New customer? 8 ways to amplify it across the HR sector
When your HR brand gains new customers, it’s a perfect opportunity to highlight your success, turning the already positive news into some great media coverage and further recognition for your brand.
To help you get attention, there’s a simple PR for HR cycle you can activate that will help others understand the great work you do and results you achieve. Remember to ask for permission and gain approval from your client for any external communications you do. They may need their corporate communications team to approve any written words too.
The PR cycle for HR customer stories
1. ‘New Win’ news release
With your new client’s agreement, prepare a news release talking about the start of your new relationship. This type of news release should contain a few simple components to inform wider audiences, such as:
Why your client is working with you - what are they planning to achieve with your company or service, or what problem are they getting around?
Key client information to set the scene: e.g. company size, industry, sector, purpose etc
Your client’s topline goals and how you’re supporting them in these areas (This should tie into your marketing messages - it’s a chance to show parts of your product/service that help your client in order to inform others)
A comment from the new customer about their aspirations and aims of working with you
A comment from one of your key people - highlighting key customer messages
The first news release headline could be along the lines of:
Xx (customer) works with xx (your brand) to achieve xx
Do remember, it’s really important to always use educational content and an informative tone rather than any sales messages. News articles aim to educate a publication’s audiences - not sell to them. If it reads like a promotion, it won’t get the interest of a journalist.
2. Implementation news release
You can re-use and re-write some of this information to create a second news release about the project going live, when a period of a few weeks or months has gone by and the implementation has happened.
The second news release headline could be along the lines of:
Xx (customer) launches xx (your brand) to help xx (number) employees achieve xx
Out of respect for journalists, do ensure you’re adding something new to the story so they have something to work with. They won’t want to see the same news sent through a second time. Perhaps add a new quote from the client about how the service was launched to employees, what the initial reaction has been in the organisation, or potential cost savings that may be made using your service or product.
3. References/Referrals
By step three you could have secured some good information and quotes from your client so this can be used as content marketing material.
Testimonials can come from positive comments used in your news releases or from other quotes your client has provided and approved.
They can then be repurposed into social media images, displayed on your website and placed into future proposal documents, helping you demonstrate to new audiences and prospective clients the great relationship and results you achieve for your customers.
Genuine comments here can do wonders for your PR and brand reputation.
4. Case Studies
Once you and your client are starting to see real results from your partnership, you can turn this success story into a case study.
Case studies, like referrals, demonstrate the benefits of working with your company but provide more detail on what’s being achieved to build understanding and trust with other audiences. A case study is a more well-rounded story of your work together, as opposed to a news release which is likely to be more to the point and snappy.
Your case study should include the following:
An overview of the issues experienced by the customer (written with care and respect for all involved)
Your answer to their challenge
The results so far - for the business and employees, depending on the initial goals or metrics.
The results are key in a case study to show your capabilities and help the client show its internal audiences the success of their work.
5. Award Entries
With great results and strong evidence, you can take your client results one step further and enter industry awards to highlight your combined achievements.
Depending on which awards you enter, the style, format and tone of your entry will be different. However, in general, award entries are more in-depth than case studies. They can require a deeper analysis of your customers’ problems, the solutions, innovations and results. The latter is key - hard evidence and real data is necessary to show a clear return on investment.
A great award entry can gain you a lot of recognition in the market and do wonders for your credibility.
6. Award win
If you are shortlisted for an award entry, or win one, you should let others know about it. This news can be spread across all your communication channels, for instance:
News release*
Social media
Blog content
Email footers
Website
Newsletters
*When preparing an award win news release, be aware that many publications will not be interested in this type of news, perhaps because the award is organised by a competitive publishing company. But it is, for sure, good to highlight on your website’s news pages.
7. Conferences/ Presentations
Award winners can receive interest from conference organisers who may want you, or more likely your client, to speak at conferences to show their learnings and expertise. This is a solid association for your brand if the client is keen.
8. Social media
Social media isn’t really the eighth step - it’s a process that can follow the whole cycle. At every stage, social media should be used to promote your progress, announce new client relationships, interesting data and award wins.
Social media is an enormous part of the PR process, ensuring your social channels amplify the best representation of your brand. To ensure each step is promoted to the full, social media - where you have full control of outgoing messages - is a great best friend.
Need help with any of the steps in the cycle? Get in touch: kay.phelps@prinhr.co.uk. We’d love to help your team create some brilliant PR wins.