[New Post] 5 Marketing Tips for Quick, Easy, and Effective Content Distribution

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5 Marketing Tips for Quick, Easy, and Effective Content Distribution Annemaria Nicholson Marketers need to connect with audiences so they can captivate potential buyers and inspire loyalty with current customers. And while an argument can be made that truly good content will be sought after and your audience will find you on your own channels, that's not always the case. Today's customers – more than any generation of buyers before – expect to be entertained on their channels and their terms. They also trust content by influencers and experts 88% more than branded content, according to Nielsen and inPowered MediaLab. So how can marketers gain influence in this audience-driven marketplace? As market intelligence firm MarketResearch.com learned, press releases aren’t just for PR anymore. They can help marketers reach new influencers, guide industry conversations, and drive demand generation. In fact, by distributing press releases that promoted their content, the company increased revenue and brand awareness and delivered 260% more website traffic than all other paid marketing sources combined – including PPC, digital, and other advertising revenues. If you’ve never considered including press releases in your content marketing strategy, it’s time. It’s also not difficult, with the proper planning. Follow these five steps to map out a content distribution plan that reaps rewards for your brand. 1. Determine your marketing goals. PR professionals have long used press releases to reach the media and other influencers. Now it's marketers' turn to jump into this underutilized space. Think about the goals you want to achieve before you develop a press release game plan. Common marketing goals that releases can help achieve include: Gaining influencer attention Driving online visibility Reaching new audiences through targeting Generating leads Increasing conversion rates Expanding brand presence in social media channels Engaging with multimedia As with other marketing content and channels, the goal(s) you select will inform the rest of your press release strategy. 2. Consider your budget. Even if you have a generous budget, it's important to use it wisely. Marketers live and die by results, and for every dollar you spend trying to achieve website traffic, leads, influencer attention, and revenue, you expect to see something in return. After determining which goals matter most to you, weigh your promotion decisions against them to ensure your actions align with your desired outcome. For instance, if your performance data indicates that a particular project or piece of content is likely to drive more substantial results, consider alloting more dollars to a series of press releases and a more comprehensive, multimedia-rich distribution. 3. Identify your target persona. Understanding whom you're targeting is just as important for press releases as it is for paid search ads, blog posts, and other marketing content. When writing or working with a writer on a press release, identify the following information about your intended audience: The tone, language, and content formats that will resonate best with them. The geographic, demographic, and industry targeting that will reach them. The optimal combination of digital, social, and media channels that will align your content with your audience's preferences. 4. Track attribution to goals. You've defined your marketing goals, now plan on how you can demonstrate success. Here are some tips to consider: Include a call to action tied to your press release's intended goal. This can include guiding your audience to a specific piece of content, campaign landing page, product demo, or your website. Use trackable links to gather as much data as you can and sync with your marketing automation program for increased efficiency and effectiveness. Use a lead generation form. Consider embedding a lead generation form right into your press release, like Roka Bioscience did to capture webinar registrants. Capitalize on built-in reporting. Most press release distribution providers offer complimentary and valuable reporting tools. 5. Make your content go viral. Maximize your content’s chances by creating a compelling, emotionally inspiring message that meshes well with your brand's image. You can start by looking at your previous campaigns, identifying what worked well in the past, and emulating it where appropriate. And if you need help on press release specifics, this SlideShare offers best practices for writing releases that get seen in search engines and shared on social. Never before has there been a greater opportunity to share messages with both established audiences and potential customers. Press releases can help drive revenue, and that's top of mind for most of us. Your brand has an amazing story to tell – now get out there and let your voice be heard!

[New Post] PR’s Changing Benchmarks: 10 Questions to Make the Most of Measurement

 

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PR's Changing Benchmarks: 10 Questions to Make the Most of Measurement PR Newswire Social media. Mobile news apps. Television. Print publications. The range of media that people now use to access information is vast and expanding all the time. When measuring the fruits of your labor in earned media, are you tracking what you should? Traditionally, PR pros would look for big numbers. Common questions used to include: “How many eyes viewed this piece of earned media?” and “How can I link this increase in media pickup to an increase in revenue?” However, thought leaders in the measurement industry have now realized that when it comes to earned media benchmarks, it's not always about volume. It's about impact. Quality of earned media trumps quantity.  Back when measuring media coverage was a manual process, the term "impressions" was coined to define how readers viewed or interacted with an article — that is, the "impression" it made. It was assumed that the higher the number of impressions, the more successful the story. However, access to more advanced and automated analytics tools — as well as changes in buyer behavior — have a caused a shift in measurement best practices. If you want to successfully engage with next-gen buyers, your quality of outreach — reaching audiences on the platforms they care about — is what matters. For instance, pretend you’re marketing an up-and-coming hotel to millennials, and a popular home and garden magazine mentions the hotel in one of their columns. Even if that columnist’s audience is huge, your hotel isn’t necessarily relevant to the audience’s interests. Perhaps the columnist’s audience skews older or prefers more traditional lodging. While you could argue the number of impressions this columnist generated for the hotel is substantial, those impressions might not result in more business. On the other hand, a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon gives your hotel a glowing review when asked about a recent trip. Knowing that Jimmy Fallon is popular with your target audience, you could consider this earned media to be higher quality. The news sites, social media, and entertainment your buyers consume help influence their future decisions on what to watch, do, and buy. Drive change in your audience by reaching them where they’re looking for information. Reassess your PR benchmarks for quality, not quantity. To determine whether your PR and marketing efforts are truly driving change, look at your current benchmarks and decide whether they still deliver the intel you need. Before launching a content program, product campaign, or major news announcement, look at previous media outreach and ask yourself these ten questions. Impact of media coverage 1. What percentage of media mentions appeared in your target media? 2. How many key corporate messages were covered (global growth, environmental sustainability, etc.)? 3. What was the coverage’s tonality? (i.e., what percentage of media covered your brand in a positive, neutral or negative manner?) 4. How much traffic did earned media drive to your company’s owned media channels? You can more effectively demonstrate ROI by aligning your benchmarks with your overall business and PR goals. Feature coverage in major publications 5. What percentage of media coverage was in the form of feature stories in top publications? 6. What percentage were passing mentions? Comparing feature coverage and media mentions will help you understand whether your stories are truly resonating with the media. If the media outlet deems your news big enough to feature, there is relevance for their readers. Earned media from press releases  7. How much coverage can you directly link to the press releases you issued? 8. To what extent were your press releases’ key messages included in media coverage? Identifying which press release tactics worked best can help you determine where there are opportunities to improve. Share of voice 9. How did quantity and quality of media coverage compare across internal business units, departments, etc.? 10. How did it compare to your competitors’ media coverage? Share of voice – or the percentage of total media coverage you received — can give you insight into which areas of your business are thriving and which have room to grow. Conversely, if you're measuring yourself against your competitors, you'll quickly see who is coming out on top. Maximize impact with your new benchmarks. Once you've answered the above questions, you're ready to start effecting change where it’s needed. My recommendation is to start with one area you're not happy with and A/B test different optimization tactics. For instance, let's say you’d like to improve earned media results from press releases. Consider how you could write or distribute those releases a little differently. How catchy is your headline? Have you missed a key media segment in the distribution you selected? Are you releasing your news at the best time of day or year? Once you've tweaked the press release variables that are within your control, do another measurement of earned media and you'll likely see a positive difference. Thanks to today’s sophisticated tools and advanced data, PR pros have a much clearer view into how their efforts are driving results and revenue. For even more measurement best practices, download our white paper Proving It: Going from Press Release Performance to Measuring Brand Perceptions. Author Rachael Dolan is the manager of PR Newswire’s media analysis team (also known as 'professional services'), a group of communications and industry experts in media and measurement.

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