As the lines between public relations and marketing continue to blur, PR practitioners are being faced with the challenge of driving revenue. Public relations is now an essential tool for driving traffic, leads and conversions to generate revenue. As a new white paper from PR Newswire explains it, PR drives traffic, traffic creates leads, leads become pipeline, and pipeline becomes revenue. But how do PR professionals demonstrate this strategic value to their colleagues or clients?
PR Newswire’s Why Metrics Are the Key to Getting a Seat at the Revenue Table report discusses the ways one can leverage key metrics to prove the business impact of PR efforts. In addition to earned media statistics, the study identifies these key metrics that PR must track:
- Social Activity—Social media isn’t just a way to amplify your messages to as many people as possible; it’s also an effective approach for driving referrals back to specific websites. Keep track of these referrals, as well as how your clients’ social networks grow and improve in quality (as measured by increasing engagement numbers) thanks to your work. These efforts will continue to pay dividends for your clients long after their current campaign is done.
- Website Traffic—Your PR activities, and the social activity that they result in, will drive traffic to your clients’ websites. By tracking how many page views and unique visitors your PR drives by using techniques like trackable links (see here for an example of how to build them in Google Analytics), as well as how engaged people were when they got to the website (as measured by time on page and bounce rate), you can illustrate the volume of high-quality leads that you are bringing to your clients. In the process, you will also be able to determine which channels are most effective at doing so.
- Conversion Rates—Most importantly of all, track the rates at which prospects and customers convert as a result of your PR efforts. A conversion is simply a desired action that a person takes as a result of your PR, such as filling out a form, making an online purchase, or downloading an app. All of these conversions are important steps that buyers need to take as they make their way down the path to purchase.
PR is more than a tactical tool for creating brand awareness—it is a strategic advantage for nurturing relationships and driving conversions. Learn how to get PR a seat at the revenue table by downloading the white paper here.
Source: PR Newswire; edited by Richard Carufel
