similar effect that you already experience in your home country.
My recommendation is that you need to match your UK or home country monthly agency spend if you plan to expand into countries including those primary key European markets that I mentioned earlier. This also applies to the Middle East, Africa and some of the smaller Asia-Pacific markets
In the US and larger countries in Asia like China and Japan, I’d recommend doubling that home country monthly budget.

The genuine alternative

For fast-growth, innovative tech brands, that kind of budget is simply not achievable at this mid-point in their lifecycle, but an extra £2k or £3k per month can still present you with options to achieve change. Working with your UK or native country’s PR and communications agency to develop an integrated marketing programme where PR doesn’t mean only media relations, you can for example develop and execute:

A robust content marketing strategy, which works hard to re-purpose themes and tailor content for other countries local variances;
Campaigns and targeted problem-solving thought leadership in the trade media and for hand-picked contacts in the broader print and online press in English-speaking countries. Working from the UK to drive a client’s expansion in the US works well here, for example:
- - We’ve been working with Fraedom, a fintech provider for banks and global businesses, for the last 12 months, developing and delivering thought leadership programmes and research-driven news campaigns in the UK and the US
  - Retail technology and consulting firm, REPL Group, hired us this Spring to raise its profile in creating best-in-class workforce management and engagement, warehouse management and in-store solutions. Just a handful of months later, the company has asked us to expand our UK media relations and thought leadership programme to the US market;
Local social media;
Marketing emails and blogs driven from and effective content plan;
Cherry-picking attendance at events with stands and speaker slots; and
If your company is launching a product or service or wants to announce its expansion into a new sector or country, then of course there are cost-effective ways to do that centrally on an ad hoc basis with media relations.

I hope that in this piece, I’ve helped you to realise that there is a workable, high performance and cost-effective middle ground to managing international B2B PR with one or more agencies. If you would like to discuss the options in more detail, contact us here.

James Kelliher, CEO

Tell Us Your B2B Tech Story

PR, like many services industries, often has a bad name. It is an inconvenient truth – and one that continues to blight the sector to this day.

The reason, really, is a simple one. Traditionally, PR agencies have charged their clients a monthly retainer, which in effect buys a certain number of hours, with staff filling out and working to a timesheet each week.

Since when, we would ask, has “hours” ever been a metric against which to judge PR success? It certainly falls short when trying to justify that “dreaded” return on investment.

To make matters worse – and perhaps inevitably – the system has often been abused. If the agency were to write a hot topic article, for sake of argument, they would want it to take twice as long as it should do. Once it had been sent to the client for approval, if it needed rounds and rounds of amends, then happy days. More hours racked up on a timesheet, less delivered to the client. And if they use up their allotted hours for the month, then they come to the client asking for more money.

Getting B2B Tech PR Right

By its nature, this retainer-based approach is great for public relations agencies, but less than satisfactory for clients – and that struck us as odd right from our inception as a specialist business to business tech PR agency.

Over the last 25 years, we have become pretty knowledgeable about PR-led tactics, how long they should take and what output they should achieve for B2B technology brands.

As a result, we don’t charge our clients a retainer and we don’t talk to them about hours or timesheets. Instead, we offer set fees for set deliverables, building bespoke campaigns that map to the client’s business objectives. Whether each deliverable takes us two hours, 20 hours or 200 hours, the fee to the client stays the same.

This means, right from the very outset, the client has absolute transparency about what their investment is, and what it is buying. But that’s really only half of the story.

Because we build strategically-aligned campaigns from day one, we set strict performance targets alongside them that link to the tactical plan. For a traditional technology PR and media relations campaign, this could be coverage volume and key message penetration for example, and for social media this would be more tangible engagement metrics as a start.

The final thing that we do is offer all clients a formal service level agreement that simply states; ‘if we do not deliver what we said we would, we give you money back on a pro rata basis’. If we miss our coverage target by 10%, for example, the client gets 10% of their total fee back.

We believe this is a better way for clients to engage a PR agency, one that puts the pressure on us to be proactive and drive the campaign forward. It provides the client’s business with complete certainty in terms of investment, activity and results, and if we fail to perform, you get a proportion of your money back anyway.

Experts in the Technology Sector

Since 1993 Whiteoaks has focussed on the tech sector, almost entirely in the business to business environment. It’s in our DNA. Whether managing more than a dozen PR agencies across the EMEA region for multinational clients such as OKI, to launching disruptive Fintech or cyber security firms to the UK market, we know what success looks like, and we know how to deliver it.

Our approach differentiates us, but we believe our work is second to none. With an unrivalled network of business and tech journalists, analysts, bloggers, vloggers and industry influencers, and an expertise in leveraging social media content on the right platforms for our clients, we ensure their businesses cut through the noise, building brand awareness and generating sales leads through targeted and impactful integrated marketing campaigns.

At the heart of both traditional PR and social media is good content – and we know all about good content. Our expert team of skilled content creators – with decades of experience covering B2B tech – draft everything from press releases to technology articles and technical whitepapers. This guarantees a high level of output for our clients as they know each time they receive a piece of copy, it has been written by their own, dedicated content creator who understands the tech landscape and their specific messaging inside and out.

We’re fortunate to have a raft of B2B clients happy to discuss the great experience they have had working with us in case studies, whether for Tech PR, Content, Digital services or in integrated marketing campaigns. To start your journey towards a better PR experience, please contact us here.

Bekki Bushnell, Head of Business Development

Deliver Integrated Campaigns

Buyer or marketing personas are now common terms in the B2B sector and it’s likely that your company devises and executes account-based sales and marketing strategies around them. But why are they so important? How much do you know about them? And how can you use them within your integrated marketing campaigns?

Is it just more marketing jargon?

Quite simply: no. Buyer personas are highly useful, reality and category-based representations of your ideal customers. In fact, a key point is that they are not just useful to marketing folk. Rather, they should also help sales, product and services teams to bring to life the ideal customer your business is trying to attract. They should help you think like and attract prospective customers, as well as retain existing clients. They should filter throughout the business and be used as the basis for the development of new products and services, as well as sales and marketing campaigns.

Guess who?

Without personas, you’ll be using any customer insight from Google Analytics and Client Services teams, social listening and market research output combined with lists of target customers as a ‘best guess’ basis for the products, services and content that you think your audiences want. And experience shows that without a full set of customer profiles, you’re more likely to revert to developing ideas based on what you know best (your company) or what you would respond to, instead of the information your audience is actively seeking. Personas are most powerful when regularly reviewed, updated and shared across the business – and so take things to the next level.

By layering personas on top of all the information I’ve just listed, your understanding of a persona will now be much deeper. You’ll ideally glean additional information by profiling and surveying your existing customers. What is their job title? What are their responsibilities? What are their goals? What fears do they have? What are their demographics? What are their challenges? What are their buying, media consumption, social media usage and communication preferences? When collated and analysed, this combined data will help you define your personas, of which there may be several or only a few.

It’s also beneficial to understand the typical lifecycle stage of each of those personas. For example, are they only just aware of having a business problem which needs addressing? Or have they already started the evaluation process for a solution to that problem? Or are they at the purchase stage?

Personas make for powerful audience-centric content and PR

For PR, social media and digital campaigns to align with the broader marketing campaigns, having defined buyer personas will – as a first step – allow specific messages to be developed for each persona.

It is only at this stage and with this depth of knowledge that targeted content should be mapped, created, and then delivered at the right time. And of course, delivery is absolutely critical. The adage of communicating with a target audience seven times to achieve memorable impact still rings true but in today’s noisy market, it is imperative to select only the channels which you know your prospects and customers will consume. Whether for personal or professional purposes, today’s buyers expect – and will respond – to this focused approach to communications.

Establishing a link with Account-Based Marketing

Buyer personas are the precursor to the now widely understood B2B Account-Based Marketing (ABM) framework. At Whiteoaks we define ABM as the way to categorise, build relationships and target companies or accounts into prioritised groups rather than on an individual leads basis. An ABM strategy covers multi-touch and multi-channel which is implemented throughout a company to achieve goals based on high-value, location or sector-specific account.

In practice, this means selecting a multi-channel, content-rich campaign for each of your buyer personas within the account-based marketing framework. Which of your buyers in each ‘account’ are most active on LinkedIn? Are others likely to consume weekly trade newsletters which explore the nuts and bolts of technology? Or are they more likely to subscribe to daily news digests from BBC? Where does another set of ‘accounts’ and personas look for thought-leadership content – and do they start their search for it on Twitter or their favourite trade blogs? If you know, you can ensure your marketing and PR investment is accurately attributed to achieve the most impactful campaigns.

But, why?

A rich, multi-sourced understanding of your ideal customers will enable a more powerful strategy, making best use of all the marketing tools available, including webinars, PR, social media outreach, content marketing, email campaigns and blogs, leading to precise targeting and more accurate measurement. What you learn will feed into your next campaign or plan and so you should be able to measure and demonstrate the power of your investment more thoroughly each time.

Suzanne Griffiths, Managing Director

Tell Us Your B2B Tech Story

The Data and Marketing Association defines integrated marketing as “an approach to creating a unified and seamless experience for consumers to interact with the brand/enterprise; it attempts to meld all aspects of marketing communication, through their respective mix of tactics, methods, channels, media, and activities, so that all work together as a unified force. It is a process designed to ensure that all messaging and communications strategies are consistent across all channels and are centred on the customer”.

So, while this definition is the holy grail for most B2B marketers, what’s the true key to integrated campaign success?

Traditionally, businesses planned and executed disparate campaigns, using different resource and suppliers for the various marketing disciplines. Today’s communications landscape is incredibly challenging with an abundance of communication channels and audiences’ short attention spans, coupled with an expectation of personalised audience experiences. Within this diluted backdrop, integrated campaigns have the power to cut through the noise with consistent messaging and content to influence audiences as they go through the sales funnel to drive real business outcomes.

Personalising Personas

The starting point for an integrated campaign is defining the target audiences and creating buyer personas for those ideal customers. With a deep understanding of who you need to engage and influence and what behaviour you want to effect amongst different buyer personas, the platform for devising effective delivery programmes is established.

Audience-Centric Content

When planning the content approach, the objective should be to create assets which will help customers and prospects rather than simply sell to them. Providing audiences with valuable information (for free) will build trust and more effectively support the sales process.

Content is essential but the mistake many organisations make when developing content is to prioritise ‘what we want to say’ over ‘what our audiences want to hear’. Campaigns will only have impact if they take an audience-centric approach to the creation and delivery of the content, which engages audiences whilst still meeting organisational objectives.

Consistency Drives Ultimate Impact

The sales funnel is the various stages which a customer will go through before purchase and it is the job of the marketer – and latterly the sales professional – to move people thorough this funnel by creating content to support every stage of the buying journey.

For the marketer, effective integrated marketing is about ensuring all elements of the marketing mix work together cohesively across channels and through the funnel – consistency has the ultimate impact and strengthens the overall delivery of the message.

As a result, marketers talk a lot about top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU) and bottom of the funnel (BOFU) marketing activities. Essentially, these stages cover building awareness about the problem you address, educating audiences about how to choose a solution and proving why your product or service is the best solution both at campaign and strategic levels. This approach also aligns marketing activities with an account-based marketing (ABM) framework, something which are increasingly working within.

To illustrate how this might look in practice, consider a blend of:

TOFU (Awareness): Prospects will be looking for answers to solve a problem or address a need they have. Content needs to help educate or offer insight which may include original research, thought leadership press coverage, whitepapers, eBooks and blogs.
MOFU (Evaluation): Audiences will know their problem needs to be solved and be exploring what is the best solution is to fit their needs. The content should demonstrate that the company is skilled and delivers results and could include expert guides, webinars, handbooks and case studies.
BOFU (Purchase): A purchasing decision is ready to be made and prospects are reviewing what needs to be done to become a customer. At this stage demos, offers, product and service literature and fact sheets are all useful tools to encourage prospects across the line.

A recent integrated marketing campaign that we executed with Omnico Group generated £12 million in qualified sales and more than 200 pieces of coverage, demonstrating the real business impact this approach can have. This campaign focused on the awareness stage of the sales funnel, using original research to capture the attention of audiences, and was backed up by expert insight and opinion with the goal of moving prospects through the sales funnel. You can watch our client contacts at Omnico discuss working with us here.

If you would like to explore how to expand your current PR programme into one which incorporates other marketing communications methods for improved impact and synergies with your marketing and sales efforts, why not read an overview of what we offer and get in touch? You can book your free one-hour consultation with a senior member of our client services team who will provide you with tailored recommendations to consider.

Hayley Goff, Chief Operating Officer

We are recognised as a top Integrated Marketing Company on DesignRush

Deliver Integrated Campaigns

When you think of a PR professional, what characteristics come to mind? A strong communicator, great writer with faultless attention to detail, and someone who has a solid work ethic and natural news-sense.

Even the most decorated and experienced professional would admit that, while they may possess these skills, they are stronger in some aspects of the job than others.

Maybe they love the task of transforming reams of data and statistics into compelling, headline-grabbing copy. Others may hate being stuck in the office faced with hours of writing, much preferring to hit the phones to sell-in a press release or get out in front of the media to build long-lasting relationships.

PR agencies have traditionally been structured around teams of generalists working in a matrix and structured as a hierarchy. One moment you might be drafting a whitepaper, the next you could be pitching a client to a journalist contact in reaction to a breaking news story, or compiling a coverage report.

At Whiteoaks we prefer to do things differently, offering our clients a dedicated team based on specialists.

You get an account lead in the form of an experienced director or manager. This person will offer strategic advice and consultancy while heading a team of specialists who have particular skillsets for specific tasks.

They include a dedicated content creator, typically an ex journalist, who gets under the skin of your business and writes everything from press releases, to articles and technical whitepapers.

In the generalist structure you might one day get a piece of copy that is very good, written by someone senior, and the next a piece of copy written by a more junior member that is, with the best will in the world, pretty poor. You as the client will be looking at these two documents wondering how on earth they’ve come from the same place.

Under our structure, that simply doesn’t happen. Your content creator understands your business, your product, solutions and services, but also understands your tone of voice and messaging. It also means that we don’t have a highly skilled writer worrying about ordering sandwiches for next week’s meeting.

Each team also includes an influencer relations specialist, a media seller in old money, pitching and securing opportunities. He or she is a vital member of each team, using their in-depth knowledge of national and trade media to ensure content gets maximum exposure.

In addition, clients benefit from a digital and social executive who is responsible for managing social feeds and supporting client campaigns with lead generation. They are skilled in creating compelling and impactful digital content, overseeing social communities and using the latest tools to effectively report on social successes.

Furthermore, they take pride in staying on top of the latest social media and digital trends by building relationships with key industry players and influencers.

Each team also has an account coordinator, generally the most junior team member, to ensure the smooth running of the account through meetings, calls and approvals.

It is this mixture of experience and specialism that we believe sets Whiteoaks apart as a B2B Tech PR Agency and helps us achieve exceptional results for clients.

John Broy, Client Services Director

Deliver Integrated Campaigns