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Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

Bio

I have over 15 years experience in PR and digital marketing working with some of the worlds largest and most recognised brands. In 2013 I setup PR, Social & Digital agency Alfred.

Communications

From launching Amazon’s corporate social media activity in the UK to helping the likes of Oatly, Nespresso and Mars develop communications programmes that drive results. At Alfred we have won numerous awards for our work, with a key focus on delivering against goals and objectives,

Expert areas include: Communications strategy and planning, messaging, crisis management, social media strategy, public relations, social media technology, and media buying/planning for social media (e.g. FacebookMeta, Twitter, YouTube, Google etc.)

Agency Leadership

Tapping into the things learnt from growing a business that started with zero funding, and fuelled solely by overconfidence, self belief and a PO number from our first client - I am offering practical consultancy to help others that at the early stage of growth, with the various practical things that add value to an agency business.

Examples include:
- Financial forecasting, management, setting operating KPIs and managing commercial performance (as often at the early stage we don’t have a FD, and knowing your numbers and what they mean as an MD or founder is imperative for success)
- Setting up tools to manage finance, new business pipelines (to give you insight and data into why you win or don't’) along with team and HR platforms that support culture and drive efficiencies
- Implementing timesheets to track utilisation and servicing to understand pressure points
- New business and business development strategies - from growing inbound leads, through to proactive prospecting
- Having difficult client conversations, when you need to push back, ask for more budget or address issues
- Leadership development and mindset
- Culture development to create a great place to work
- Participating in industry certifications such as PRCA CMS, and going through the B orp journey
- General troubleshooting from client issues, to business decisions

Recent Answers

Traffic Generation

What is the best source of traffic (or tactic) to predictably generate high-volumes of traffic at a $0.05 CPC in a mass market?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

Would need more info. But check out Facebook's ad platform as this will enable you to control CPC as well as getting more intelligent and working in conversion through tracking pixels and data. Hope this helps!

Public relations

Is sending a press release through something like prweb a good idea or waste of money? Is it better to just go direct and customize emails?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

One million percent the best route is to target and customise the approaches. Identify why you think the story is relevant and where it will sit. Highlight an existing segment or column that it is perfect for on the outlet you are targeting. Tailoring approaches is what will ensure you generate a much better conversion, this also requires using the phone to follow up. Hope this helps.

YouTube

What are the best measurement points for a brand campaign on YouTube?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

Engagement in the form of comments, likes/dislikes will give you more of an understanding than looking just at views. Also, if you include a click through on the video (in description) you can measure the click through rate and see how effective your video is at driving traffic to a website or destination. Metrics need to be suitable to the campaign, so would need to know more about the campaign to advise. Happy to discuss if you want to talk further.

Public relations

Who on clarity will be best to speak to about how to get coverage of my new startup in publications?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

Happy to discuss. Experience in working with big brands as well as startups. Key thing to do is to work out what the angle or news is and how that can be tailored and pitched to media.

Public relations

Is using a PR firm a waste of money to get coverage for a startup?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

Totally depends on what value you a expecting back, what's the reason for hiring the agency and how much you're willing to invest in building the company/ startup profile. Can you share any info on the startup and what you think a PR company will do, and what you'd expect to see as ROI?

Public relations

Is it a big no-no to approach 2 different journalists from the same publication to cover my startup story?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

It depends. Are they on the same desk? Or you looking at pitching two different stories to each?

Content Strategy

Is content syndication a good or bad idea for articles of a startup blog?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

You really have to think about the objective. Why do you want to do it? Assume it is to drive traffic? Best way, is to focus on creating content that people want to read and share, then pushing out with paid support via social platforms, influencers and partners.

Content Syndication

How should I go about syndicating my content to other sites?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

Really depends on the content and what you mean by content. You talking video, images, press releases? Need a bit more info to help with this one.

Online Journalism

What is the biggest mistake that startups make when speaking to journalists?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

Quite a broad question. Agencies and publicists that are experienced have learnt many things over the years, which will all play part of best practice. As a staring point, would suggest you think about the following: - Ensure your pitch is concise and to the point. Lead with what is most newsworthy to readers of the publication you are targeting - Be harsh. Consider if what you are sending them really news? - Rearsearch the journalist and tailor pitch to reference articles they have written or areas they have an interest in - Go to the right person. Don't sent an irrelevant story to the journalist. Make sure they actually write about what you are sending them - Be prepared. Have facts and information ready - Use the phone. Imagine how many emails they get each day! You're far better pitching on the phone, and talking over the news and then following up with tailored into based on their feedback If you get the approach wrong then your pitch is going to be sent to the junk folder and you simply won't get a reply or answer. Hope that's not too blunt! Hope it helps. Thanks.

Public relations

Where is the best place to find out which bloggers/journalists/writers cover different topics?


Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

Hi there, there a few ways of doing this. Is it a complete list across verticals you need, or is it for a specific purpose? If you can let us know a few more details I may be able to help. Thanks Dan

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Digital MarketingPublic relationsSocial MediaSocial Media MarketingCommunity ManagementTwitterDigital MediaFacebookYouTubeNew Media