Driving Sales Using Public Relations

Vocus White Paper

SMALL BUSINESS EDITION

1Vocus White PaperDriving Sales Using Public Relations

Driving Sales Using Public Relations In recent years, the role of public relations has changed significantly. Once dedicated solely to informing the media, today’s public relations is part of a more integrated sales and marketing strategy. Similar to traditional marketing and sales depart-ments, when used correctly, PR has the potential to drive sales and increase revenue for the company. Companies now use PR not just to increase consumer awareness but to drive traffic to their website and boost sales. The Potential of PRAs PR has evolved in recent years to both compete with and complement other departments, it has become an integral component to marketing and lead generation strategies and to the success of today’s leading companies. In a recent study to determine the ROI of public relations, Procter & Gamble employed statistical modeling across the marketing mix of six brands over a three year period.

Here’s what Procter & Gamble discovered:

Three of the six brands it studied showed public relations with the highest ROI of any marketing tactic•PR delivers significant ROI overall, much greater than advertising, and provides a halo effect over other marketing •tacticsPR showed an overall 275% ROI•PR delivers high ROI with relatively low spend in comparison to other marketing vehicles •

Public relations is an important component of messaging success and, when employed correctly, delivers an ROI greater than many marketing and advertising functions. The effect of a successful PR campaign on the company can be seen in both the impact on consumer awareness and sales. The right PR campaign results not only in driving publicity for the company but also supports all the organization’s marketing efforts to attract potential buyers back to a website and create new sales opportunities. The Internet’s influence and power over consumers has made it a powerful avenue for reaching consumers. In their recent studies, the Pew Internet & American Life Project noted that:

73% of American adult internet users use the internet on an average day. (May 2008 )•89% of Internet users use a search engine to find information (May 2008)•81% of Internet users use the Internet to research a product or service before buying it. (September 2007)•73% of Internet users use the Internet to get news (May 2008)•

With so many eyes on the Internet every day searching for information, leveraging the power to reach your potential buyers directly is essential for success. How to Generate BusinessTraditionally, PR has focused on reaching the media -- with press releases as the core medium for communication. Developed to connect companies with reporters, traditional newswires delivered releases straight to the desk of influential journalists in targeted locations and industries. Press releases were written to appeal to the media, hoping to pique their interest enough to prompt them to cover the story. The chosen releases received ink in their targeted publications but those that were not deemed newsworthy only made it into the reporter’s trashcan. In recent years, online press release services were introduced. These services put the power back into the press release, making it possible to cut through the cyber clutter and reach targeted consumer audiences by incorporating new Internet technology. Distributing releases direct-to-consumers created a need for more integrated, tighter messaging. With careful coordination, your PR activities can increase the effectiveness of your company’s marketing initiatives -- leading to an increase in sales and Web site traffic. Your press release should still be a concise summary of your news; however, it does require adjustment to successfully work in tandem with marketing campaigns. While a good release has always taken complicated products and concepts and translated them into a simple message with easy–to-understand benefits, it is now more important than ever to avoid technical jargon and insider lingo. Ensure your release can communicate your message effectively to potential customers and journalists who are interested in reporting on your company by writing in a clear and easy-to-understand style.

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By implementing some or all of the following strategies across your PR programs, you can optimize the return on your PR investment while simultaneously driving qualified sales leads for your business. Search Engine OptimizationYour marketing counterparts have known about and used Search Engine Optimization (SEO) since its emergence in the late 1990s. Traditionally, SEO has been utilized in a marketing capacity to drive sales through increased Web site traffic, but as PR and marketing are becoming more intimately involved, the benefits of SEO have become applicable to the public relations sector too.

Search Engine Optimization is a means to empower your communication initiatives so that search engines, like Google and Yahoo!, can easily locate your news and list it prominently when retrieving matches to user searches. SEO increases your Web site’s rankings in search engines, directs more targeted traffic to your site and extends the lifespan of your news on the Web. Optimizing keyword rich press releases is increasingly useful in highly ranking your company in organic search results. Enhanced URL - Search engines look at the keywords used in a hyperlink to a website when they are ranking that website. If a hyperlink has keywords included and point to your website, then when a person conducts a search for those specific keywords, they are more likely to find you among their results. Make sure your release uses targeted keywords when pointing back to your site to make sure you get an SEO boost for your website. Anchor Text/Embedded Keywords - Embedding hyperlinks into your release is another way to increase your ranking and drive traffic to your Web site. Linking your product’s name in the release back to the Web page where your readers can go to learn more will not only lead consumers directly to your site, but it will also get them into your sales cycle. Multimedia Content - Adding a news image, video or audio to your release will not only make your press release more consumable, graphically pleasing and likely to be read, but it will also ensure your news is indexed in image search engines and create more visibility for your message. Social Media Tags – Allowing your content to be circulated through Digg, Technorati, del.icio.us and other social media sites will not only increase the search engine rankings of your release, but also drive targeted traffic to your Web site. Social Media tagging tools allow users to bookmark and share web content, spreading your news and information across the web and around the world. Keywords - A carefully worded headline and sub-headline should contain keywords related to major themes in your news. The headline is not only extremely important for SEO purposes but is also your first opportunity to grab your reader’s attention. Throughout the text of your release, look for additional ways to include high volume keywords and phrases without altering the tone or message of your news release. Generate Buzz and Brand AwarenessLike with traditional public relations, media attention is still a key strategy to increasing sales. Media focus is the driving force behind company image and the digital world has made image all the more important. With people’s inboxes overflowing with promotional messages, it has become even harder to break through the clutter. Generating positive brand awareness through third-party endorsements will help lift your overall marketing response by generating a new source of potential customers. Target the publications your customers are reading. While the Wall Street Journal will always help with brand awareness, niche publications will greatly increase your recognition and help establish your brand in your industry. Distribute your releases to your target points and follow-up with the individual reporters to generate interest. Educate your AudiencesCreating awareness by planning and publicizing initiatives such as webinars, white papers and conferences helps generate quality leads and establish industry credibility. Offering potential customers a way to learn more about their industry, as well as your product, results in a pool of prospects with a legitimate interest in your services. Be sure to distribute the information through news releases, social media and other methods to raise program attendance and generate more qualified leads for your sales team. Converting Leads to SalesAnalyzing results is often the hardest and most ignored part of an effective outreach campaign. Connecting marketing activi-

Vocus White PaperDriving Sales Using Public Relations

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ties to leads will show your success and it will also help hone your tactics and keywords, which in the end converts leads into sales. Looking through your results will not only help you identify your strengths but where you need improvement.

Identify the keywords that elicit the highest number of prospects clicking to learn more. While many keywords can generate interest and entice potential customers to get more information, it is important to determine which keywords drive your prospects to take action once they reach the site. Looking at the percentage of people who abandon your site once they click through can also say a lot about the effectiveness of your strategy. While in some cases it may be that your Web site is not clear enough for prospects to quickly take action, many times it is indicative that the keywords selected may not accurately reflect your product’s value proposition. The abandonment rate will help you identify which of your messages are not resonating with your audience. Once you determine which keywords and messages are effective, you can quickly fine tune your public relations strategy to incorporate effective keywords in all your activities.

Getting Started

1. Compile Content - Put together a list of newsworthy releases. As David Meerman Scott points out in his best selling eBook, “The New Rules of PR,” some newsworthy examples are:

CEO Speaking at a Conference Winning an Award Adding a Product Feature Winning a new customer Publishing a White Paper 2. Distribute SEO Releases - Once you have gathered your content and topics, draft your release. Based on the number of releases, determine the best schedule to release them to create a consistent news flow. Distribute your news through an online SEO news distribution service.

3. Measure the Impact - Analyze the results of your news release. Look at your press release statistics to see how many times your release has been viewed, which search engines are producing your best results and other information that will help you determine where your efforts are best spent. Determine which releases have increased your Web site traffic and which keywords are having the greatest impact on your visitors. Use the information to identify how effective your PR strategy has been and where you need to improve.

ConclusionPR can have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line when integrated into your overall marketing strategy. Look at the strengths and weaknesses of your messaging initiatives to find out which strategies are working so you know exactly what isn’t. Assessing the success of your PR program is not about getting a binder full of news clips, but it is about getting the clips that are right on target with your message and will positively influence the success of your company. PR provides an essential avenue for company success and, when done right, delivers an ROI greater than many other functions. Following these simple tips will help you improved the outcome of your PR campaign, and will result in a significant impact on brand awareness and sales. Always keep your message consistent and your writing clear, concise and targeted to your audience and optimize all your news to drive potential buyers straight to your sales team.

About Vocus Small Business Edition SBE The Internet has transformed the way the world gets information and has brought new opportunities for companies to reach

Vocus White PaperDriving Sales Using Public Relations

4Vocus White PaperDriving Sales Using Public Relations

millions of potential customers. Each day, more than 80 million Americans use a search engine to find news and information. Today, many businesses are trying to leverage the marketing potential of the Internet. While banner advertisements and paid search can help expose businesses to a much broader audience, they can quickly become very expensive and when the budget runs out, your ad disappears. In fact, unless they’re careful, businesses can spend their entire year’s marketing budget in a few short hours.

Vocus’ award-winning PR Management software has combined with PRWeb, the leader in online news release distribution, to create Vocus’ Small Business Edition (SBE). Vocus SBE provides a simple, on-demand tool small businesses need to generate publicity and drive sales. It allows small businesses to create online news releases that get sent to millions of consumers and websites and get picked up by major search engines. Vocus SBE is an easy-to-use and cost-effective, on-demand tool to create online publicity, drive traffic to your website and generate qualified sales leads. About Vocus Vocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: VOCS) is a leading provider of on-demand software for public relations management. Our Web-based software suite helps organizations of all sizes to fundamentally change the way they communicate with both the media and the public, optimizing their public relations and increasing their ability to measure its impact. Our on-demand software addresses the critical functions of public relations including media relations, news distribution and news monitoring.