Increasing Awareness Among Target Audiences
The leading certifying body in the financial planning industry sought to raise awareness of their designation among two key audiences: financial professionals and investors.
Challenge
For financial professionals, the organization needed to raise awareness of the designation as a career accelerator, encouraging more professionals to earn this certification over several others that are available. For investors, the organization wanted to position the designation as a necessity when seeking financial advice. To do this, the client sought to publicize messaging that would distinguish its designation among the multitude of certifications that come after a financial professional’s name and position it as the go-to choice for investors.
Solution
Bliss created clear and unique narratives for each target audience. The career-oriented story encouraged financial professionals to earn the certification, detailing potential career paths and benefits such as compensation and flexibility. For investors, the narrative focused on the reasons they should partner with financial planners carrying the designation, clearly communicating that the top benefit was their commitment to providing advice that was always in investors’ best interest.
After defining each narrative, Bliss developed earned media and owned content strategies to ensure each message reached the intended audience. We partnered with the client to develop thought leadership content, capturing organizational and executive POVs in commentary for media interviews, byline articles, and web content. Additionally, we led the relaunch of the earned media research program. The research captured the sentiment and financial decisions of investors as well as the recommendations financial professionals with the organization’s designation would share based on the economic climate.
Tactics included:
- Extensive media outreach prioritizing national publications
- Promoted the launch of the organization’s formal research bureau, including three unique surveys, through earned, owned, and social channels
- Supported the organization’s annual event, assisting with overall messaging and driving media activity and coordination before, during, and after the summit
- Created long-form content for the website, specifically to drive readers to investigate more about career opportunities
Impact
Bliss’s strategic approach to media and thought leadership resulted in a 17% year-over-year increase in media placements and a 20% year-over-year increase in earned media reach, increasing brand awareness for the client and its designation. All stories were positive or neutral, and most resulted directly from proactive outreach by both Bliss and the client. The favorable coverage afforded the client control over its own narrative as it worked to build, expand, and protect its brand reputation.