William Mills III, chief executive officer of William Mills Agency, the nation’s largest independent financial PR and technology public relations firm, spoke February 25 at the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) Roadshow about the importance of public relations as part of reverse mortgage lenders’ marketing and advertising plans.

     Mills spoke on a panel titled “Budgeting Your Marketing and Advertising Dollars Wisely” at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta along with Jason Levy of Guardian First Funding and Ed O’Connor of Advanced Funding Solutions, Inc. All three speakers discussed strategies for determining how and where to spend marketing funds and the value of both traditional and new media venues as part of a public relations and marketing campaign in an increasingly challenging real estate market.

     “The best, most well-run companies I know have a real vision of where they are and where they want to go and utilize a balanced approach of all types of marketing channels,” said Mills. “Whether you do PR in-house or hire a PR agency, there is no cheaper, faster way to build your company’s brand than through great media relations.”

     During the panel, Mills emphasized the growing role of strategic public relations in the digital age as a critical component to supporting a company’s overall search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, the process of improving traffic to a Web site via unpaid search results.

     “In 2008 I did a Google search on a new agency client and found that when I searched the client’s company name in Google, it appeared only two out of ten times on the first page,” said Mills. “The other eight were for the Ericsson phone company. After nine months of a public relations program, our client’s name appeared nine out of ten times on the first page of a Google search.”

     Mills also argued for the importance of evaluating all forms of new media and selecting those that work best for a company rather than avoiding or embracing new media altogether. By combining appropriate new media venues with advertising, events and an effective public relations campaign sharing of an articulate and clear company vision, Mills asserted, reverse mortgage lenders can get the best results from their marketing budgets.

About William Mills Agency
     William Mills Agency was founded in 1977 and promotes companies that sell a variety of products or services in a number of highly specialized vertical markets with a focus in the financial industry. The Atlanta-based agency represents companies throughout North America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.williammills.com or call Mr. Kelly Williams at (678) 781-7202.