Over thirty years of experience in communications and media relations for leading business to business brands has given the Henley Group a particular insight:

Most organisations in industrial and technical sectorsdon’t get enough value from their PR.

Many struggle to get their products or services to appeal to prospects beyond a narrow audience, typically catered for by a handful of niche, trade publications.

They find that targeting general business users, buyers or specifiers through the media proves difficult. Attempts to promote a product more widely are met by journalists asking why the story is relevant to their readers.

Sometimes the problem is down to poorly written PR and marketing material that fails to explain highly technical products and solutions in language that is easy to grasp.

Then again, promoting advanced technologies demands accuracy, rigour and attention to detail.

So the issue might be that researching, drafting and selling PR stories into the media requires amounts of time, patience and effort that are not freely available to organisations with in-house resources, in particular.

INDUSTRIAL / TECHNICAL PRFROM THE HENLEY GROUP

Through experience for leading brands such as Siemens, 3M, Schneider Electric, Toshiba and the Kitemark, the Henley Group has grown particularly skilful at turning technical products and complex business messages into compelling stories that resonate with B2B audiences.

We are adept at extracting the business benefits from the most technical of products and solutions and making them tangible and easily understood. Demonstrating what a product does for a lower cost, at greater speed, or with better efficiency.

Our expert writers combine industry knowledge with a seasoned understanding of what makes a good story in the press. And we know how to unearth case histories from installers, distributors and hard-to-reach end users.

We have strong contacts with the trade, business and national media, and we leverage these to generate a high volume of sustained press coverage for our clients.

Finally, we understand what makes B2B organisations tick - so we know how to work with your sales, service and technical people, to ensure PR delivers as much as it can.

SEE WHAT INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNICAL PR CAN ACHIEVE WHEN IT’S PUT TO PROPER USE BY THE HENLEY GROUP.

Graffix House Newtown Road Henley on Thames Oxon RG9 1HGTel: 01491 570 970 Fax: 01491 575 327Email: group@henley.co.ukwww.henley.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter: @Henley_Group

©The Henley Group International Ltd 2013

CASE HISTORIES

Clients value our ability to develop case histories that demonstrate the benefits, efficiencies and savings generated by the use of a client’s product or service in a particular application.

By placing these in vertical sector media, organisations can directly target the buyer, specifier or user of their products; and their sales messages are usually undiluted by ‘noise’ created by competitors.

This example from earlier in 2012 showed how Aston Villa Football Club had slashed energy costs by installing a building controls system provided by Trend Controls. Placed exclusively in Football & Sports Arena magazine with striking images, it resulted in a full page of coverage.

LEAD GENERATION

While a key role of PR activity is to raise general awareness and prime the market, a well-targeted story can often drive sales of a product and generate plenty of sales leads.

Leveraging the appetite of fire equipment installers for practical yet expert advice, The Henley Group and its client Hochiki Europe developed a practical guide to a new standard in the fire industry, and made it available as a down-load from the client’s website.

The guide was promoted in the fire, electrical, FM and other trade media and the coverage generated substantial traffic on the client’s website and helped to generate 300 quality sales leads.

FEATURE ARTICLES

Detailed feature articles provide great opportunities for businesses to share expertise and demonstrate leadership in their chosen field.

Features also allow organisations to initiate and influence debates around industry issues and the use of technology - helping to establish products in the marketplace and demonstrate their value.

The challenge is to produce articles that promote an organisation yet are interesting enough to justify publication as editorial.

Done well, a feature article in a key publication makes a powerful sales tool - as this example for Corps Security in Professional Security Installer magazine demonstrates.

EDITOR INTERVIEWS

Giving the media access to a client’s management helps to establish profitable relationships and can result in extensive press coverage.

Most B2B organisations will have done interviews with trade titles or even vertical sector media - but it is a common misconception that the national business media is solely interested in consumer brands.

If anything, we have seen a growing interest in the national media in manufacturing, new technologies, and industrial applications - and the businesses that lie behind them. This article in the Financial Mail on Sunday for Siemens proves the point and shows what is possible with the right contacts and an understanding of what makes a newsworthy topic.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Promoting an organisation as a thought leader in its field serves to establish its expertise and support its sales proposition.

We work with clients to develop their positions on the topical issues that affect their businesses andindustry at large. From these, we draft letters to editors, briefings, tweets, blogs and speeches and hold these on file to use when suitable opportunities to comment emerge.

The traditional media and newer social media channels are closely monitored and any opportunity to provide comment is acted upon quickly. This example for the Escher Group addressed data ownership and appeared on the letters page of the Financial Times.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The Henley Group helps clients set up and use the same social media tools that have been embraced by consumer brands - and put them to use in a B2B context.

Adding new social media channels into the marketing mix extends the reach of existing communications, but also helps clients engage deeply and profitably with entirely new audiences. This helps raise brand awareness, establish credibility and demonstrate leadership.

The Henley Group recently set up and launched Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest for Securitas and developed a wide range of engaging content to provide the engine for ongoing social media activity.

Graffix House Newtown Road Henley on Thames Oxon RG9 1HGTel: 01491 570 970 Fax: 01491 575 327Email: group@henley.co.ukwww.henley.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter: @Henley_Group

©The Henley Group International Ltd 2013

PEOPLE

Experienced, senior PR executives are always dedicated to an account and most have been with the company for many years, ensuring a consistency in approach and allowing the company to provide a personal service that is much valued by clients.

Providing and maintaining this high quality service means that clients remain with the Henley Group for many years: the longest relationship with an existing client goes back over twenty years.

METHODOLOGY

Most clients retain The Henley Group to work on an annual campaign schedule, the completion of which carries a monthly management fee - fixed at a single rate regardless of the time spent on the account.

For start-ups, smaller businesses and for organisations with shorter-term objectives, PR services can be provided on a project basis.

INTERESTED?

Squeezing more than thirty years of experience into a few pages is difficult, and the examples given can only provide a flavour of what The Henley Group delivers for its clients.

All campaigns are tailored to an organisation’s specific needs and budget and the first step in the process is to understand exactly what a business wishes to achieve. To find out how the Henley Group can help your organisation, contact James Tate on 01491 570 971 or james@henley.co.uk.

MERCHANDISING

Considerable effort is made to merchandise all campaign content and put it to uses beyond its initial purpose. This means that PR stories are edited and form the basis for sales collateral including white papers, newsletters, direct mail and social media content. It’s another example of making PR work as hard as possible.

MEASUREMENT

Effective measurement of campaign activity is essential. The Henley Group calls upon a number of tools to monitor, measure and value campaign activity, including a schedule that details all planned tasks and is designed to integrate with a client’s marketing plan.

A sophisticated dashboard with ‘traffic light’ reporting tracks each activity through its stages, whilst analysis establishes the advertising value of coverage achieved for those organisations that require it.

SECTORS

The Henley Group is experienced in promoting a wide range of products and services from a number of industry sectors, including:

- Drives, controls and automation technology- Manufacturing and industrial robotics- Plant and electrical equipment- IT and office equipment- Stationery and office products- Print and document management- Energy management and technology- Product testing and certification- Fire detection and protection- Security systems, monitoring and manned guarding- Postal technology, equipment and services- Petrochemicals, additives and lubricants- Medical and healthcare equipment

EXPERIENCE

Client experience includes work with numerous industrial and technology brands including: