Most PR and marketing professionals will recognize the question: how much value do I get from PR and content marketing? Various methods are available to answer this question. But sometimes the answer is very simple: not much if you use PR and content marketing as loose blanks. Therefore three tips:
1. Improve link building
A very large part of your ranking in search engines is determined by backlinks. The more links pointing to your website, the higher Google values your organization's website. Note: this only applies if link building takes place on high-quality websites.
What strikes me, however, is that the majority of organizations focus link building on their homepage or a subpage of the website. Because websites often have a commercial approach, you have to ask yourself how many people are willing to click on that link. Keep in mind that numerous studies show that people want to be informed in an objective way. In my opinion it is much better to link to a landing page. After all, you do not sell your repository of products or services on this. You have the opportunity to go in depth, to focus on one specific topic.
So, for example, if you sell software in the field of big data, offer a step-by-step plan on the landing page on how organizations can get started with this. By providing the target group with useful information, you can ultimately achieve more conversion than by saying how good you are as an organization.
2. Use Marketing Automation Tools
We see that many companies are currently selecting and implementing marketing automation tools. The tools help streamline the distribution of information. And, for example, the easy setting up of landing pages. The advantage of this is that you bring visitors to your own online environment, so that you can better monitor their specific interests.
You can respond to this by offering the visitor more relevant information via the communication channel that he or she prefers. This way you turn a visitor into a returning visitor and ultimately a customer.
There is still much room for improvement. Existing e-mail campaigns are regularly the starting point for the design of these tools. This communication channel only makes sense if the customer is already further along in the sales process.
However, the search starts much earlier. First of all, it is important to map out which questions are relevant to your target group. You can then answer those questions in your blogs, videos or other content.
This content should be easy to find through media with some authority and objectivity. For example, submitting guest blogs to news websites is a tried and true pr tool. The blog can then refer to a landing page that has been created via the marketing automation system, of course only if it is informative and relevant. This creates a better connection between the different phases in the sales cycle.
3. Really use measurement methods
In recent years we have started working with a new PR measurement method for several clients. For example, we measured the number of views of an article in the online media, often in combination with the number of unique visitors and the average reading time.
The results of this sometimes turned out completely different than we had expected. Online titles that are highly regarded often generated little traffic. And media from which we expected little surprised us positively. Are views everything? Of course not, because you can attract 20,000 readers from whom nobody eventually buys your product. And with titles with only 100 viewers, you can only just find the one that delivers a good deal.
But views do give an indication of how the media landscape works. In addition, it is important that you have a good idea of what the best scoring websites are when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Of course, with the best-scoring titles you want to generate publicity.
This also does not say everything, because realizing as much reach as possible remains important. Readers today are no longer loyal to a particular title, they pick the information from all over the internet. So don't just limit yourself to the best scoring titles, but put the emphasis on this. Also ensure a good spread of your articles.
Finally, don't forget to use a (usually) free tool that measures which online titles ensure a good distribution of your articles on social media. Because the more an article is read, the greater the chance that you will reach your target group.
Aleksandra Andjelic is eigenaar van Co-Workx. Haar specialismen zijn PR, marketingcommunicatie en e-mailmarketing.
