The Secret to Immortality: PR as Online Content
Industrial companies relying on high profile public relations programs for lead generation already understand the power of PR in commanding visibility and driving their sales efforts. But thanks to the Internet, these savvy marketers are now enjoying access to ever larger numbers of prospects and generating ever larger numbers of highly qualified sales leads. Why? Their PR has become immortal as online content. And from an analysis of Google Analytics referrering Web pages, this PR content sends traffic to the company Web site month after month after month – year after year.
How
With trade magazine publishers adding the professional quality news releases, feature articles and other content from their magazines onto their Web sites, the shelf life of PR materials has become timeless. While print ads work hard for 30 days, they get put into the trash when the new issue arrives. PR, however, lives on as online content, generating sales leads for years beyond its original publication in print.
Example
Consider how industrial buyers research and purchase products, equipment and services. Most turn first to the Internet. In reader surveys, they often report turning to trade magazines’ Web sites or they arrive there via a search. There, they may do a site search for “shipping container,” “water treatment,” “stretchwrapping machine,” “how to wax an ironer” or other keywords or phrases. In most cases, the search results include every relevant news release, case history and feature article published in the magazine’s recent history. And every news release, case history and feature article that’s republished online typically includes a live link directing prospects to the company’s Web site.
Power of Compounding
Now consider the impact that a consistent PR and content marketing program delivers. If a company targeting the OEM, for example, developed one news release per month and secured news coverage in three different magazines each month for only one year, the resulting 36 placements would not only have scored many targeted leads when published in the print magazines, but each placement would continue driving leads via the magazines’ Web sites potentially forever. Suddenly, it’s easy to see how even a single news release published in three or four magazines begins to generate leads via the Web month after month after month – year after year, exponentially.
Links Boost SEO
Remember how Google became famous? Its most important factor in determining what comes up in a search result was the number of links pointing to your Web site. Today, the quality and credibility of these Web sites pointing links to your site are also a key factor. Since Google considers trade magazine Web sites as relevant, credible sources, the links at the end of each news release and article not only send a non-stop flow of traffic to your Web site but they also boost your company’s overall ranking in the free, organic search results.
Example
A prospect Googles plastic container. Your Web site has two dozen links pointing to it from news releases and articles placed on other Web sites. Competitor A still doesn’t understand PR and content marketing and only has three links pointing to its Web site to your 24 links. All else being equal, your site comes up on the first page while your competitor may not even show up.
We may not live on forever but your epr publicity and content marketing program allows your sales and marketing messages to live online in virtual immortality.
