CEO Mark Witmer says First National Today helps the bank tell its story.

First National Bank, a community bank based in Orrville, Ohio, recently began publishing a mini-magazine to enhance its communication to customers and shareholders.

The bank, with 14 offices and 120 employees, distributed the first edition of First National Today last month in both print and digital PDF formats.

The inaugural edition includes feature stories about a startup dairy farm and growing social services agency the bank supports, plus additional spotlights on people, products and financial results, along with a letter from the CEO.

“It’s a good way to tell our story,” said Mark R. Witmer, First National’s president and chief executive officer. “Response has been excellent and we plan to distribute this publication a couple times a year.”

Journalistic Style and Color Photos

First National Today sports a journalistic writing style, a magazine-like layout and color photographs. The content was planned, developed and designed with Pecchia Communications, an Ohio public relations firm, and reviewed by the bank and customer sources for each story.

“This approaches helps us tell a more complete story about our bank and our performance,” Witmer said. “We hope the stories help customers and shareholders understand a little more clearly what we’re able to deliver in terms of services, products and partnership.”

Dan Pecchia, a public relations consultant and president of Pecchia Communications, said improvements in publishing technology make it easier for companies to develop their own publications. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to publish good ones, he said.

“The financial services industry publishes piles of content that only a banker could appreciate,” Pecchia said.

“But First National’s team recognized early that its audience is not bankers but local business managers, consumers and individual investors. This publication communicates very clearly to these audiences and shows them how a good bank performs.”

Advice for New Publications and Blogs

Pecchia offered this advice for organizations interested in developing their own publications or blogs.

• Focus on your audience. Remember that you’re writing not for yourself but for people who might have different interests and priorities than you may have. Identify and speak to those.
• Peel back the onion. Give readers a perspective beyond the obvious by sharing facts and insights they likely won’t get from your competitors.
• Avoid commercialism. Don’t use self-adulatory content readers see in commercials or sales pitches. Rather, leverage the credibility of the objective, journalistic style that has driven independent media for decades.
• Put your customers in the spotlight. They’re the heroes (not you), and treating them that way in a piece of communication confirms that you think of them that way as you’re serving them.

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