If you’re in charge of media relations at a bank, fintech or other financial services company, you know that complex topics like financial fraud, regulatory compliance, generative AI and machine learning are dominating the headlines. And with every new advancement, regulation change, or fraud or cybersecurity threat come new layers of complexity that the industry must navigate, and the media must report on.
Journalists are constantly looking for subject matter experts who can explain and simplify these complex topics and put them into context for their readers. This is a big opportunity for your brand, but what if your company’s technical experts aren’t seasoned spokespeople?
With the right fintech media training and a good media relations strategy, these subject matter experts can have immense value as public-facing thought leaders. Their industry expertise and up-to-the-minute knowledge can contextualize and deepen your established messaging. Elevating these experts is a great way to credential your company with savvy decision-makers.
To get you started, we’ve laid out five ways media pros can help technical subject matter experts become your company’s best spokesperson.
1. Help your subject matter experts navigate the pace of today’s media landscape
Media moves faster than ever, and journalists are balancing tight deadlines with multiple coverage beats and a massive workload. But pulling your technical subject matter experts away from business priorities and into last-minute media inquiries on a regular basis is not viable. It can also quickly frustrate a senior executive who might decide not to prioritize future opportunities.
For these reasons, it’s essential to create a turnkey process for your experts that enables them to tell and retell their stories in a simple, repeatable manner with minimal time and effort. A good media training strategy can organize their expertise into themes that reflect the current landscape but can also be quickly updated as stories develop.
2. Encourage spokespeople to think and speak like the customer
Your customers are consuming information across many channels, and they want clear, easy-to-understand news and information that helps them navigate business problems. Technical experts may not be customer-facing in their day-to-day role, so it’s important to encourage your SMEs to think of customer challenges, needs and desired outcomes instead of just products, solutions and services.
Effective media training helps experts deliver valuable information in an approachable and relatable tone. Teach your SMEs to align their talking points with how your customers make decisions. Present a problem-solution approach. Guide your subject matter experts through a narrative that keeps them on message but allows their unique POV to be heard. Relatable storytelling gets covered.
3. Enable spokesperson to translate pure technical B2B concepts into broader storylines
At the end of the day, every businessperson is also a consumer, and consumers are at the core of many financial services stories. Big consumer trends and relatable personal stories tend to garner the attention of larger and more prominent media outlets. If your PR goals include broad reach and brand recognition, be open to broader storylines, even if they don’t directly tie to your solutions. Train technical experts to translate their expertise into these narratives.
4. Keep the messaging fresh and adapt accordingly
Your experts are strategic advisors, which means they need to be ahead of the trends. Fintech, banking and payments change fast—especially the technical side of the business. The brand messaging and how your technical expert conveys key messages must also evolve. Keep spokespeople updated on what’s trending with media and help them adapt past expertise to weigh in on current events. Give them a framework that reflects the current state of the industry so they’re always sharing fresh, relevant insights
5. Amplify the subject matter expert’s expertise across platforms
Subject matter experts often have rich business networks. Encourage them to engage with their LinkedIn network by sharing their point of view on articles and in industry-specific forums, groups and pages. Your PR team can also create sales enablement packages with sample social media posts and emails that showcase your media wins to help them engage with their network easily. Amplifying their presence on social media raises their visibility, expands brand awareness and sets them apart as a thought leader.
Spokespeople Beyond the C-Suite
Your CFO, CPO, CCO and CTO are other valuable experts, but don’t limit your bench to the C-suite. Depending on your company size and breadth of expertise, you should also have other experts, such as fraud, data, security and compliance leaders, at the ready.
Diversifying your brand’s voices in the media helps amplify your key messages from different perspectives. It’s important to align the right expert with the right audience. Consider the interviewer, the source, and its readership and choose accordingly.
Having a deeper bench of company spokespeople also reduces the burden on one spokesperson. This is particularly helpful when you have a short time frame to respond to a timely media opportunity. Having spokespeople prepped and ready to respond quickly can make all the difference in securing media opportunities or missing out to your competitors.
In industries marked by complexity and continuous innovation, it is crucial to provide your experts with effective fintech media training and tools to distill complex ideas in ways that resonate with both the media and customers. By prioritizing media training, your spokespeople can help articulate your brand’s narrative clearly to strengthen your company’s market position and drive meaningful engagement, making them one of your most valuable sales assets.
At The Fletcher Group, we specialize in fintech media training to help fintech and payments experts communicate complex ideas with clarity and impact. We understand the nuances of the industries, enabling us to tailor your message and elevate your brand’s presence in a crowded market. Get in touch to learn how we can help transform your PR efforts and connect to your target audience in meaningful ways.
