In today’s culture of a fully digital, multi-channel, 24-hour news cycle, brand awareness and reputation management has intertwined with the sales cycle for both B2B and B2C companies.
Are you lost in how to leverage this new overlap between PR and sales? We’ve put together a few ways to unite PR and sales efforts to increase return on investment across the board.
PR in the Sales Funnel
In the marketing and sales, PR is generally considered ‘top of the funnel’. However, it can have a much wider impact on a consumer’s buying journey. Smartly placed news stories, award wins and speaking opportunities yield valuable pieces of content that can help you move deals forward. And there’s many reasons why:
- PR content doesn’t promote a specific call to action unlike other forms of marketing. It should tell a story about what you know rather than what you’re selling. It shouldn’t be aggressive or too salesy, it’s more about knowledge and leadership. It’s a great way to start a conversation and lay the groundwork with prospects.
- Successful PR needs the best storytellers, not product pushers. Staying relevant will help answer a client’s questions, identify trends, provide more information and make comparisons.
- PR content can help to boost online traffic and engagement by generating third-party referrals to your site.
Measuring ROI
To measure the impact of PR, you need to understand the influence that brand awareness, reach and digital distribution have on business metrics.
You can measure the effectiveness of a PR campaign through organic search results, earned media coverage, social media results, inbound web traffic and paid media performance. Here are some ways to measure your PR efforts and relate them back to business growth:
- Share of Voice: Monitor your brand’s Share of Voice metric, which compares the quantity and quality of brand mentions across different channels to the number of mentions your competitors are making. By doing this, you obtain a solid measure of brand awareness that has context and can be used for future decision-making.
- Google Analytics: You can use this tool to track website traffic that content drives to your website. You can also track the behaviour of visitors who arrive at the website via branded content and compare it to visitors who arrive from other sources to build a better profile of each audience you reach.
- Social Measurement: Most social platforms make reporting on ROI of PR very simple. Each piece of content published can be measured through impressions, engagements, comments and clicks.
Maximising PR Content and Sales Materials
If PR and sales still occupy different areas in your business world, content may be the bridge between the two. In one direction, content from PR drives sales growth. In the other direction, sales material can be transformed into PR content. Knowing how to maximise and intertwine your content from both areas will allow your brand to stay present in a market where visibility is key.
The Campaign Approach
An integrated marketing and PR campaign sets a clear objective and then uses every level of brand and product messaging to create a whole series of PR, marketing and sales assets. Press releases, blogs, social posts and thought leadership pieces allow for a wide range of content without having to reinvent the wheel every time.
As part of a wider marketing mix, PR can be a powerful way to increase the sales funnel and grow your business. It creates more opportunities to connect with an audience, creating a solid reputation and increasing brand awareness. The subtle persuasive power of PR can play a huge part in the consumer buying journey.
