I started out like many in the PR field, as a generalist account executive at a mid-size PR agency pre-Internet bubble.  Once the sky started to fall and tech clients disappeared overnight, I was moved to start supporting large financial firms involved in venture capital and leveraged buyouts.

It was a rewarding job, working with these masters of the universe and becoming immersed in the financial media and learning how no news sometimes was a good thing. Two years later, I was lured to the wonderful world of Wall Street, working in PR for a large brokerage firm, promoting financial advisors in their local markets. It was great to travel across the country and drive media interest in local markets help build their brand.

A move across country to sunny San Diego allowed me to head the PR department for a similar brokerage and help craft PR campaigns with some of the larger and reputable independent financial advisors in the country.

Eager to continue my love affair with the financial media, my former employer and I agreed that I would hang out my own shingle and they would help market my PR services to their clients. I was always an entrepreneur at heart and slowly started the process of founding my new firm, KCD Public Relations.

What I learned early on was that I had a very unique network of contacts and a former employer that was willing to market my business. These factors led me to the easy decision to position my firm as a specialty shop, working directly with financial services firms (and financial advisors) on PR campaigns, leveraging my 10 plus years of industry experience.  Here are some tips that I learned in the process when establishing a specialized firm:

Know your audience: Seems simple but study your audience and know what makes them tick. Learn about things they view as roadblocks and come prepared with solutions or include the solutions in your value proposition.

Leverage media contacts: If you have worked with media in the same sector for a long tenure, that’s a huge selling point. There’s a shorter learning curve for new clients and they gain access to your relationships and should benefit from that access.

Happy clients = great references for new clients: Once you have a stable set of niche clients, ask them if they can be a reference for you. Market their great opinions of your firm. Others in their field take notice, they network and your need to “sell” disappears. Your clients will get you new clients.

I have found that clients want to work with a specialist vs. a generalist – so every marketing piece for my agency (Web site, social media, brochures, etc) is geared to appeal to a financial services firm. The fact we’re based in San Diego only helps, as many financial companies tend to have a presences in the region due the proximity of wealth.

The results have been tremendous – KCD PR now has close to a dozen clients (financial advisors across the US) and the firm has been able to leverage more industry expertise to work on behalf of the firm. In some ways it might sound counterintuitive that the more you specialize the more success you find, but that’s certainly been my experience.

Arika Anderson Daniels is a founding partner of Scatena Daniels Communications, a boutique marketing communications agency focusing on connections, creativity and results based out of San Diego, Calif., as well as one of the founding editors of SoCalPRBlog. Follow her on Twitter.