#12 IMU: PR for Inbound Marketing (GF402)

PR for Inbound Marketing (GF402) Professor: Todd Defren , SHIFT Communications

PR for Inbound Marketing presented by Todd Defren, SHIFT Communications August 2009

Mass Media Now Belongs to the Masses

Mainstream Media Requires Heroic Efforts

Traditional media struggling to survive

Fewer reporters = more competition for coverage

Growing emphasis on traffic = controversial content trumps all

It takes increasingly heroic efforts to gain substantive coverage in MSM

PR: Increasingly Interactive, Interpersonal Communication Collaboration Collaborative Controlled Conversation Participation Public Relations Public Relations Public Relations Advertising Advertising Advertising original source: Richard Edelman Conversational Communication Controlled Communication Conversational Collaboration Controlled Collaboration

Imagine: You’ve Been Invited to the World’s Biggest Neighborhood Potluck What kind of neighbor will you be?

Wallflower? Too insecure to bring a dish? Just listening-in anxiously? Too scared to strike up a conversation?

Blowhard? You brought your “ World Famous BBQ Ribs?” Too bad. Everyone here is a vegetarian.

One of Us? You brought a delicious fruit salad! You knew everyone here was a vegetarian? How sweet that you did your homework! This fruit is amazing. I have to tell my friends!

What Do You Want To Accomplish?

You want leads, right? Just want people to visit your website?

No biggie, right?

Actually, what you really want is for qualified prospects to:

find & visit your website

have a look around

sign-up for a demo

ask for a salesperson to contact them

sit through a demo

create a purchase order

You are asking A LOT of yourself & A LOT of your prospects

A LOT of time and A LOT of $$$

Focus

First – we’re talking about Qualified Prospects, not tirekickers, looky-loos, or undesirables … not EVERYBODY , in other words

Research:

Where do qualified prospects get their information?

What kinds of Google searches do they run?

Who else do they talk to, in the industry and among the competition?

What magazines/blogs do they read?

What Facebook Groups do they join (if any)?

Which members of the twitterati do they follow (if any)?

PR is not just about “hits” – it’s about frequently distributing relevant content via the right channels, to boost credibility and findability

Frequency

“ (PR is) about frequently distributing relevant content via the right channels, to boost credibility and findability ”

How frequently is frequently ?

Every day. Not a single day should go by in which you don’t:

put up a blog post or start a dialogue on a relevant blog

contribute relevant content (yours or another’s) via socnets

pitch a new idea to a journalist or blogger

showcase a new media hit in the mainstream media or blogs

analyze your website traffic & tweak your SEO

attend an event and broadcast content from venue

Relevance

How can you tell if your content is relevant ?

The community will tell you. Your results will tell you.

is your content often downloaded/shared via socnets & email?

how’s the raw website traffic being affected?

noticed any new trends in Google terms used to reach your site?

where are visitors coming from? are they converting?

is the content reflective of your brand?

are customers happy? or do they complain of “overpromising?”

Content

What kind of content are we talking about?

This is not rocket science, folks. Here’s a sampling:

press releases containing actual news

video (got 10 product features? make 10 one-min videos)

podcasts (interview execs, influencers, competitors)

articles (about you, about industry)

blog posts, blog comments, tweets

research - white papers, surveys, etc.

feelin’ ambitious? make a widget, FB or iPhone app

what are your best competitors doing? do it better

Rightness

How do you determine the right channels?

This is important. Did you do your upfront research?

did you use Technorati, Google Analytics, Cision, Compete, etc. to determine relevant pubs/blogs with the most traffic & authority?

you’re reading/commenting at top industry blogs, but do you use Backtype to see where the bloggers themselves are active?

you’re creating video content but are you using services like Tubemogul to spread the videos across numerous sites?

you convinced your boss to let you tweet, but are you using Tweetreach to show her how far the word is spreading? are the RTs hitting relevant influencers and/or prospects?

Credibility

How important is credibility?

Very important. (Did you really need to ask?)

“ Media prominence accounts for approximately 25% of brand value … this underscores the importance of managing and growing brand value through PR efforts.”