The benefits of public relations go beyond building brand awareness or reputation management. Today, marketers invest in PR for lead generation and conversions, not just to spread brand awareness.
HubSpot reports that lead generation is the top marketing priority for businesses and they are ready to try every possible tactic to achieve this goal. And PR strategies are quite useful for lead generation.
Image Source – HubSpot
Let me tell you, a PR strategy is not a magic potion that instantly generates leads. In fact, creating a PR strategy for your brand is a slow and challenging process.
That being said, if you have a great story to tell and have devised a convincing way to tell your story, PR strategies for lead generation will yield results.
In this post, you will learn five simple and effective PR tactics for lead generation.
Let’s get started.
5 effective PR strategies for lead generation
PR is more about building your company’s reputation or public persona and less about marketing your product. By building trust and a positive reputation online, you’re presenting yourself as a brand that customers can trust and buy from.
That’s where PR strategies for lead generation help. Along with using good tools for lead generation, use PR tactics that can drive leads for your business.
Here are five PR strategies for lead generation that you should use.
1. Publish your content on the right platforms
PR is all about telling your story the right way, but you also have to publish your story on the right channels.
How can you identify the right platforms?
The platforms where your target audiences, both clients and customers, can notice your content will qualify as the right platforms.
For example, if you have a technology company, it would be more appropriate to publish your PR content in tech magazines and websites. Because that’s where you have better chances of high-quality lead generation than a generic news platform.
2. Write compelling PR content and use CTAs to generate leads
The value of quality content, be it for content marketing or for PR, is undeniable. An effective content strategy can not only boost customer experience but also win new leads for you.
When creating PR content, focus on creating long-form content that can give your readers a comprehensive understanding of your brand and your message.
Case studies, whitepapers, ebooks, interviews, and reports based on industry research are some of the top choices. Also use videos, podcasts, webinars, and other engaging and informative content that can establish you as an authority in your industry.
To drive readers to a landing page or a valuable resource on your website, you need to add a compelling CTA at the end of your PR content. When traffic is redirected towards your website you can collect customer contact information through forms and nurture the leads further.
3. Use social proof to win consumer trust
Social proof shows that people like and use your brand and this encourages your leads or prospects to do the same.
When a reputable website mentions you while discussing an industry or customers talk about you on social media, it acts as social proof for your business.
You can utilize this social proof to establish yourself as a trusted brand in the market.
See how this influencer is promoting Kodiac Cakes in a natural manner. As she has tagged the brand in her post, the chances of potential customers visiting their Instagram profile and then website are higher.
Image Source – Instagram
Apart from this, posting your customers testimonials over your social media profiles with tagging your customers social handle will also help you boost your brand awareness.
Not only will social proof enhance your reputation but also generate quality backlinks. As social recommendations are deemed more valuable and genuine than paid advertisements, there is a greater chance of attracting more leads with this tactic.
4. Speak at online and offline public events
Communication is an integral part of any well-thought-out PR strategy. Tell your brand story to relevant media, peers in the market, industry experts, and your target audience.
Speaking at online and offline events like conferences, trade expos, interviews, podcasts, and so on can get your audience acquainted with your brand. By such participation, you are also creating PR content that can be further used for press releases, blogs, media coverage, and social media posts.
During these events, you can talk about your services and offerings and how they can benefit the users. This will generate curiosity in your target audience, nudging them to learn more about your products.
You can launch a channel partner incentive program to use the establish market system and provide them a incentives when they sales your products.
That’s how you’ll be able to generate traffic for your website.
5. Keep your message relevant and provide value to the readers
When creating PR content, make sure that you keep your target audience in mind and create relevant and useful content. You could use some top hacks for productivity to get more efficient at creating relevant content for your audience.
Remember, your PR content is not only for the media or the journalists but also for your potential customers. And when it is more relevant to them you can achieve better audience engagement.
When PR content adds value to the readers, its benefits go beyond building awareness. It attracts leads to your website who can then explore your products and services.
Ready to use PR for lead generation?
It is quite evident that you can achieve great results from PR apart from building brand awareness. You can also generate leads and boost sales through public relations.
Use this post as your guide on how to use PR for lead generation. Use some or all of these tactics to boost your lead generation efforts. All the best!
