Business Development: Stop, Collaborate & Listen: Leveraging Business Developers and Brand Ambassadors to Drive Media Relations

Author: Korby Boswell, Adams Brown

Imagine your business developers and brand ambassadors as the frontline scouts of your firm, navigating the complex terrain of your target markets. They’re not just shaking hands and exchanging business cards — they’re gathering intelligence, building alliances and discovering new opportunities. But are you fully capitalizing on this potential?

These outward-facing roles aren’t just about sales or brand visibility; they’re about aligning with the right distribution channels—trade associations, publications and industry events—that can amplify your message to the right audience. By strategically leveraging their expertise and relationships, you can unlock media relations opportunities that put your firm on the map in ways that are both impactful and enduring.

Beyond just obtaining added visibility for your firm, promoting a specific industry practice area or geographic market can be a real value-add, opening doors to future conversations and sales opportunities that aren’t always easily accessible or attainable.

As the Saying Goes…

“When you market to everyone, you market to no one.” This couldn’t be truer of your firm’s outward-facing roles. If you have a dedicated growth professional allocated to an industry or geographic market, they should understand how target buyers are consuming information, where they go when they have questions and who they turn to for advice. Your business developers and brand ambassadors are more than just relationship builders; they’re your eyes and ears in the market.

Once you have clarity here, it’s time to develop your pitch.

Don’t Overcomplicate it; Just Ask

What are your unique insights that can be pitched to relevant media or trade associations? Where do their holes or needs overlap with what you know and have to offer?

Solidify your angle, inventory your relationships with executive directors, journalists and publishers, and then make the ask. There’s a good chance they need thought leadership in an area in which your firm has expertise. But you won’t know until you ask.

Adams Brown brand ambassador, Jesse McCurry, did just that. Coming to the firm after serving as an executive director of a state-wide agriculture association, his expertise and experience was vast. He also had a robust network of agriculture professionals across the state and beyond.

What started with a one-time column pitch in April 2024 has turned into a recurring column in Kansas Farmer, a FarmProgress publication. Aptly titled “Above+Beyond the Harvest” to reinforce the firm’s brand, McCurry now works hand-in-hand with the publisher and the firm’s practice growth team to develop thought leadership specially crafted for readers.

Marketing & Business Development Teamwork Makes it all Work

A thorough understanding of a market, an existing deep bench of relationships and a willingness to forge new relationships with stakeholders is a rare combination. These factors coupled with a seasoned in-house content marketing strategist is a recipe for success.

Adams Brown content marketing manager, Amanda Freund, works with McCurry throughout the entire process, including topic ideation, keyword research, interviewing, writing, editing and submitting. By working together, this endeavor positions the firm in front of a large market of farmers and ranchers, both prospects and current clients.

Writing for a publication is an exciting opportunity in and of itself. However, don’t lose sight of how this tactical win ties back to a larger firm practice growth strategy. Make sure to continue garnering feedback and insight along the way, because the ultimate goal is new business opportunities and a true return on the time, energy and resources invested.

Investing in media relations through your business developers and brand ambassadors isn’t a strategy that will yield immediate results. Instead, it’s a tactic that, with patience and persistence, can deliver a significant return over time.

Here are some of the highlights Adams Brown has seen in the early stages:

• With trust being built up over the past few months with the publisher, additional pitches outside of the ongoing column are becoming easier to get published.
• Enhanced third party credibility for McCurry when networking and contacting new agriculture professionals and prospects.
• A robust content calendar with repurposing of content for additional platform use.
• Ongoing education so we can be better at communicating the firm’s value; it’s a learning opportunity for McCurry and Freund to help unpack all the value the firm can offer to the industry.
• Being approached by entrepreneurs launching new products and services for feedback on market validity and possible collaboration.

Who Owns the Column?

Some firms take the approach that a partner must be the columnist. What if the topic is on the more technical side, something only a CPA would know the ins and outs of?

Brand ambassadors and business developers working within an industry can absolutely “own” the column. What better way is there to position fellow teammates, referral sources, clients, thought leaders, etc., than by quoting them in the column?

This approach builds credibility for the columnist, other team members and ultimately the firm. The industry has been talking about labor shortage for years. Teammates are busier than ever. No teammate needs to know everything about a topic or industry, but combining forces creates a win-win for all involved, while tying back to the larger strategy component mentioned above.

Getting Started

Vanilla Ice said it best: “Alright stop, collaborate and listen.”

Set some time aside to think about your firm’s existing or potential thought leaders. Where are your business developers or brand ambassadors deployed and which industries do they know inside and out? From there, collaborate with them and do inventory of your distribution channel opportunities.

Know what you have, define your angle and make your pitch. It takes time, but getting one “yes,” even in the midst of a “no” or two, is all it takes.