Lois Paul & Partners offers a full range of strategic public relations services to a broad scope of high-tech and life sciences companies. We provide clients with an ongoing mix of programs based on their needs, marketing agendas, budget and timeframe. We regularly monitor, measure and modify our services to ensure that they meet client objectives and maximize our clients’ PR investment. Key offerings include:
Business Press Programs – LP&P’s relentlessly proactive and creative business press initiatives raise the awareness of its clients in majority media outlets, including Barron's, BusinessWeek, CNBC, Fortune, Forbes, Time, The Economist, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. We collaborate with clients to establish a solid business media strategy that combines fresh insight with timely industry issues and compelling proof points to reach business press targets. We leverage long-standing relationships with top business media to broker introductions and open ongoing dialogues for clients. We strategically craft hard-hitting story angles tuned into current business environments, and continually seek timely opportunities to get those stories published.
Crisis Communications – In the event of a crisis, LP&P works as a key partner to help defuse the situation and minimize negative impact as quickly as possible through effective and swift communication. Having worked with many companies in crisis situations, LP&P understands the delicate nature of these events and the importance of working with key stakeholders through agreed upon channels to develop a crisis communications plan and team. LP&P helps to ensure that the established crisis communications team handles all aspects of the crisis and is responsible for controlling and minimizing the negative effect on the company.
Customer Reference Programs – LP&P’s customer reference program is designed to augment existing customer marketing efforts and PR campaigns. The voice of the customer is often the most sought-after perspective, and helps to tell a well-rounded, value-added technology story. Through customer testimonials, companies can build a stronger relationship with sales, marketing and product teams and, in turn, champion customer executives as opinion leaders within their own communities. The LP&P program manages both public and non-public customer activities in support of ongoing customer marketing efforts. These can include managing public activities, such as success stories, contributed articles, company presentations, awards, and customer roundtables, as well as non-public activities, such as success stories for internal reference, NDA discussions with analysts, sales reference calls and customer site visits.
Executive Communications – LP&P’s executive communications service is custom-designed to help spokespeople at every level deliver a powerful message. These intensive, workshop-style sessions cover best practices for cutting through the industry noise, making media interviews more impactful, and strengthening media relationships. The programs are led by Lois Paul, a former journalist who has trained hundreds of spokespeople for the full range of interview possibilities. Typically offered as a half-day session, the training includes an overview of the media relevant to the client, “tips and tricks” in working with various media, example interviews (both good and bad), and mock interviews. Participants will experience real-time simulated interviews and receive immediate constructive, customized feedback. Executives walk away with the skills they need to build a differentiated story for various stakeholders, helping their companies gain visibility in new and existing markets.
Executive Speakers Program – An executive speaker program is an extremely valuable tool in establishing thought leadership amongst industry peers. The ability to communicate expertise effectively live to a bevy of potential customers can’t be overstated. LP&P has years of experience in managing speaker programs and executive visibility campaigns for some of the best known technology brands in the industry as well as emerging industry leaders. We customize each speaker program with recommended events given each client’s goals and spokespeople. From there, we design and execute a program that ensures a high success rate in delivering a client’s top messages and extends to making sure executives are prepared with all of the relevant details and logistics.
Global Programs – LP&P has a rich history of providing and coordinating international PR programs for clients. The agency’s experience ranges from managing global PR operations for large companies to conducting specific launch programs to recruiting and synchronizing activities of in-country independent PR assets. LP&P has access to an expansive network throughout the world and we effectively manage collaborative, diplomatic communications. LP&P often serves as the strategic agency or “worldwide agency lead” coordinating closely with both international clients and agency contacts around the globe to ensure maximum consistency of programs and unification of messaging.
Industry Analyst Relations – LP&P leverages its long-standing relationships with industry analysts to support the business goals of our clients. We proactively engage analysts in ongoing dialogue to get feedback on a client’s business strategy and key messages, as well as communicate our clients’ industry insights and perspectives. We maintain targeted relationships with analysts and keep abreast of their insights and reports. By keeping analysts informed and understanding their viewpoints, LP&P helps clients utilize analysts as influential third-party sources who can validate a client’s position in the market, influence user purchasing decisions and help positively shape media perceptions.
Measurement and Analysis – LP&P’s measurement services have been used by companies of all sizes, including Motorola, Nortel, Kronos, Data Domain and many others, to gain insight into the impact of their communications programs. Clients can choose from a variety of ongoing and project-based packages that will give them specific metrics on the quality of their coverage and other benchmarks. Using the award-winning eClips platform, LP&P’s measurement services are designed to offer a level of customization and analysis beyond simple dashboards. Using these services, clients will be able to understand the quality of their coverage in their key publications. Coverage can be analyzed for tone, message pull-through and type. Measurement can focus on the client’s coverage or include competitors.
Media Relations – With expertise based on long-standing media relationships, LP&P acts as an integral link between its clients and members of the media. LP&P account teams understand reporter preferences, as well as each media outlet’s definition of “news,” so that we can get reporters what they need for coverage. As part of our media relations services, LP&P proactively pitches, pursues and responds to articles and editorial opportunities to ensure clients are included in the articles that are important to them. We proactively pitch feature articles for clients and offer “rapid response” initiatives that quickly associate our clients’ perspective with critical issues in the news. We also create and maintain editorial calendar and contact list databases, and schedule and facilitate meetings between clients and the media.
Launches and Tours – LP&P’s corporate and product launch services help clients establish effective, strategic positioning and obtain maximum public relations impact for their company, products and services. LP&P works with clients to identify the most compelling news elements and maps positioning to the appropriate consumer, business or technology targets for “on-message” coverage that furthers business objectives. LP&P ensures new companies gain immediate presence and recognition, and helps established companies reposition themselves to adapt to new challenges and changing markets. Our launch programs range from small targeted meetings to gain influencer support to nationwide press tours to large public events with thousands of attendees.
News Programs – LP&P helps clients make the most of their announcements by strategically planning news, customizing it to the right media targets for on-message coverage, and driving results-oriented campaigns. LP&P’s account teams make press materials concise and compelling, and then devise creative strategies for presenting information to garner coverage.
Vertical Press Programs – LP&P has a rich history in helping our technology clients bring their message to a wide array of vertical markets. Of LP&P’s current clients, more than 70 percent have ongoing vertical programs spanning nearly every possible vertical including: manufacturing (automotive, aerospace and defense, architecture and construction, industrial equipment, petrochemical); retail (consumer goods, consumer packaged goods); financial services (banking, insurance); public (government and education); and life sciences (pharma, medical devices, health technology).
Product Reviews and Awards – LP&P helps clients achieve positive product reviews and win industry awards to fuel customer interest, validate the strengths of products and establish category leadership. We manage the entire review process carefully for clients to maximize the chances of winning. Throughout the process, LP&P keeps in close contact with reviewers and testing labs to monitor the process and resolve any potential problems quickly. Our approach to awards is similar to the way we approach all of our PR programs, with a clear plan and an expectation to succeed. We comb through the submission requirements carefully to seek out any competitive edge we can leverage on the client’s behalf to maximize chances of winning.
Positioning and Message Development – LP&P works with clients to develop compelling anchor-point messages and positioning, putting clients in a better position to get their message across to reporters, to resonate with target audiences, to counter competitive threats and to create leadership positions quickly. We work with our clients to help establish the overall technology vision, define products and messages, identify target audiences, understand and influence internal and external perceptions, and stay ahead of changing competitive issues. Our proven PR model ensures that key messages and positioning are sound and align with our clients’ achievable goals and long-term strategies.
Social Media Programs – The extent to which social media is changing how companies can communicate and engage their communities of customers and partners is well-chronicled. LP&P's approach to social media is rooted in our core value proposition of tying public relations efforts closely to our clients' business goals and objectives. As part of this, we believe that social media should be approached in an integrated fashion with traditional public relations, and done with the same level of integrity and transparency that have always been a critical aspect to our business. LP&P’s social media services include social media optimization, blogging and community relations, digital media production, and social media training.
Social Media Optimization – LP&P advises clients on how to optimize their Web sites, blogs, press releases and newsrooms so they can be more easily connected to their extended online communities. This includes devising a strategy for leveraging RSS feeds for information across a client’s Web site, making it easy for users to “bookmark” content, and leveraging third-party communities, such as Flickr and YouTube, for publishing and tagging interactive marketing materials. LP&P complements this by leveraging “social media releases” to communicate company news in a way that is optimized for syndication across the Web. Through the effective use of tags, keywords, social news/bookmark sites and microsharing services, LP&P helps improve the “linkability” of our clients’ content, boosting search engine optimization and allowing client content it to be more readily included in relevant blogs, social networks, video blogs and podcasts.
Blogging and Community Relations – As blogs and bloggers continue to influence their online communities, social media monitoring and engagement should be part of every company’s public relations strategy. LP&P uses customized technology to monitor the blogs, online forums and other communities such as Facebook and LinkedIn for discussion about a client’s company, its products and its market category. We then work with clients to engage members of the community in a way most appropriate to each situation. LP&P also can help clients launch their own corporate blog and provide counsel on recommended contributors to the blog on content that will allow client’s to initiate dialogue directly with customers, partners, prospects and the larger community.
Digital Media Production – Recent surveys indicate that bloggers and journalists prefer receiving multimedia content as a complement to standard text-based communication. Current tools and technologies make it possible to create audio and video-based interactive media cheaply and share using free services and syndication methods. LP&P can work with clients to produce and edit audio and video content for distribution and syndication through podcasts, video sharing sites such asYouTube, and interactive streaming video services such as UStream. We combine these production capabilities with our Social Media Optimization services to effectively weave this content into our clients’ communications mix.
Social Media Training – For many companies, social media is still seen as a novelty that only applies to consumer businesses. Social media is something every company should understand to determine if it should be leveraged. LP&P offers interactive half-day training sessions for communications, marketing and Web teams that cover the fundamentals of social media. These trainings explain how and why social media is important, and how companies can apply it for such initiatives as lead generation, brand building, media relations, customer experience and internal communications. Training sessions are customized for each client and include an audit of that client’s social media presence compared to its competitors.
Writing Services – LP&P has assisted clients in creating all types of writing materials, including press kits, bylines, case studies, whitepapers, backgrounders, facts-at-a-glance, biographies and quote sheets. Our agency has writing specialists who can service any writing needs that may extend beyond regular activities. These include drafting materials from conference calls with executives and/or revising existing materials, and negotiating edits among several content providers.
B-roll Production – LP&P has created impactful b-roll packages for a range of technology and life sciences companies. With an understanding of how to grab the media’s attention, LP&P designs and develops b-roll that reaches our clients’ key national and regional audiences through broadcast and online video coverage. From crafting initial scripts and Q&As to producing final video shoots, LP&P works closely with production companies to ensure that our clients’ messaging comes through in each b-roll package and resulting coverage. LP&P also consistently leverages video and other multimedia in social media releases, blogs, video podcasts and other online outlets to further extend the value of b-roll footage.