When it comes to describing how public relations directly affects the bottom line, the industry has a severe PR problem in marketing analysis.
Consider the following: Companies who are serious about public relations will typically spend at least $5,000 a month on media relations. It isn’t a minor adjustment.
However, whether on the agency or brand side, people talk about ROI in terms of media impressions, placements, and message pull-through. And, while these metrics are quantifiable, they are worthless if they do not meet the company’s goals through marketing analysis. Again, nothing.
Related: What is PR Leverage?
Let’s look at why each of these indications isn’t working:
Impressions In The Media
Assume a media website receives an average of 2 million monthly visitors. That doesn’t mean your article will be seen by 2 million people. Even if that were the case, how many of those visitors are the ideal customer you’re aiming for? We can’t fault PR for utilizing this metric because it’s better to count impressions than to do nothing. And, as I’ll explain later, PR professionals (especially those who work for agencies) don’t always have access to the data needed to deliver reliable ROI reporting.
Related: What is a buyer persona?
Numbers Of Media Placements
Share of voice statistics that compare articles from company X and company Y are misleading and provide no insight into the business impact during marketing analysis. You could be receiving hit after hit, but there are more serious issues to worry about. Is the tone cheerful? Is it on a site with a high domain authority? Is the media enticing potential customers to go through the sales process? Measuring PR performance just on the basis of media placements is a somewhat narrow approach.
Message With A Pull-Through
You may write a glowing article about your company in making marketing analysis, but if the right people don’t see it, it’s as if it never existed.
Agencies are eager to explain the time and effort they put into preparing and obtaining coverage, yet they frequently find themselves grasping at straws.
The public relations industry in marketing analysis is known for “spinning” stories. As a result, the last thing we want to do is start spinning results with “fancy” terminology and clip reports that are meaningless.
The good news is that public relations provides real, quantifiable results — no spin required!
Related: What Is Lead Nurturing And What Are The Right Tactics?
Monitoring The Impact Of Public Relations
So, what metrics should you keep an eye on? Here are some suggestions for demonstrating actual results to your consumer in marketing analysis.
1. Use Google Analytics To Track Referral Traffic.
Customers’ web analytics accounts are frequently kept distinct from those of agencies.
They rely on the customer (or whomever is in charge of sales funnel intelligence) to figure out how public relations affects the bottom line. It’s time to reclaim your power.
Allow me to demonstrate the power of analytics: At the end of the month, I stepped onto our Google Analytics dashboard. According to referral sources, media placements, blog visits, and social media generated 46% of qualified sales leads.
In only one month, articles PR gained on third-party sites created 62 qualified leads (SQLs), according to Google Analytics.
With each client bringing in an average of $12,000 per month, that’s a total of $744,000 in sales potential in only one month.
Related: Lead Generation: Can It Be Useful For Your Products?
Isn’t it incredible?
Even if just 10% of those qualified leads convert, PR generated $74,000 in revenue.
The majority of the stories driving traffic were published months ago, demonstrating that our PR work is assisting us in expanding our lead generation efforts in marketing analysis.
Obtain or establish the analytics account for the customer. Set conversion goals to track how many readers from a blog or article took a certain action, such as filling out a sales form.
2. The Longevity Of Media Placement In Generating Leads
Another PR misstep is presuming that a post in a blog or other kind of media is the goal.
It’s only the beginning.
Remember how I mentioned that stories from months ago are still directing people to my company’s website? It’s really uncommon. To keep an article’s momentum, PR, sales, and marketing analysis must collaborate.
Consumer leads are generated mostly through organic search. The first three pages of search engine results receive more than 60% of all organic clicks.
What Role Do Public Relations And Earned Media Play?
The most important part of SEO is having trustworthy backlinks to your website and proper marketing analysis. It also improves the domain authority of your site, which means your content will rank higher in search results. This will increase your organic search for incoming leads once again.
A link to your website should be included in each article about your company. If it doesn’t, make a request to a reporter or editor.
If your PR effectively gains backlinks from reliable sites, you should see an increase in domain authority and organic search.
After that, you may compare the rise in organic search leads to the PR campaign in your marketing analysis.
PR campaigns that are well-planned yield a high return on investment. Several intangible consequences on the business include building trust, increasing loyalty, and increasing brand awareness. Even more striking is the fact that public relations has a direct and substantial role in generating leads and adding value to businesses in marketing analysis. All you need to do is be aware of the important metrics to keep an eye on.
