Does Your PR Drive Leads?

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Agenda• Designing PR strategies that drive leads• Increasing awareness, affinity and conversion• Where you spend is more important than how much you spend• How to measure if PR is driving leads• Candid successes and challenges from a VP of Marketing

• Prospects

• Qualified Leads

• Close Deals

• Accountability

Why Link PR With Leads

• Drive activity against sales goals

• Set metrics – revenue targets, site traffic, visibility and market saturation

• Integrate PR with marketing

Principles

Know Your Customer

PR as a Sales Weapon

Business Goal

• Increase sales leads by 50%

• Position company as leader in market category

• Increase awareness and build credibility

PR Strategy

• Product launches (tour, news, customers)

• Competitive PR, thought leadership, CEO visibility

• Business press, analyst relations, customer testimonials

Measurement

• Website traffic referrals and CRM integration

• Qualitative analysis of category coverage by vendor and message

• Perceptual audits every 3-6 months; favorable analyst reports; sales and press references

Strategic Plan

Reach your target audience and convert them into customers

1. Awareness – general communications to drive targets to your site

2. Affinity – engage audience and demonstrate expertise

3. Conversion – social media to build affinity relationships

The Communications Funnel

Sample Programs

AWARENESS

AFFINITY

CONVERSIONAwareness

• Message Refinement

• SEO

• Media relations

• Integrated communications

Affinity

• Build communities

• Leverage social media channels

Conversion

• Website Tuning

• Whitepapers

• Product Reviews

• Webcasts and Podcasts

• Where you spend is more important than how much you spend

• Focus on quality leads

• Invest in CRM that integrates with marketing

• Start with PR in mind

• The lead counting method

• Measure your communication from day one

• Set benchmarks

• Establish clear business and marketing goals from the start

• Customized research and measurement studies

• Establish tie-up with tech team

Effective Measurement

Pontiflex Case Study• Awareness

– Product launches– Analyst/media intro meetings– CPL data updates

• Affinity– Thought leadership– Bylines: MediaPost, Adotas, iMedia– Frequency: Consistent communications with key influencers– Social media– Pontiflex CPL Blog, Twitter account

• Conversion– ROI Calculator– CPL University– Newsletter– Webinar Training

Pontiflex Results• PR generated 1,500 more leads than advertising, as measured by

Pontiflex’s lead tracking system, from business and trade press coverage

• Tracking media venue to sales helped us focus our PR efforts – Optimization led to 15%+ growth in sales

• Coverage helped boost employee morale and recruiting in its efforts to triple the size of the sales force

• Vertical market coverage helped gain additional partners, more visibility, and increased website traffic

• Coordinating other marketing efforts with PR helped increase response rates and drive conversions

Tips• Rethink your newsroom and how you leverage press coverage across the

company

• Syndicate press coverage through social media channels

• Thought leadership drives affinity

• Questions to ask yourself

• Does your PR leverage your investment in SEO/SEM?

• Does your sales team know how they fit into the PR process?

• Does your messaging compliment your sales mission?

Shannon LattaPartnerHorn Group, Inc.slatta@horngroup.com

Ben BillingsleyManaging Director Horn Group, Inc.bbillingsley@horngroup.com

Arun KrishnanVP MarketingPontiflexarun@pontiflex.com