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By Tom Addison, Senior Digital Marketing Executive

For a long time, digital PR and SEO operated separately, often at odds with each other. Fast forward to now, and integration between the two is vital. While some argue that a good digital PR strategy can have a bigger impact upon SEO than PPC, email marketing and other digital approaches, alignment of PR and SEO is the way forward.

Integrating PR and SEO doesn’t need to be a huge overhaul to your strategy and planning; simple collaboration and communication can drastically transform your results and enable you to see the bigger picture.

Here are three reasons you should consider digital PR when it comes to developing your SEO strategy:

Backlinking

Backlinks are where a 3^rd party website links to yours. This is something that most clients want in their coverage because it’s more likely to drive referral traffic to their website. And as we all know, referral traffic is a very valuable source of visitors. This traffic typically spends the longest on the website and has a higher conversion rate than the other sources of traffic. It’s always worthwhile to take a deeper look into it on Google Analytics to see which referral link is working so you can focus your efforts on getting more backlinks that are similar.

Backlinking can also help you boost your domain authority, which can then help you rank higher. There are eight broad areas to Google’s ranking algorithm and one of them is having authoritative backlinks to your website. Moz has developed a scoring system for domain authority, which gives you a good idea of how authoritative Google thinks your website is. For example, if you get a backlink in The Guardian, which has a domain authority score of 95 then Google will consider you more of a reliable and authoritative source than someone with a backlink in a lower-scoring website. That’s not to say that one backlink in The Guardian is better than lots in a trade publication – there is a fine balance between quality and quantity.

Content creation

A large part of building out your SEO is creating a consistent stream of optimised content to help improve your organic traffic and rank on Google. Content marketing is hard work, it can take up a lot of your time or budget if you’re outsourcing it. So, you want to make sure that you’re getting your money’s worth. PR teams can work with SEO teams to help determine which content could be worth amplifying by pitching it to the media. It’s a win-win if you’re able to create one piece of content that can help drive traffic and get you coverage.

This mainly just comes down to communication between teams. If your digital PR and SEO team are integrated or have frequent meetings to make sure that their goals are aligned and they’re sharing ideas, it can eliminate duplication and improve efficiency.

Reputation management

When people are deciding to buy something they now have all the information they need at their fingertips – especially when it comes to B2B. They can quickly do a search that will tell them whether people think you’re doing a good job or not. Whether your product or service delivers on its promises, and whether your brand is trustworthy. This third party endorsement is incredibly valuable to businesses because the prospective buyer will trust what other people have to say about you much more than what you have to say about yourself.

Every company has had at least one bad review – deserved or not. So, what can digital PR and SEO do to help combat this? I would like to say though that if all your reviews are negative then you might want to look at your business practices, not PR and SEO. But to get control of your online reputation from that one pesky review that haunts you, can be done with some successful PR activity. It could be through a successful integrated campaign that has got you national coverage or in a highly regarded trade publication. The search engine results on page 1 for your brand may look a lot more appealing to a prospect – or even potential staff – something we discuss in our Whiteoaks Prodcast episode on building the employer brand.

If done right, PR and SEO can have a huge impact on your inbound lead generation. Even if it’s just increasing the communication between the teams it’s worth thinking next time you’re creating content or pitching an article how can this benefit each other.

If you want to talk more about aligning your B2B PR and SEO then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

By Bekki Bushnell, Head of Business Development

The fintech industry isn’t something that is new, it has been around for a long time. But it’s quite hard to determine the actual inception of the fintech industry. Like cloud, ERP and CRM, fintech is part of our business vernacular. But when did the term even originate? Was it the world’s first ATM in 1967? Maybe the introduction of the Nasdaq, the first electronic stock exchange in 1971? Or does it go as far back as 1866, when the first transatlantic cable was laid? Many people would claim that PayPal was the first to really kick off the rise of the fintech industry – the online payments system has brought fintech to the masses.

Today, the UK fintech industry is worth £11 billion, according to Kalifa Review published in 2021. Regardless of its origins, the industry presents a wealth of business opportunities for fintech startups. So, with such a competitive market and one that is growing rapidly – how do they capitalise on it? Beyond the obvious answer (have a great solution), fintech PR has a definite role to play in making your brand stand out and help fuel your growth.

I’ve outlined three key areas you need to consider when thinking about fintech PR:

Understanding your fintech audience

The first thing you need to do when considering fintech PR is to understand your audience and who you’re engaging with. The fintech industry has a multitude of areas to it, from mobile payments to SME financing, all these audiences have different factors that affect their buying decisions. Your digital PR agency can help you define this audience (B2B customers, B2C customers, potential investors) so that you can fully understand their needs and pain points. They can also help you split them into different buyer personas so that when you come to create your messaging it can be tailored to each persona.

Your tech PR agency can then take the messages directed at each persona and identify the channels they need to be targeting for each, whether that’s the media, social, events, or a combination. By doing so, you as the client can know that your messages are hitting the right targets at the right time.

Building trust

Confidentiality and security are vital for customers in the financial services sector, which means new entrants have to work harder than established players to build up trust and break through the perception that it’s not just those organisations with decades of experience behind them that are trustworthy. This is where fintech PR and marketing can play a key role in fostering that trust and credibility.

Customers need to have confidence in the company to deliver what they said they would. Thought leadership and customer endorsement can play a key role in this. SiriusDecisions suggests that 70% of the buying decision is now done before even speaking to a salesperson. That’s why B2B content marketing is so important now. You can build up the profile of your brand and team, giving you presence in the fintech sector and people will start to see you as the source of information when it comes to your niche.

By gaining the trust of your customers they will become much more comfortable in your ability to handle their data responsibly and provide vital services within financial services.

Learn more about how to build trust in our Question of Trust eBook.

Return on investment

Considering how competitive the fintech industry is, you must make sure every penny you spend on PR is helping you achieve your business goals and objectives. PR has long had a reputation for being hard to prove business impact, but this is not an excuse anymore. Stakeholders will want hard evidence that their PR investment is working – this is more than just coverage numbers – they want to be able to see evidence of sales leads, share of voice and website traffic to name a few.

I would recommend all fintech startups considering a PR investment not to accept the recommendations of the agency until they can prove the link between the activity they’ll be undertaking and the company’s startup strategy and goals. This is why our deliberately different approach of set fees for set deliverables, linked to clear performance commitments underpinned by a formal service level agreement, continues to resonate so well with fintech startups and firms looking for PR.

If you’d like to hear more about our approach or need help with your B2B PR, content strategy,  creative PR or digital strategy and social media, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

By Susan Richter, Marketing Communications Manager

Of course this blog is inspired by Facebook’s bold move to rebrand its holding company to Meta. Like most things Facebook does, the rebranding is not without its critics; from the reasons behind it (to divert attention from the allegations of whistleblower Frances Haugen) to the lack of translatability (meta means dead in Hebrew).

But Facebook isn’t the first brand to take the leap and it won’t be the last. The one example that sticks out in my mind is WWF (World Wrestling Federation) changing its name to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) in 2002. This was as the result of the wrestling organisation losing a trademark lawsuit brought by the World Wildlife Fund, or the “real” WWF.

As far as reasons go, Northern Rock becoming Virgin Money also stands out. The Newcastle-based bank failed, was nationalised and eventually sold to Virgin Money and quickly rebranded.

There are a number of reasons for a rebrand; ones that don’t involve lawsuits or fixing bad reputations. M&A, brand evolution, moving into new markets, change in strategy… the list goes on.

Regardless of reason, it should be a good one; a rebrand is costly. Not just in terms of design and implementation, but also the impact it can have on your customers, investors, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Brand building is an ongoing process, and key in strengthening credibility and creating trust. Not all brands have the luxury of changing their name, garnering international media coverage and being big enough (with big enough budgets) that a name change won’t affect customer loyalty or market perception.

Although a rebrand doesn’t always equate to a complete name change. Starbucks Coffee dropped the “Coffee” and Kentucky Fried Chicken lost most of the consonants and all the vowels from its name to become KFC. Again, these are massive global brands. But what about smaller brands?

In 2018 The Whiteoaks Consultancy rebranded to Whiteoaks International. The reason? To move with the times, to reflect our evolution and to highlight our reach as an agency. Three years later we revamped our brand identity and tagline, for some of those same reasons. One step that was vital for us in both instances, was considering our audiences.

For other brands, the same is also true. How will this impact customers, staff and other stakeholders? This ties into the overriding reason for the change. Is it with the customer / end user in mind? Or is it a vanity exercise? How will the change affect reputation, market credibility? Are you staying true to your purpose as a business?

Then there’s the logistics involved in managing the change. The key to a successful rebrand is having a solid plan to roll it out – from communicating the change to internal and external audiences, to designing the assets and revealing them in all forms, including building signage, letterheads, website and social channels.

As humans, as much as we resist change, we’re all about reinvention. From a new hairstyle, to a new colour scheme in your bedroom. And who could forget the artist formerly known as Prince, proving it’s not just companies that can rebrand. In all seriousness, it’s easier for us; a trip to the hairdresser (or Boots) and a visit to Dunelm for soft furnishings and voila. For brands, it’s a little trickier because the stakes are so much higher and there are a lot more moving parts. So when it is time to think about a rebrand or a brand evolution? What is the secret to success? If the strategy behind it is well-considered and the change is well managed, the sky (fun fact: Sky One was recently rebranded to Sky Showcase) is the limit.

By Ellie Nash, Digital Account Executive

With LinkedIn Creator Mode, anyone can become a LinkedIn influencer… Even you! And here’s how.

What is LinkedIn ‘Creator Mode’?

LinkedIn launched its new ‘Creator Mode’ feature in March 2021 with the aim to help professionals on the platform help build their personal brand. The tool supports individuals with growing their following, building a presence on the platform, getting their content noticed and also provides a higher opportunity to be noticed by potential clients. This new feature is a strong step forward in creating a bigger LinkedIn influencer community.

How do I turn on ‘Creator Mode’?

LinkedIn Creator Mode is now available for all profiles. You’ll find the option to turn it on via your LinkedIn dashboard on your personal page. Once you’ve switched the toggle on, you’ll be encouraged to add 5 hashtags that will be based on topics you’re most likely going to be discussing and these will be displayed on the top of your profile. These hashtags are optional, but I’d highly recommend adding them to your profile. But why? These topics help to show potential followers what you discuss the most. For example, on my profile, I have added; ‘#PR #marketing #PRcareers #socialmedia #socialmediamarketing’, as these are what I talk about most frequently on any content I share or post organically. You can find these hashtags underneath your job title on your profile.

What’s happened to my profile?

Don’t panic! Once you’ve turned on the ‘Creator Mode’ toggle, LinkedIn will automatically shift the profile around to show off your content. Previously, the ‘About’ section lay above the ‘Featured’ section but after turning on ‘Creator Mode’, the ‘About’ section will appear below ‘Activity’ and ‘Featured’ section so that your content is forefront and centre for everyone to see.

How do I grow my network now ‘Creator Mode’ is on?

Once ‘Creator Mode’ is turned on the ‘Connect’ call-to-action button immediately changes to a ‘Follow’ button. Don’t worry, people can still connect with you by clicking on the ‘More’ button on your profile, but the idea behind ‘Creator Mode’ is to increase and grow your following.

What is the ‘Creator Community’?

Once you have turned on LinkedIn’s ‘Creator Mode’, the app will encourage you to sign up to their weekly newsletter, the ‘Creator Community’. Now, I know what you’re thinking, SPAM! But no, think again. This newsletter is written by Daniel Roth, the editor-in-chief and VP of LinkedIn and will provide you with endless ideas for what content you should be posting, some strategy ideas to boost your following and more! It’s a great opportunity to gain insight into what’s trending in the industry so that you can keep on top of it as a creator and excel.

How else can I show off my profile as a Creator?

If you’ve turned on Creator Mode and are still looking to take your profile to the next level, how about considering a ‘Video Cover Story’? The ‘Video Cover Story’ feature provides you with the opportunity to replace your profile picture with a 30-second video where you can introduce yourself to new followers. This feature is a fantastic way to show off to recruiters, as well as helping you gain potential clients; you immediately look friendly and approachable to anyone who visits your profile.

You could also use this cover story to tell followers about an upcoming webinar that you’ll be speaking in or tell them about an event that you’ll be at. You can say a lot in 30 seconds!

To conclude…

Now ‘Creator Mode’ is turned on and you’re ready to become a LinkedIn influencer, it’s time to start growing! To grow your network now ‘Creator Mode’ is fully set up, you must start considering a content plan. LinkedIn favours a mix of content so be creative, post videos, photos, blogs, and polls to start conversations. According to statistics, it’s best to post a maximum of 4 times a week on LinkedIn.

Not only should you worry about your own content, but you need to start thinking about other people’s content too. It’s key to engage with other people’s content on LinkedIn. You can like, share, and comment, all of which will help you gain exposure to your page. Why not comment asking a question about the post? Why not share and congratulate how insightful the post is and tag a few of your connections to view the post? All of which is helping you grow.

But overall, get creative! Have a bit of fun with Creator Mode because you never know, a year from now, we could be looking at a LinkedIn influencer.

By Natalia Kaczmarek, Digital Content Creator

We’ve all heard the saying ‘cash is king’. And it certainly has been for a long time. While some people still largely rely on notes and prefer them for everyday spending, others have permanently shifted to credit cards. Whatever the preferences, we can’t ignore that the financial system is changing, with mobile payments on the rise and a boom in crypto and digital currencies.

In fact, the Bahamas is the first country to issue central bank digital currency (CBDC). Launched in October 2020, the sand dollar is a digital iteration of the Bahamian dollar and one of just two fully operational retail CBDCs worldwide. The second one is electronic yuan (e-CNY) backed by The People’s Bank of China. The blockchain-powered e-CNY is China’s response to the declining role of cash, aiming to eventually and completely replace it.

But will more countries follow China’s footsteps to kill cash?

Perhaps.

CBDCs are currently a hot topic, with many governments running initiatives and pilot schemes to explore the applications and impact. In July this year, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced it was approaching the next phase of its digital euro development project. However, it explicitly stated that the digital euro will complement, not replace, cash. The Bank of England has also set up a taskforce to coordinate the exploration of a potential UK CBDC. Sweden, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Ghana and Nigeria are all among 81 countries looking into digital currencies. Interestingly, while the race is hotting up, the world’s foremost economic power, the US, is quite behind. Could this be an omen?

Benefits of digital currencies

As an inclusive digital payment medium, CBDCs would be available to all citizens and businesses, offering an array of benefits in the future. Unlike unregulated cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, they’re issued centrally as digital tokens or deposit accounts, and have real values not set by the market’s supply or demand. That means they should be stable through the enforcement of monetary policies.

Digital currencies could allow financial service providers to improve efficiency and offer innovative, progressive services to us all. They could drive the Internet of Things payments forward. Your smart vehicle could pay for its own power or toll, or your smart home could sell excess electricity from solar panels to the next-door neighbour. And maybe finally we won’t need a coin for a supermarket trolley?

With CBDCs, local and cross-border payment transfers can occur almost instantly, with much lower fees. Faster, more convenient and cheaper transfers can promote economic growth and benefit poorer regions. People visiting foreign countries for business and pleasure could have easier access to local currency, encouraging them to spend more and boosting the economy. With digital smart wallets, we won’t have to check our pockets every time we leave the house. Just a small benefit for the forgetful.

Privacy considerations ahead

It seems like the future of CBDCs is promising. However, one of the greatest concerns with any digital currency and the transition to fully cashless banking systems is consumer privacy. Many businesses have betrayed our basic right to privacy in the past, so some might be more hesitant than others to permanently switch to this new means of payment. As central banks will be able to monitor every transaction performed through CBDCs, the culture of greater surveillance might be born. Banks could trace our whereabouts and create detailed personas of their citizens and spending habits, leading to unstable governance and highly dissatisfied nations. It could be argued that most of our moves are already being scrutinised, yet we’re still happy to geo-tag our latest Instagram posts…

Whilst electronic currencies are picking up and promise many benefits for the society of the future, it will take a few years for us to forget about good old cash. For now, I’ll personally keep hold of any coins from the back of the sofa. One day, they might be worth a lot of e-money.

By Jo Elliott, Senior Account Manager

Next month COP26, the 26^th United Nationals Climate Change Conference, will take place in Glasgow, uniting countries to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The lead up to this is an important moment for the communications industry to reflect on our role to make, and influence change.

Last year when the nation’s sweetheart and immensely respected nature broadcaster, David Attenborough, joined Instagram he had more than 200,000 followers within an hour of his first post and 1.2million followers by the afternoon.

His reason for joining the social network was clear, “Saving our planet is now a communications challenge”. 

Brands should be focused on reducing their operational carbon footprint, but the communications industry must also produce campaigns that measurably generate less carbon. A real driver for this change is the requirement for carbon footprint reporting to be included within company audits by 2025. Businesses, and the agencies supporting them, need to harness the power of communications to change consumer behaviour (for good), without greenwashing.

In recent years the marketing community has launched several initiatives such as Ad Net Zero but to make impactful change on scale, businesses need to understand the intersection of their brand, customer, and the impact they can achieve. Skincare company Kiehls is a fantastic example of a brand committed to transparent sustainability communications, including a glossary on its brand sustainability page giving consumers complete clarity on its environmental impact.

In the B2B world communicating the sustainability agenda and achievements of a business might seem more daunting, but there are three simple steps to follow:

Inescapably, you need to start by taking some action on climate change
Dependent on the business size and industry, this might involve reducing the carbon emissions of production processes, greener or innovating new products to help customers reduce their carbon footprint. The time to act is now and every change will make a difference to the future of our planet

Shout about it
This step shouldn’t be viewed as a PR opportunity to improve brand awareness, but a genuine action to motivate customers, partners and employees to join the journey. Explore how the action taken aligns with your businesses values, is genuine, and connects to the health of the planet. When communicating these stories think of the impact on business and/or society this change has had.

Back it up
Sustainability initiatives mustn’t be a one-time event, supply chains, production lines, product innovation, business operations, every corner of your B2B business needs regular and consistent reviews in place dedicated to constantly evolving the sustainability of your business. Many B2B businesses share annual sustainability reports with customers and partners, ensuring they are holding themselves accountable to meet the green objectives they set out with and measure impact over time

For decades conversations have taken place on the quickening pace of climate change, the melting glaciers, the extinction of species, and the death of coral reefs and yet as a collective, our behaviour hasn’t changed much. The role of communication, as Attenborough said, is now to spread the most important message we as a species have ever had to give or receive.

Get to know our Content Creator, Alex Eve, as he shares a snapshot of what it’s like to work at Whiteoaks:

By Emily Fishburn, Account Manager

This Sunday marks World Mental Health Day, a day focused on raising awareness about mental health, something which has previously had a massive stigma around and has been brushed under the carpet, It’s now being openly and honestly spoken about in both our working and personal lives. This support is important due to the fact that 1 in 4 people in the UK has experienced mental health issues.

At Whiteoaks this week, we honoured the day by having a cake and coffee session, which led us to get talking to one another about our most random facts and debating whether we’d like more money or more time. This gave us a chance to take a break from our usual workday and get to know each other better. Mixing from different departments within the company and most importantly, to lift spirits and have a laugh.

Other companies too are joining in on raising awareness for the day, for example, Spotify is encouraging everyone to ‘Take a Beat’. On their platform, they have re-introduced a ‘Wellness hub’ in which people can access various mental health resources from a yoga and exercise section to calming playlists and motivational podcasts. Moonpig is also encouraging the UK to reconnect with others and show someone they care by giving away free cards to honour World Mental Health Day. The NHS has an ‘Every Mind Matters’ campaign which provides expert advice and practical tips to help us look after mental health. Some of these including:

– Spending time in nature
– Getting enough sleep, having a balanced diet and staying hydrated (something I discussed the importance of in a previous blog)
– Exercising (this can be anything from walking, cycling to dancing)
– Spending time with supportive people
– Taking some time out for yourself to do something you like, for example, baking, watching a film, reading a new book or listening to some music
– Help someone else – giving something back can help give a boost to our mental health

The website also helps by offering a survey in which you answer five questions to get a free mind plan to help deal with stress and anxiety, improve your sleep, boost your mood and feel more in control, take the quiz here.

To keep up to date with what people around the world are doing to raise awareness for Mental Health Day as well as accessing materials for taking care of your own mental health and providing support for others, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is hosting a dedicated campaign on their website for everyone to access here. You can also follow the hashtag for the day on Twitter #WorldMentalHealthDay.

Trust forms the foundation for all relationships and in the B2B tech space, that’s no different. We wanted to delve into how brands approached trust building and customer loyalty as part of our The Question of Trust research. So we interviewed a range of marketing professionals from B2B tech brands to find out.

This is what Gail Cook, Head of Strategy & Insights at Glen Dimplex Heating & Ventilation had to say:

“We’ve been around for 70 years, so there’s a trust element there. We’re not a fly-by-night company. We’re not going to go out of business. That’s really important to us and building our brand and our reputation because you see it nowadays, particularly with this digital age and online, is the number of overseas manufacturers who are now able to sell into our markets. People can buy through Facebook and can buy through different channels.

They’re buying electronic equipment that’s maybe not tested, and they’re not up to our safety standards. Then you get counterfeit products. People don’t know any better, and we have a job to do to build trust with our consumers through our brand so that they know when they purchase our products, they are safe, and they can trust us as a brand.

I think more and more brand reputation is going to become even more important in the future, particularly for those end consumers”.

Q: What are the most important components of customer trust?

For us, customer trust is about building partnerships and relationships with people. That’s about us doing what we say we’re going to do, being open and honest, having two-way dialogues.

For us, we also see sustainability as part of trust building.

Many of our retailers, many of our customers are asking for specific credentials around what we’re doing to be more sustainable as a business. We have the full traceability of every product that we make and where those components and where those parts come from and where the raw materials come from, what factories have been produced in and what labour has been used. We share that information with them.

In addition, our factory is fully accredited from a health and safety point of view, and the manufacturing standards. Customers can be confident in what we say around the safety of our products, and that’s something we pride ourselves on. Safety is at the heart of everything that we make.

Q: Have you adopted any new approaches in building those relationships with customers?

Yes. Our industry is changing a lot and there’s a lot of legislation that’s coming into force and that causes uncertainty. We’ve taken the lead in understanding that legislation and supporting our customers and playing that back to bring value in that partnership with them. We’ve been doing CPDs and training sessions online. We would normally have those as face-to-face sessions. Actually, we’ve been able to get more customers coming along to those, and we’re giving those CPDs free of charge. We’re doing analysis that they don’t have time to do themselves. We’re helping them as a business. It’s some of what we’ve been doing in the past, but it’s in a different way of doing that.

Q: What role has PR and marketing played in helping you build that trust? Has it been more significant?

Definitely more significant. We’ve been supporting our sales colleagues. It’s typically our commercial colleagues who would have those direct relationships with the customers, particularly in a B2B environment. We’re supporting behind the scenes. We’ve been investigating the technologies that are available to help them have those communications. We’ve been on the sidelines supporting, making sure things run smoothly, troubleshooting for them because we want them focused on the relationship, not on the peripheral stuff around that.

We’re trying to position ourselves as a trusted expert, and that’s been received really well. We’re bringing activities that are added value to that customer’s business. We’re not just about pushing out our products to them. It’s that added value. How can we help their business grow?

Q: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for PR and marketing in building trust?

There has never been a more important time for brands to step up and talk about what they do well and build their relationships. In my 20 years of marketing, there’s never been a more turbulent time between Brexit, global supply issues, a global pandemic. This is really an unsettling time for everybody. As brands and as familiar brands, we have the rule to build people’s confidence back up that we’re still here, the world is still normal. We provide great products. It’s been unsettling, but we’re here.

Brands have values, we stand for things. As a brand, we do what we say we’re going to do, and we can communicate that out there. We have to now take that step up and bring that reassurance and that trust back to the markets in which we operate.