By Mimi Granell:
To write or not to write a byline? That is the question.
In PR, a byline, also referred to as an opinion piece among other terms, describes a long-form article usually attributed to a key expert, specialist or leader within an organisation. That’s where the name comes from: there’s often a sub-header saying who the article is by. It will touch on challenges, trends and other crucial topics that resonate with the audience.
At Five not 10, we wouldn’t advise a client to do something for the sake of it. So, if an existing or potential client wants to add bylines to their PR portfolio, we’ll ask, “Why is that?” This allows us to find the right plan to achieve comms objectives.
Here are five reasons incorporating them into your PR activity makes sense.
1. Add credibility
Whether you’re a startup or household name, strengthening your credibility is never a bad thing. With budgets tightening, businesses care more than ever about who they’re partnering with, making reliability crucial.
By being seen in reputable publications, discussing industry pain points, a thought leadership programme based on bylines can not only boost visibility to your target audience, but reinforce your position in the market. After all, it’s easier to justify investing in a product or service when you recognise and trust the provider.
2. Influence and shape the industry
Do you want to shape the marketplace your business operates in, whilst showing customers that you’ve got your finger well and truly on the pulse? Well, bylines are an opportunity to do both. They allow the author to show expertise, as well as provide new, unique insights that can redirect or even create whole new discussions amongst the media and customers.
3. Provide value to your market and stakeholders
Trust, influence and knowledge go hand in hand. Thought leadership can cover a variety of topics such as market trends, emerging technologies and niche challenges. Yet, at the core of it all, it’s making your business a valuable resource to customers and other key stakeholders. You can demonstrate market know-how, showing readers how to solve some of the biggest challenges they face. Put simply, bylines can provide precious advice to readers.
4. Build customer relationships
By establishing your credibility and leading the charge on shaping the industry, it’s apparent to existing and potential customers that your business is interested in more than just selling its products or services. For example, is there a problem a certain organisation keeps mentioning to you? By talking about this and how it can be remedied in a long-form article, it’s a clear indicator that you’re not only listening to their challenges but invested in resolving them.
5. Differentiate from competitors
All the above help with distinguishing your business from its competitors. Taking it a step further, bylines present a space to broadly talk about how your distinctive offering can address customer and industry issues in a way your competitors can’t. However, this is a fine line to walk. Treading too far on the side of “we can do this for you” will lead to a journalist pointing you in the direction of the advertising team.
To write or not to write a byline?
This should always be answered by asking another question: what do you want to achieve? If you can figure out that, it will become clear how bylines can achieve some of the above benefits. If you’re unsure or need support planning and then creating great content, get in touch.