Jennifer is the President and Founder of The Fletcher Group, a North American PR and content Marketing agency that drives action and long-term impact for B2B, fintech and payments companies. She is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO), the collective voice of the prepaid technology industry in Canada. Jennifer is a sought-after communications partner for B2B growth companies. Her direct approach and razor-sharp business acumen make her a favorite with executives and a trusted advisor to client organizations. Under her guidance, The Fletcher Group has earned a reputation for smart marketing and PR strategy and exceptional client service.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to PR.

As the President and Founder of The Fletcher Group, I partner with payments and fintech brands that are passionate about leading and disrupting digital financial services. The agency is woman-owned with a female executive team, supporting initiatives to propel women in payments such as Wnet and RiseUp. I’m also the Co-founder and Executive Director, the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO) which is a not for-profit organization and the collective voice of the prepaid technology industry in Canada. It is the only association solely focused on this growing industry and is supported by major financial institutions, card networks, fintech processors and other industry players. 

I have a master’s degree in public policy and I got the opportunity to begin my career at the United Nations. While there, I realized that I enjoyed the communication aspect of the job the most. I eventually transitioned to a PR agency where I learned public affairs and corporate PR. In 2005 I started the Fletcher Group because I felt the existing agency model of high overhead, long hours, boom and bust cycles could be improved upon. Our agency has been virtual from the start, allowing our people to work from anywhere, for true work-life balance combined with a challenging career. We also offer both PR and content marketing. The lines between PR and marketing have completely erased and successful communication strategies will need to focus on what is needed to achieve the desired outcome. This will come from a continuum of marketing and PR tactics.

What was the motivation behind The Fletcher Group?

I am proud that the Fletcher Group is an award-winning PR and content marketing agency that drives action and long-term impact. Our clients are disrupting how people shop, save and spend and we help them build credible brand awareness and fill the funnel with leads while managing reputation. We serve B2B, payments and fintech companies of all sizes, from rapid-growth startups to large multinational organizations. In the last year we have been awarded Ragan/PR Daily PR Team of the Year, Top Lead Gen Content Marketing Campaign of the Year, Tearsheet Agency of the Year Finalist and Silver Anvil Award of Excellence.

I founded the agency in 2005 after my current employer asked me to come back to work in the middle of my maternity leave. It crystalized for me that the PR agency model was broken and there was a better way to offer an ambitious career with the time away from the office to manage a family or just pursue personal passions. From the beginning, I truly believed that a motivated and personally fulfilled team of people would provide the best outcomes to clients, leading to long term success and profitability. And it has worked. We have been profitable every year since we started, including 2020, and some of our clients have been with us for 10-15 years.

What should small business startups know about PR and its value?

In a crowded, noisy marketplace where people engage with 5,000 marketing messages a day, it’s difficult to make your brand stand out. You need to find the brand positioning you can own, and then build and activate smart content strategies that promote what you know, not just what you sell.

A PR effort that is anchored in earned media and amplified through speaking engagements, influencer engagement and sales enablement can exponentially raise awareness of any brands in the right places, directly impacting sales and raising long-term brand value.

The lines between PR and marketing continue to blur. Your goals will likely be better met by a mix of these converging tactics. Traditional media relations or social isn’t always the answer alone—sometimes a piece of gated content targeted at a handful of potential customers stuck in your funnel can have a bigger impact.

If you decide to work with an agency look for deep industry expertise. That means they are on top of the trends media in your space, care about and can inject you into those stories and help you make business decisions based on market intel. It also helps keep your agency’s ideas fresh and innovative and allows them to best understand all the places to build awareness outside of just earned media. They can suggest the right shows, speaking engagements, awards programs, LinkedIn groups, etc.

How different is a press release from an advert?

While a press release and advertisement are both paid media placements with messaging controlled by the brand, they serve different purposes. A press release is typically used to share long-form brand news, such as product launches, new hires, brand research, with media and industry analysts. Advertisement can be highlight visual, such as a highway billboard or website banner, but can also be a sponsored article. Sponsored articles are commonly used as a thought leadership tactic to publish long-form content of a senior leader’s POV on an industry topic. In all cases, a brand’s objectives and target audience must be taken into account to properly evaluate which PR tactics are best.

Are there systems in place for companies to track the success of a PR campaign?

Impactful reporting is essential to successful marketing and communications campaigns because it allows you to continuously improve programs in real time and connect marketing, communications and sales programs to business outcomes. We deliver monthly reports for our clients that show key outcomes and results using highly sophisticated analytics software which quantifies the business impact of PR and provides a complete set of metrics to measure coverage value, impact on web traffic, social engagement and more.

What keeps you going as a PR professional?

If the last 18 months has shown us anything it is the value and necessity of clear, relevant communication. Our industry is more important than ever whether you are a business trying to compete in a crowded marketplace or a non-profit trying to raise your profile or issue to the public.

I love that we have built our own model at The Fletcher Group that is unlike other PR agencies. This has allowed to avoid the burnout so many have been experiencing during the pandemic. Our clients are doing amazing things, our people are in it for the long haul and we are continuous learners. This mix of support and excitement for trying new things makes me excited to do this work everyday

Jennifer's social media links: :

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tramontana

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifertramontana10/