Public relations.

• Author: Landis, Jesse

THERE ARE A COUPLE OF SIMPLE, LOW-COST PUBLIC RELATIONS APPROACHES that have proven successful at two related banks that our agency works with.

These tactics are listed below together with some examples of how they were actually practiced at one or both of the banks. Feel free to work from or borrow these ideas:

1. Sponsor or Host Events

   Aliant Bank (assets: $2.3 billion), Birmingham, Ala., reaches prospective and current customers through sponsoring or hosting local consumer and business-focused events. From sponsoring an event on identity theft to giving small-businesses advice on how to write a business plan, Aliant maintains a presence in the community as its leaders position themselves as experts on relevant and useful topics.

   These events, in turn, lead to opportunities for media coverage, particularly in smaller markets where the print and TV outlets are often looking for something interesting to cover with visual opportunities.

   It is critical to have a third-party expert at these events so that people don't think you're just selling the bank's services. For example, at an identity theft event, Aliant had, in addition to its own employees, a police officer and district attorney speaking on the prevalence of ID theft.

2. Write Guest Columns for Publications

   Aliant Bank contributes monthly guest columns to local publications, such as Lake Martin Living magazine. The columns offer a wide range of useful and practical topics, from paying for long-term medical care to financing a boat. The institution's parent bank, USAmeriBank, Largo, Fla., also contributes guest columns to community newspapers that reach the geographic areas where its retail and business banking efforts are focused.

   These columns position bank leaders as experts, but in a way that is not seen as predominantly promoting the bank. The key is to offer high-quality, useful, helpful information. And the authors of the columns often take turns, to showcase the different types of expertise in the various departments of the bank.

   Not everyone has a knack for writing this sort of thing, and that's OK. One approach is to have the expert write down the main ideas, then pass that along to an outside writer to help shape it into something that will be reader-friendly and media-friendly. Another approach is to have the writer interview the expert and start an initial draft that the expert can revise and refine.

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3. Work with the News Media

   Developing deep...