Partnering for success when entering the UK

Establishing brand recognition in the UK can be a slow and expensive process for internationally-headquartered businesses breaking into the market. Partnering with influential individuals or organisations already established and recognised here is a powerful way to reduce this timeline, giving businesses a direct route to engage target audiences and create local relevance. Potential partners could take the shape of industry influencers, academics, activists, peer companies, industry bodies, or even target customers. And the role they could play in a business’ communications strategy has the potential to be just as varied – from providing partner quotes and testimonials for use in media materials and co-creating content such as blogs or thought leadership articles through to collaborating on larger-scale integrated media campaigns. Choosing your partner carefully By aligning your brand with organisations that have already earned the trust of your target audience, you can benefit from their credibility – when these trusted players collaborate with you, some of that trust transfers to your brand, giving potential customers a reason to engage and feel confident in your service or product. It’s therefore critical to consider a potential partner’s public persona before committing to working with them. For example: what topics do they speak about and what is their stance on key issues? How prolific is their media and social media presence, and how influential are they amongst your target audiences? And, perhaps most importantly, does their purpose, vision and values align with your organisation’s? This careful selection process will help you identify partners with whom you have synergy, thus creating genuine and relevant collaborations that demonstrate your brand’s commitment and understanding of the UK market, and creating a route into and trust amongst new audiences. Localisation of your message Every market has unique cultural nuances and communication styles, and the UK – with its diverse regions and communities – is no exception. It’s important to remember that what resonates in your home market may not have the same intended impact in the UK. Localisation involves more than just language – it requires adapting your brand’s voice and values to authentically connect with UK consumers. Whether it’s understanding the nuances of British humour or acknowledging local traditions, these insights can make the difference between a campaign that falls flat and one that truly resonates with your target market. Collaborating with local individuals or organisations can help ensure your messages and tone are on point. Partners can also help you to capitalise on local trends, and tap into cultural touchpoints that might otherwise be overlooked. Spotlight on: AgriWebb Take, for example, one of the businesses we’ve worked with – the Australian company AgriWebb, which provides livestock management tools that increase farm productivity. As part of its product strategy and UK business expansion plans, AgriWebb partnered with 100 British beef and sheep farmers to test its technology before it was released to the wider UK farming industry. This beta phase gave UK farmers the opportunity to offer their initial thoughts and feedback, helping ensure that AgriWebb’s software met the nuanced needs of the British farming market, while helping the Australian brand to build long-standing relationships with a large community of farmers – its priority audience. When it came to the UK market launch, these partners became a critical component of AgriWebb’s comms strategy, immediately adding local UK credibility for an internationally founded SaaS business. Laying the foundation for sustainable growth Partnerships shouldn’t be viewed in terms of short-term gains, or simply from a commercial incentive perspective. Instead, they represent an important opportunity to build lasting relationships with customers or key industry figures that can lead to wider brand awareness and message reach, increased trust and open doors to new audiences. Building partnerships into your communications strategies can help you to create a solid foundation for sustained media presence and long-term PR – and business – success.   Image credit: Christina Morillo on Pexels

Essential communication strategies for businesses entering the UK

The UK is a prime destination for many international-based businesses with sights on global expansion. It’s the sixth largest economy in the world and the second largest in Europe in terms of GDP. Beyond market size, there are immediate advantages such as the ease of doing business here and the global popularity of English as a preferred business language. However, the transition to the UK is not without its challenges. Businesses commonly accustomed to strong brand recognition and media influence at home will likely find themselves with little brand awareness while competing against well-established and better known local players. Here are three communication strategies that can help scale-ups to hit the ground running in the UK. 1. Map the competitor and stakeholder landscape One of the first steps for businesses headquartered overseas is to identify local competitor activity and the array of stakeholders in the UK market. Take Xero, which expanded into the UK in 2008, as an example. The brand had already been hugely successful in New Zealand and Australia where it enjoyed market dominance. But on arrival in the UK it found it faced fierce competition from established brands such as QuickBooks and Sage. To succeed, Xero had to quickly get to grips with its competitors’ offerings and communications strategies to understand how to position itself and stand out from the crowd. It’s also critical for businesses to identify key stakeholders across various domains, including media, policy and business. Understanding these influential individuals and organisations in your space is vital to the development of effective messaging and PR strategies. Once mapped and prioritised, strategies to engage each stakeholder can be designed. This is often a crucial exercise to build solid foundations for your local reputation and achieve long-term success in the UK. 2. Tell your story in a way that resonates Differences in the competitor and stakeholder landscape, in addition to distinct consumer expectations, regulatory frameworks, and media preferences, means that businesses should consider creating a UK-specific communications narrative. This locally-informed document should articulate the positioning of the company within the UK market, in a way that speaks to local audiences. UK-based communications consultants can facilitate workshops with senior leaders to overlay business strategy, purpose, and USPs on top of a deep understanding of the competitor and stakeholder landscape and an attunement to the media agenda. Ideally, a narrative should be backed by solid proof points about what has worked well in the home market. 3. Develop your PR strategy A successful PR strategy should balance global brand consistency with local targeting. This involves creatively adapting global assets and ensuring that language and messaging are tested against British communication styles and cultural nuances. Brands must develop UK-specific PR and communications strategies that are highly localised while still laddering up to broader business objectives, and a successful strategy should include measurable communications goals and integrated tactics that align to and support the overarching strategy. Driving long-term success Expanding into the UK market is a significant step for any business. While most who are ready to expand will likely have achieved significant success domestically, the UK presents a new set of obstacles that require a fresh perspective. Businesses can thrive in the UK  by truly understanding their audiences, then investing in PR to communicate their strengths and differentiation as the foundation for long-term commercial success.   Image credit: Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels

Building a strong corporate reputation: Key PR strategies for companies​

In today’s competitive business landscape, a company’s reputation can make or break its success. With consumers and stakeholders increasingly valuing transparency, credibility, and authenticity, building a strong corporate reputation is no longer optional – it is essential.

The UK media landscape explained for Australian businesses

For any Australian company looking to build its profile through the British media, it’s absolutely crucial to recognise the differences that exist between the two markets, despite our shared language and cultural similarities. Here are five differences to keep in mind. 1. Market size and competition The UK media industry is significantly larger than Australia’s. However, there are also many more companies and individuals vying for media attention in what is the world’s sixth largest economy. It makes the UK a far more saturated and competitive market. This requires high-quality, truly newsworthy stories and novel insights that tap into the zeitgeist. It’s also essential to understand the media you are pitching to – including their areas of interest and what makes their readership tick – and to use this intelligence to create highly-targeted pitches to help your business cut through in this crowded space. 2. Formal approach In Australia, media relations tends to be more collaborative. In the UK, unless you already have a strong, long-standing relationship with a journalist, PR professionals tend to take a more formal, pitch-driven approach. This means that the strength and relevance of your story is the decider of whether your news will make the cut. While this more formal approach can present significant challenges for brands entering the UK, investing in relationship-building is still crucial for long-term success. The scale of the UK market means that it is impossible to cultivate relationships with all relevant media, so prioritise and invest more time in creating ties with the journalists that matter most to your business. Building credibility with targeted sector media is a vital first step and where you will gain editorial interest far sooner. 3. The ‘nationals’: ABC versus BBC The BBC, the UK’s public service broadcaster, far outstrips its Australian counterpart in terms of breadth, scale and influence. It is hugely influential both in the UK and overseas, and operates across a range of channels including TV, radio and online. This makes it a prime target for any Australian business operating in the UK. It is however vital to recognise the BBC’s editorial guidelines which emphasise maintaining impartiality and avoiding undue prominence when mentioning brands in their content. Other broadcasters with large online reach include Sky News, ITV News and Channel 4 News. These compete with the digital offerings from national newspapers including The Times, The Financial Times, Daily Mail, The Guardian, and more. The likes of Bloomberg and Reuters have significant London bureaus. 4. Regional media In the UK, the word “regional” has a different meaning. Whereas in Australia the term is likely to refer to ANZ or APAC, within the UK, PR and media professionals typically consider regional as geographic areas within England, plus the nations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. More targeted still is local media, which generally means media publications covering the news within a specific city or town. This rich landscape of media presents many opportunities – for example, to build your employer brand to help attract talent in strategic locations, or to emphasise customer storytelling in priority geographies for customer growth. Most regional and local publications now fall under the ownership of a handful of large news groups such as Reach plc and Newsquest. Along with news and feature content provided by PA Media (the Press Association), articles can often be syndicated widely across numerous publications. 5. Trade media The UK trade media landscape is significantly larger and more specialised than Australia’s. Some of these UK-based titles take an industry-wide view, while others cover industry niches, or ‘verticals’, providing highly-informed expert news, features and deep analysis that is specifically targeted to professionals working in a particular field. This extensive ecosystem of digital and print publications opens up opportunities for businesses to reach niche customer audiences with more complex and nuanced messaging. Understanding these key differences is essential for any Australian company looking to navigate the larger, more competitive UK media landscape. These insights can help to inform successful PR and communications strategies, ultimately enhancing a business’ visibility and credibility in this important market.   Image credit: Hanlin Suna on Unsplash