If you’re a CEO or corporate executive, you’ve perhaps hired and worked with a PR agency to maximize your company’s visibility and reach…
You know that PR is important in order to drive attention, opportunities, and revenue to your business.
However, the traditional PR model simply doesn’t suffice anymore—companies are tired of, and quite frankly can’t afford to, settle for minimal traction with blurry (if any) measures of success from their PR strategy.Â
The PR landscape has changed. In fact, it’s transformed more this year with the rapid growth of AI than ever before, and the companies that don’t know how to play today’s media game correctly will be left with an irrelevant and ineffective PR strategy.
So where does that leave you? You might hire a standard PR agency expecting them to secure a few placements to spread the word about your company. But those disparate pieces of press coverage are not driving the momentum and ROI that companies need for their most important business objectives—like increasing sales, decreasing the cost of their client acquisition or driving employee retention.Â
So what is?
We’ll give you a hint…
What do Spanx and Starbucks have in common?Â
Both built their company’s brand alongside the strong executive brands of Howard Schultz and Sara Blakely, respectively, to bolster their overall awareness and trust among every stakeholder—from employees to customers to investors.Â
Why did it work? Because a thought leadership strategy positions you as an industry expert. Because intentional and proactive executive branding promotes trust between leaders and all of their stakeholders.Â
Because people do business with people.
Even if you have no desire to become a household name, the power of building a personal brand and thought leadership platform as a CEO or executive has ripple effects on every facet of your business. Our clients are seeing a marked increase in inbound requests for sales meetings, recognized by prospects at conferences, attracting the best talent for job openings and more. Â
Today, with the rise of podcasts and growth of digital media, every founder & executive can build a personal brand and PR strategy that allows them to connect directly with their desired audiences.Â
But the truth is, you can’t just have your PR agency draft a pitch and send it to the press for an interview if you want the supercharged results we mentioned above. Even if you have the best story and your publicist has the most impressive rolodex, it’s not going to drive meaningful ROI without the right foundational personal brand ecosystem in place.
…You think you need a PR strategy, but what you actually need is a holistic thought leadership strategy.
Jumping ahead into active pitching like a traditional PR agency may recommend skips many integral, strategic steps leaving (lots of) money on the table. Beyond translating a concise and clear brand story into quality content, and subsequently securing the types of quality placements that are going to impact your bottom line, you need a platform.Â
You’re back at square one if you don’t have a brand ecosystem that strategically nurtures the inbound opportunities that your PR agency brings in. (Read: business opportunities will get lost.)Â
Not to mention the rising cost of lead generation, saturated competition for market share and awareness, and the risk of inaction and becoming irrelevant in important industry conversations.
You need a holistic thought leadership strategy.
Thought leadership strategy is a long game, but one worth playing.
Thought leadership allows you to establish credibility in your unique space. It’s what separates the unknown experts from the figures who are driving important and necessary conversations in their industries.Â
It is only when you take the time to build an intentional brand identity and strategy that seeing results—quickly—is possible.Â
Take Second Front Systems for example, a rapidly growing leader in the defense tech space. Our first step in working with them was to intentionally build and refine a unique thought leadership strategy for two of their key voices and executives—the Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Their primary goal in working with us was talent acquisition and retention. People don’t work for companies—they work for people. And it was time to elevate the people behind the Second Front Systems organization.
Because of our upfront branding work, we were able to create massive impact in the first 90 days, including:
- 1200+ podcast downloads on their brand new company show
- 50M+ UVMs across PR placements within tech, leadership, and lifestyle
- 165K+ impressions across their social media footprints
Beyond the impressive metrics, both the CRO and the COO have been inundated on their personal and company channels with yes, words of encouragement and gratitude, but career opportunity inquiries—our primary objective and success metric for this brand work.
This is the kind of impact and reach that awaits you on the other side of your thought leadership strategy.
What does a thought-leading PR strategy look like?
You have to start at the beginning. You have to first build your brand.Â
A brand identity clarifies your objectives, your voice, your unique value that you, and only you, bring to the market. It’s how you unequivocally stand out in the market.Â
Only then can you build a PR strategy that’s, frankly, effective.
Build Your Executive PR Strategy for 2023
A Special Edition of The SimplyBe. Podcast
Access the conversation with SimplyBe.’s Founder, Jessica Zweig, and our expert PR team on exactly what it means to have a thought-leading platform in 2023—and why every executive needs one.
We cover:
- The importance of building a clear brand identity before launching a PR strategy
- The difference between a PR strategy and a thought leadership strategy
- How to know when your platform is ready for PRÂ
- PR in the era of Artificial IntelligenceÂ
- Key tips and tactics to improve your credibility that you can implement immediately
MEET YOUR HOSTS:
Jessica Zweig, Founder & CEO, SimplyBe.
Jess not only founded the thought-leading company that preaches and teaches it, but she literally wrote the book on personal branding, why it matters, and how to build and leverage yours. She’s taught personal branding to executives and companies around the world. As she stated in her book, Be., “There’s no denying the power of publicity. But personal branding is a different beast. In the world of PR, it’s about building buzz. In the world of personal branding, it’s about building a platform.“ Jessica will teach YOU how to harness the power of your name and reputation and turn it into the results you seek.
Hollie Boodram, PR Manager, SimplyBe.
Hollie has worked within an array of industries spanning from business, tech, lifestyle, beauty and fashion. Her clients have been seen in top tier publications such as BLOOMBERG, Forbes, Entrepreneur, TODAY, iHeartRadio, Fortune, BUSTLE and more. Working with a wide portfolio has allowed her to understand how to position any client under any niche to their specific stakeholders to build their brand and business. She’ll teach you how to think about evolving your goals and strategies to stay relevant in an every-changing market.
The work doesn’t stop here.Â
As a thought leader—someone with a public platform that merits PR attention—it’s up to you to stay at the forefront of emerging topics and issues in your industry, challenge the norm, and carve a new path for rising leaders everywhere.Â
It’s up to you to tell your story.Â
If you’ve got the vision and you’re up for the challenge but need support to get you there, connect with our team. Our fully immersive personal branding methodology will turn you from an unknown expert to a sought-after thought leader.
