3Points’ New Year’s Resolutions

2016 taught the team at 3Points a lot. Within communications, we’ve seen social media’s power grow to the point where it actually turned into a major factor in the presidential election, and — as this post proves — we’ve seen Medium become the blogging platform of choice for a variety of intellectuals and companies alike. (Making money is another question.)

This past year at 3Points, we’ve learned more about our perceived shortcomings when we’ve missed out on some new business opportunities. However, when we successfully earned new business, we were also reminded of what we’re doing right, and that we are a strong business with respected team members in the trading, Chicago fintech and HR/Wellness sectors. As we took stock of 2016 and prepared for the year ahead, we’ve taken into account both our strengths and weaknesses, and noted the things we can work to improve upon. In doing so, we hope to improve both our strategies and public perception.

Public relations is constantly changing. Gone are the days when firms had to solely rely on paid or earned media (media relations) to get their message out, and social and owned media (content) will only continue to become bigger pieces of the PR pie. With that in mind, after reflecting on this past year, we have some New Year’s resolutions to share, which we plan on utilizing for a more well-rounded output in 2017.

Create More Content

3Points prides itself on being a PR firm with deep domain expertise within our two practices:

Trading and Technology

• Trading organizations
• Fintech companies
• The Chicago tech landscape
• Businesses delivering investment services

HR and Wellness

• Human capital
• Insurance
• Healthcare tech
• Wellness products and services

We’re constantly talking about the value of producing original content, especially as it helps demonstrate thought-leadership. Well-conceived, thought-provoking content helps to raise a company’s profile within its industry, which is why we emphasize the importance of owned media to clients.

In 2017, we plan to practice what we preach. Over the next year, you can expect to see more content coming from us that truly demonstrates thought-leadership and expertise in public relations. That includes exploration of the true value of PR and what you can expect from leveraging a PR strategy, recaps of industry events that our team attends and deeper dives into trends we’re seeing in the industries in which our clients operate.

Amplify, Amplify, Amplify

With all the quality content we’ll be producing, it’s imperative that we have a strategy in place for sharing it with our target audiences. Social media is an important place to start in this process, but it’s time we look into other ways to make sure the content that we’ve worked so hard on is getting its proper due.

In the upcoming year, we’re planning to implement our own email marketing strategy that emphasizes our content capabilities. Engaging emails can be one of the most effective and cost-efficient marketing strategies for reaching a targeted audience, and we’re going to work to make sure that our emails deliver. We’ll also be pursuing relationships with a number of newsletters to broaden the reach of our content.

In addition, we’re going to lean on our team to do a better job of sharing our outstanding content. As communicators and ambassadors for our clients, we’ve ensured that we have solid profiles on Twitter and LinkedIn. We are going to take advantage of the combined reach of those profiles to help share insights and advice with others in our industry.

Set Professional Development Goals

It’s more important than ever that professionals never stop learning and adding to their skill sets. In our opinion, the same goes for businesses. For example, when Drew Mauck, 3Points’ founder, launched the company six years ago, the company’s focus was primarily on earned media. As time has passed, 3Points has added to its service buckets and has developed expertise in owned and social media, and we’re continuing to add new service offerings within these spheres.

As we embark upon the new year, we’re working to ensure that our team has more advanced capabilities in other areas as well. One of those areas is data analytics. There are members of our team who already have a strong grasp on analytics (and Google certification) and are using their knowledge to help clients measure PR success. But in the upcoming year, our plan is to pursue certifications and training for more of the team in order to take our analytics game to the next level.

Another competency that we’d like to build is graphic design. Although we aren’t planning to become a design firm, we can improve upon the basic design work that we have previously delivered for clients, and make design a greater priority as content becomes more and more visual. In the upcoming year, look out for some visually appealing infographic concepts and designs produced by the 3Points team.

Reflecting on the past year has helped us pinpoint several areas where 3Points can grow in 2017, and we’re excited to get started. Follow our Medium page to make sure we follow through on our resolutions!