PR Technology
Public Relations and Technology - How They Interact
by David O’Brien
Historically, public relations (PR) has been viewed as low tech—and definitely not on the cutting edge of marketing tactics. Sure, in the past five to ten years we’ve seen the discipline adapt in simple ways. For example, email has become a primary medium for press releases, editor contact and sending product photos. Likewise, PR practitioners put nearly as much time toward securing coverage online as in traditional publications.
However, the vast majority of PR staffers still aren’t aware, or at least aren’t using, the digital tools that can give the field something it has lacked since its creation—the ability to show a direct correlation between their efforts and business results.
These tools are all around us. Our counterparts in email marketing use them every day, and get to brag about how measurable email marketing is. These same tools offer us the opportunity to better analyze an editor’s response to materials we send them, track exactly how many people look at a release or a feature we’ve distributed, and most importantly, exactly how many people go from a client’s release to a client’s website—and what they do once they get there!
The biggest opportunity is to use digital technology to transform the press release from a simple “Hail Mary” pass to something that has a direct, and demonstrable, impact on a company’s business goals. To do this, PR staffers need only to combine the industry tools they use daily, with those used by their digital counterparts. The ultimate goal should be to create a release about which a PR staffer can proudly say “that release was read today by 70,000 individuals, it shows up among the top 10 results for our keywords in Google, has improved our company’s website rankings in the major search engines…and, oh yeah, was directly responsible for driving 700 people to our website…of which 50 became new customers.”
It’s that last sentence that is gold for the PR industry.
Optimize Each Press Release
To do it only requires using the same software the search engine optimization and website administrators are using. Luckily, there’s a good chance your organization already has the software.
Optimizing each press release is the first place to start. To do this, determine which keywords prospects are likely to use when searching for your products or services. Then, research those terms using a web promotion program to determine exactly how many people search for those words on major search engines. Most optimization programs show dozens of related words and phrases, how many searches are conducted daily for each and how much competition there is to “control” that phrase.
Driving Potential Customers To A Website
It’s common now for newswire services to provide an exact count of how many times your release was accessed by readers. The number is basically a click through rate. For example, our RFID announcement has been accessed by approximately 120,000 individuals. With that many people opening our release, there’s a huge opportunity to attract potential customers. But unlike the approach we would have taken in years past—hope that they call or visit our website—we can now track exactly how many people come to our site and work to convert them into true prospects once they’re there.
Naturally, all releases distributed via a newswire should contain a link, or multiple links, pointing back to the company’s website. Traditionally, the link is in the boilerplate or buried in the contact information. These days, for releases placed on a newswire, I recommend moving the link so that it appears immediately after the first reference to your company or client. Some of our clients insist on putting the link after every reference, although this may border on overkill.
It’s important to think about this approach as a new and different tactic. Yes, it breaks some of the traditional style guidelines, but we’re not using the wire for the same purpose as in years past. This method is about reaching out directly to consumers and prospects, and making it as easy as possible to come to your website. For the handful of journalists that pick up the release from the wire, pulling out a web link won’t cause them any stress. Of course, you can certainly send a link-free version directly to your top journalists and main media list.
Track Every Web Visit Your Release Pulls In
It’s worth all the trouble once you add and understand the final element of the tactic. Just as your web department likely has search engine optimization software, they probably also have web-tracking software. This software tracks everyone that comes into your website and exactly what they do once they get there. It can tell if they came from a search engine, what part of the world they’re in, what pages they visited on your site, how long they lingered on each and when they left. Usually, it also gives the IP address of the visitor. Sometimes it actually shows a URL address. It can also be set up to show if they came from your online press release.
To pull it all together, your release can bring people directly to your website—and you can now prove it and say exactly how many. What’s more, you’ll often know who they are by looking at IP addresses and URLs, and whether they’re solid leads. You’ll know if they downloaded brochures, signed up for a newsletter or reviewed product specifications.
Imagine your boss’s or client’s surprise when you provide the ROI for your press release. Perhaps they’ll gaze apathetically at the usual list of press hits. But, I bet they’ll perk up when they read that 70,000 people clicked on the online version of the release and that 700 of those went on to the website. In fact, they’ll probably sit straight up in their chairs when they get to the tracking information, including segmented data showing the geographic location of each visitor, the time they spent on each page and how many requested more information.
Ultimately, I bet they’ll think more highly about press releases, and public relations in general, from that point forward.
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