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Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.

From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

Year in Review: Snapshot of Bylines and Blogs Developed on Behalf of Intrado

Communiqué PR has had the opportunity to work with Flowroute, now part of Intrado, for nearly seven years. Throughout this time, we have worked with the company’s team to support various communications projects, including announcing company news, developing blog content, and conducting media outreach around industry trade shows. In 2021, we began working with Intrado’s UCaaS group to develop blog content that would support SEO efforts and increase awareness of Intrado among enterprise collaboration IT decision makers.

For background, Intrado, formerly West Corporation, is a telecommunications company that develops innovative, cloud-based technology to help enterprises and their customers effectively and efficiently connect in an increasingly complex world. Our work with Intrado has focused on the company’s Cloud Collaboration business unit, including cloud calling, collaboration, contact center and customer experience solutions. Flowroute’s services fall under this umbrella of solutions.

When kicking off our work with Intrado’s UCaaS group, we collaborated with the team’s enterprise collaboration subject matter experts. Our recent blogging focused on sharing insights about Intrado’s established partnerships with Microsoft and Cisco and tips to help enterprise IT decision makers optimize their communications stacks to thrive in the changing workplace ecosystem.

Below is a snapshot of some of the team’s blog posts published in 2021.   

We’ve also continued developing content for Flowroute’s blog and supporting proactive pitch campaigns with the team. Recent topics we’ve covered across these activities include the evolution of voice solutions, eliminating communication silos across IT investments, takeaways discussed at industry trade shows, and other trends impacting enterprise telecom decision makers.

Below are a few recent blog posts and thought leadership articles published by Flowroute.

Blog Posts

Thought Leadership Articles

It’s been a pleasure to partner with Intrado through different projects and ongoing campaigns. As the company continues to distribute telecommunications and enterprise collaboration, we’re excited to help them connect with decision makers and raise awareness of the growing role of cloud-based telecom services. As the global remote workforce grows, the ability to scale and connect through modern communication tools remains critical.

Check out the following blog posts to learn more about our work with Flowroute and experience supporting SEO and blogging.

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Insurance Claims Monitoring Platform Eliminates Bias in Fraud Detection, Raises $30M in Series-B Funding

One of our newest clients, owl.co, an insurance claims monitoring platform, recently announced securing $30 million in Series-B funding.

The funding round was led by Cota Capital and joined by Sorenson Ventures, FUSE, Impression Ventures, Luge Capital, and Plug and Play Ventures.

owl.co will utilize the funding to scale its insurance claims monitoring platform and expand its team. The company plans to increase its full-time staff in the U.S. and Canada by 20% before the end of 2021, with additional hiring planned for 2022.

While this latest round of financing brings the company’s overall funding to $40 million, this was the company’s first announcement. The company has been focused on execution and, until partnering with Communiqué PR, had not connected with media regarding its platform.

Since launching the platform in early 2021, owl.co has already secured six of the 10 largest U.S. insurers as customers to automate their fraud detection and claims monitoring processes. owl.co’s claims-monitoring platform enables insurance providers to stop unwarranted claim payments, release reserves, and adjust expenses, helping keep premiums down, ultimately saving consumers money.

Unlike many other service providers, owl.co does not use claimant data such as age, gender, neighborhood stats, or race in its models to eliminate biases. owl.co’s platform flags potential fraud intuitively empowering organizations to prioritize and deprioritize claims.

We are excited to continue building awareness regarding owl.co and its continued growth. Below is some of the coverage regarding its announcement.

Congratulations, owl.co!

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Publication Spotlight: Payload

Our “Publication Spotlight” series is designed to showcase publications that resonate with clients and future clients. This week’s spotlight is on Payload, a publication that provides daily insights on the most important news impacting the space economy. Below is a Q&A that provides insight into commonly asked questions.

Q: What is Payload and when was it established?

Payload, a new digital media company that was established this year, is a daily newsletter covering the business and policy of space – an industry that’s growing very large, very quickly. Space exploration is currently a $350 billion a year market and is forecast to grow to $1.4 trillion by 2030.

As technology becomes a larger part of the world’s economy, more media companies are launching around niche business and policy verticals, such as cybersecurity, biotechnology and now space. Payload sees an opportunity in being able to provide marketers with a place to reach high-level space influencers.

Q: Who is its audience?

For years, space coverage has focused on the consumer-facing aspect of space travel rather than the business and societal implications of the industry. Payload’s coverage aims to go a step deeper by providing business and policy information about the space industry. There are an estimated 2.19 million workers in the U.S. aerospace and defense industry.

Q: Does Payload offer a newsletter? What does it entail and how do I sign up for it?

Payload’s flagship product, a daily newsletter, features a combination of original reporting, news curation and industry analysis. Readers can subscribe through the Payload website.

Like many new media companies, Payload’s business model revolves around sponsorships to its newsletter. In the future, the editors plan complementary things like events and podcasts, and perhaps additional newsletters.

Q: How do you submit content to Payload?

Those who are interested in submitting content can share news and updates with Ryan Duffy, founding editor, at Payload. Ryan was previously at Morning Brew, where he launched and wrote the company’s Emerging Tech Brew, a triweekly newsletter about machine learning, autonomous vehicles, VR and a variety of tech trends.

As the space industry experiences unprecedented growth, I suspect publications that provide a niche perspective, such as Payload, will increase in popularity. 

While publications that cover the complex technology within the space industry are foundational resources, there is equal value in helping readers understand the business and policy implications, as well. I like to think of it as the yin-and-yang intersection, where business perspective and industry trends complement each other to provide a comprehensive snapshot. Balance is key.

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Thanksgiving for Relationships

As PR professionals, we are information brokers. We endeavor to provide clear and accurate information to specific audiences on behalf of our clients. This work is the “what” of this profession, but the “how” is where the real work comes in. Our work often requires intellectual horsepower, the ability to write, and creativity, among other things.

Relationship building is another essential skill. To do our jobs effectively, we must build, nurture and maintain relationships with many players, including media, clients, industry partners and colleagues.

At this time of year, particularly amid the persisting upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels appropriate to recognize the people who enable us to accomplish all we do. We are perpetually grateful for the following:

  • Journalists. We rely on them to cover our news and provide us with information, guidance and insight. They make our jobs possible, and they reciprocate by providing us with information and feedback to help us improve. Amid economic challenges, journalists have adroitly covered an ever-expanding amount of news, literally doing more with less.
  • Clients. We are profoundly grateful that they trust us to share their stories. Our clients continue to challenge us to grow and evolve while making our work worthwhile and rewarding.
  • Coworkers, partners and freelancers. These are the people who generously offer their talents and support our work in ways large and small. Our team proves the saying that success is virtually impossible without teamwork. Recognition and gratitude are default positions for this team. This attitude empowers us to support each other in times of overload and struggle to keep our commitments to our clients and teammates. Our continuing success, above all else, stems from the strength of our relationships.
  • Family. Our families and support systems provide much-appreciated encouragement in normal times. The relocation of our workspaces to our living rooms and guest bedrooms had required a new level of accommodation and understanding. We are grateful for their support and for reminding us that it might be a good idea to get outside once in a while.

I also want to recap some small and large milestones we marked as a team this year:

  • We celebrated the firm’s 17th anniversary with a virtual group cooking class
  • We gathered for countless virtual morning meetings, sharing weekend plans and favorite Teams backgrounds in addition to our project priorities and successes
  • At least five of us have moved, with two purchasing their first homes and one completing a home remodel
  • One of us returned from maternity leave while another took time off to welcome his first child
  • One of us was married, and another got engaged
  • We marked first days of school, one kindergarten and one college, as well as high school and college graduations
  • We welcomed new pets and said farewell to others
  • We weathered a historic heatwave, power outages and internet service interruptions, as well as flooding
  • We worked from multiple states and at least two locations outside the U.S.
  • We welcomed new team members and bid farewell to others, including launching two interns and welcoming two more
  • We marked birthdays and work anniversaries on virtual happy hours and are preparing for our first in-person holiday celebration in a couple of years
  • We gathered for two (socially distanced) group walks and an outdoor happy hour

In PR, the relationships we develop are essential to our work. Through the challenges and upheaval of this pandemic, we are grateful for strong connections that endure adding joy to our days and making our work so rewarding.  

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PR Pros are Expert Learners

The public relations industry is always evolving. As such, PR pros must remain on our toes to adapt to new techniques and business trends, refresh our skills, and gain a competitive edge over other industry professionals. Central to the success of a PR pro is our ability to learn. We must keep ourselves informed about new and emerging technologies and techniques so that we are able to provide clients with the very best counsel and service we can.

What learning skills do PR pros need to be successful? Outlined below are five examples.

 

Translating Complex Topics

As a PR professional, it is routine to take a subject we had zero knowledge about in the morning and become an expert on it by 4 p.m. that same day. We are tasked with reducing the complexities of enormous operations with lots of moving parts into an email or even a subject line that a reporter might be inclined to click on. While the timeframe we have to do this in may be a tad more flexible, it can often be challenging to ensure the optimal outcome for our client.

Be it hosted PBX solutions, geospatial intelligence or cloud-based ERP solutions, it is essential for communications professionals to have the ability to research, understand, translate and communicate complex technology and solutions into clear messaging for the non-technical business user.

 

Curious Nature

While it is common to be curious about something we don’t know, what keeps us more curious is when we start learning it. Having an initial knowledge of any subject will let our curiosity flow in the right direction and help us become even more eager to learn. We will know what questions we need answered, which makes way for focused learning. To develop or stimulate curiosity, we must seek out opportunities to ask better questions and challenge conventional processes. As we do, we can find better answers outside of existing boundaries.

 

Asking Questions

Expert learners are also expert at asking questions. Great learners ask intentional questions that will lead them to the root of an issue so they can understand it better. All communications professionals must hone our question-asking skills. Knowing how to navigate an interview with an executive, subject matter expert, client or other key stakeholders gives us the critical information we need to communicate the message we are tasked to oversee. Preparing good questions is a start but having the background to nimbly adjust during the discussion often makes all the difference.

 

Listening

Once we’ve done the research and asked thought-provoking questions, it’s time to listen. Only when we keenly listen can we have the level of understanding needed to engage with key audiences. Through active listening, we can tailor messages especially for each audience, who are then able to relate to what the client is communicating. The better PR pros listen, the better we speak and write.

 

Assessing Outcomes

Reflection and introspection in learning are crucial, and the more accurate, the better. Both under- and overconfidence in our knowledge and abilities can lead us to fail to perform at our best. The same is true in PR. Measurement of a PR campaign reveals what’s working and what’s not – it enables us to learn from the project to drive better results in the future. Moreover, evaluating outcomes and reporting the results and takeaways of our PR efforts helps justify PR spending and value-add to our clients.

 

Public relations is a lifelong learning commitment. As such, PR pros must cultivate the five key learning skills outlined above in order to be successful and drive the best results for the clients we support.

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Succeeding in Business Development & Networking

As individuals advance in their PR agency careers, they are often given new roles and responsibilities around business development. Senior account executives, account managers, account directors and vice presidents may all play a role in winning new business, whether it’s leading the development of the presentation, participating in a new business meeting, or assisting with research.

Having well-developed skills in business development can be very helpful to advancing one’s career. However, for some individuals these skills don’t come naturally. In this blog, I’ll share a few tips that may be helpful for individuals looking to develop skills in this area.

 

Adopt the right mindset

The first thing to remember is that your success in business development depends on creating a connection and goodwill with a prospective client and uncovering their needs. It’s about identifying how you (and your team) can add value and help the prospect achieve their top business objectives.

Many people make the mistake of overselling or trying to share how their expertise might be relevant, but this can backfire, especially if they haven’t done the proper due diligence. Business development is about connection and discovery, and it’s about service before self-interest.

Given this, you’ll want to prepare your list of questions to aid you in the discovery process. Often the prospective client has a limited amount of time, so you need to focus on the things that matter most, and you need to listen carefully to responses. Develop active listening skills, which often begin with learning how to paraphrase what your client has said for better understanding.

 

Asking the Right Questions

Depending on the prospective client and how well you know them, it may make sense to begin the discussion with a focus on gaining a sense of how your contacts are doing both professionally and personally. What are the projects they enjoy working on the most? What are they most proud of accomplishing in the past year? What are their top objectives for the coming year? Why are their objectives important, what’s at stake and what is keeping them up at night?

Again, it’s vital to pay close attention to the answers and listen for opportunities for mutual wins. Paraphrase what you’ve heard in a way that demonstrates understanding and empathy.

 

Once You’ve Identified a Win-Win

Share your initial idea and insert something like, “Given what you’ve said about…, would it be helpful if we developed a proposal to help you with… .”

At this stage, you’ll be in a terrific position to gain a sense of the prospect’s thoughts and whether they have budget to support the work. If your contacts do not have a budget, you’ll want to find out who does so you can begin to relationship-build with them.

 

Broadening Your Network

Finally, you’ll want to ask for introductions to others you should meet within the coming weeks. To do this you might ask if they would be willing to introduce you to others in your business unit who are well connected, have budget and frequently need help.

The goal here is to connect with formal leaders as well as their deputies or influencers. The deputies are individuals who can share insight into the decision maker and help you understand their goals, motivations, interest, schedules and workloads.

 

Putting This Into Action

In advance of discussions with prospective clients, it’s often helpful to develop a script or an outline of the points you want to cover and commit it to memory. You may also want to role-play with a third person who can observe and critique your messages.

 

Measuring Success

As you self-evaluate your business development skills, consider how you’ll measure your success. Some easy ways to know if your actions are effective might include gaining an opportunity to develop a proposal for work, securing introductions to other leaders or influencers in the organization, or coming up with a new idea that you can act on to secure work.

Ultimately, you want to connect with people to understand their objectives and problems, so you can discover ways to help them. As trusted advisors, PR professionals can help clients achieve important communication objectives while at the same time freeing up their time for more valuable, meaningful and scalable work.

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