The Power Play: Using Thought Leadership to Enhance A Financial PR Campaign

At StreetCred PR, we often relate public relations (PR) in financial services to playing sports. In part this is due to the unpredictable nature of the game. In a basketball game, for example, a team could be winning for the first three quarters of the game, and then suddenly experience an upset in the fourth quarter and overtime, which could change the game’s outcome. Similarly, in public relations a firm may have succeeded in earning several media opportunities in a row, and then suddenly enter a brief period where they have little hard news to share and the PR well seems to run dry.

This is when thought leadership can be an incredibly powerful tool in a financial PR campaign. Because unlike hard news, which there is sometimes little control over, a bylined article can be written and offered to the media at any time. And so long as the topic is right and the insights are smart, it can almost always find a home at the appropriate publication.

What is thought leadership?

Thought leadership encompasses opinion based articles, that are non-advertorial, written or ghost written by a subject matter expert at a given firm which can then be merchandised to various financial media outlets. And though these pieces cannot be overtly self-promotional of a firm’s value proposition, they can covertly hint at what sets them apart from the rest to readers by carefully crafting the narrative.

Increased control of the narrative

When a firm releases a press release that has been marketed well to the media, they are likely to garner a few pieces of coverage of the news. However, this type of earned coverage comes with the caveat that the firm will not have complete control over the narrative and exactly how it is positioned to their audiences. This is another great use case for drafting op-ed articles to be placed at key outlets. With thought leadership, financial firms and their PR agencies can exercise much greater control over the language being used and seize opportunities to discreetly emphasize core parts of a given RIA or fintech’s value proposition.

Building strong relationships with financial news sources and reporters

Another role thought leadership can play is in relationship building. Outlets are often seeking well written content and timely industry trends, such as organic growth and RIAs or how the crypto ETF may play a role in future investing. When a public relations agency is able to deliver a fully baked piece of original, insightful content that aligns with their readership’s interests, this can be like handing them a win on a silver platter. Of course, publications always have ultimate editorial authority and may make minor changes to the content, but generally speaking, if the content is good, the majority of the draft is typically kept intact.

At the end of the day, nothing in business is predictable or certain. But exercising additional control where it’s possible and aiming to encourage strong relationships with key media contacts can certainly help bolster a financial PR campaign when other levers are less accessible. As the old adage from Marcus Aurelius goes, though we can’t control everything, we can control how we respond, and in that lies our greatest power. And sometimes the best response in the game of PR, is to create a winning piece of original content no financial outlet can refuse.

Elena Krasnow, marketing manager at StreetCred PR