Role of Marketing Analysts in Public Relations
Marketing analysts study market conditions and trends to determine the impact and potential of products, companies and technology. These professionals play an integral role in shaping industry trends, customer and investor perceptions and media coverage. They are highly influential and help companies understand market conditions, buyer demand and available solutions.
Organizations may hire an analyst to deliver key insights on market conditions, sales performance, marketing effectiveness, competitor data and consumer behavior. Many companies who are researching purchasing options for business and technology solutions leverage reports from marketing analysts to make more informed buying decisions.
Benefits of Working With Marketing Analysts
It’s important to incorporate influencer and analyst relations into your marketing and public relations programs. There are several concrete benefits companies can expect to achieve from a strong analyst relations program.
- Increases Visibility: Business and technology buyers rely on the latest Forrester and Gartner reports to make purchasing decisions. A strong analyst relations program positions you front and center in the influential reports your prospects and customers are reading. Through our analyst relations programs, we encourage analysts to write positive reports about you, your company and technology.
- Shortens Sales Cycles: With a recommendation and strong rating from a trusted industry analyst, you can build customer confidence in your brand and product, and shorten sales cycles.
- Positions You as an Expert Source: When conducting market research, analysts will often turn to industry leaders and business sources to gain an expert perspective. We facilitate meetings and briefings with analysts on your behalf and position you as a thought leader in their latest waves and reports.
- Access to Market Research and Reports: Our analyst relations programs give you access to the latest analyst coverage and reports to keep you abreast on industry news, competitive outlooks and emerging trends.
How to Engage Marketing Analysts
At Walker Sands, we work carefully to understand your company’s unique value proposition and business model, and build lasting relationships with both mainstream and boutique analysts firms in your industry.
Here are a few best practices we’ve learned along the way to help companies improve analyst relations:
- Do Your Research: Engaging analysts requires a calculated approach. It’s important to avoid blindly pitching every analyst a boilerplate about your company and products. With a deep understanding of the major marketing analysts, we prioritize them based on their influence, coverage area and your business interests.
- Come Prepared to Meetings and Briefings: It’s important to arrive adequately prepared for analyst briefings. We help you do this by providing key messaging, spokesperson training, presentation creation, client reference development and in-depth briefing materials about the analysts, their backgrounds and interests.
- Nurture Your Relationships: Analyst relations should be an ongoing effort. We maintain analyst relationships by keeping them informed of your latest business news, announcements and commentary on timely news topics or trends. This facilitates a stronger, long-term relationship with key influencers in your industry.
With a comprehensive, multi-tiered approach to analyst relations, you can ensure your company is visible among influencers and in the key outlets and reports your customers rely on. A strong analyst relations program will drive sales, increase competitiveness and position you as an expert in your field.