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EVOLUTION OF PR’S ROLE IN THE MARKETING FUNNEL

No discussion of marketing is complete without mention of the marketing funnel. It exists in many shapes, sizes and complexities—one Google search, and you’ll understand, yet every marketing funnel incorporates the stages of awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty/advocacy.

PR—the practice of connecting organizations with key audi ences, journalists and influencers—exists throughout each stage of the marketing funnel. It is not, and probably never has been, exclusively at the top of the fun nel which focuses on creating awareness of a brand or its offerings.

In fact, the PR function is evolving to include strategizing ways your company can engage target audiences at each stage of the funnel—not just at the top. With a combination of PR, content marketing, advertising, and social media, your ultimate goals are to garner brand awareness, connect with your audiences, and create happy, loyal customers.

So, how important is PR in the process? Where do PR efforts align at each stage, and how can PR pros demon-strate bottom-line impact throughout the journey? To answer those questions, let’s examine the shifting audience dynamics, the importance of quantifiable PR metrics, and the evolution of PR’s role across the marketing funnel.

AN EVOLVING ROLE: PR MEETS SHIFTING AUDIENCE DYNAMICSPR responsibilities have grown exponentially in the past few years alone. Traditional strategies, while effective, must be coupled with underlying digital technologies and tactics that drive consumers through each stage of the funnel.

Source: Google Image Search results: http://goo.gl/UumIKL

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The way audiences consume information has shifted. Both consumers and professionals now gather news from a variety of channels (social media, blogs, podcasts, etc.); in turn, PR and related content distribution strategies must also evolve.

Just as news and information consumption has changed, the way organizations collect data from readers has shifted dramatically. PR practitioners have to keep up with the latest digital capabilities, and align their efforts with the organization’s overall marketing-tech stack (i.e., automated campaigns, tracking links, web analytics, source attribution, and contact profiling.)

ADVANCED PR STRATEGIES MEET OBJECTIVE OUTCOMESPR has traditionally held more subjective goals than marketing and advertising campaigns. Metrics associated with the performance of each campaign were often intangible.

However, as modern marketing becomes more quantifiable, and PR campaigns continue crossing into modern marketing territory, there is a better opportunity to measure PR’s impact on the funnel.

“Soft metrics” like total impressions and ad value are losing their relevancy in the executive boardroom as executives have grown accustomed to—or required— receiving marketing metrics that tie closer to actual revenue. To successfully develop a results-driven PR strategy—which earns its place at the executive table—PR must evaluate its impact on reaching new audiences, qualified lead generation, customer acquisition, customer loyalty and referral. In other words, PR has graduated from estimated impressions, to actual visitors, to profiling real contacts visiting owned digital properties.

THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT YOUR NEXT PR CAMPAIGNPR strategies and metrics exist throughout the entire buyer’s journey. And as purchasing behaviors become more sophisti cated, the role of PR in the marketing funnel will also continue to evolve.

TipAlways identify one primary KPI for each stage of the marketing funnel, followed by secondary, supporting KPIs. From there, you can measure the success (or failure) of campaigns based on prede-termined KPIs. For example, if you send a news release pro-moting a piece of content, the primary KPI might be clicks to the call-to-action, while a secondary KPI might be engagement with multimedia content. Once someone has clicked from the release, the primary KPI for this stage could be a completed form to access a premium content piece. Moving from there, you might make a primary KPI for the next stage “time spent viewing associated content.”

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Effectively demonstrating PR’s impact on the bottom line starts in the planning phases of your next campaign. When developing PR strategies, consider the following from the start:

• Who is your target audience?

• Which types of content is this target audience most receptive to, and which channel will effectively deliver the information to your audience?

• At what stage of that audience’s decision-making journey is con-tent most relevant?

• What is the goal of the message or communication?

• What primary KPI will signal success, and do we have enough benchmark data to determine a goal?

• What supporting metrics or KPIs will help fuel future communications?

• Do we have the processes and technologies in place to effec-tively execute and measure the campaign?

With the basics in place, PR and communications teams can fit stra-tegically into bigger picture communications across the marketing funnel.

PR PROGRAMS SPARK ACTIONS THROUGH THE MARKETING FUNNELTraditionally, PR has been credited for only driving impressions at the top of the marketing funnel—and while the top of the funnel is still incredibly important to your overall pipeline and how people engage with your efforts at the beginning of their buyer’s journey— effective PR can impact results at all stages of the funnel.

Not only does PR have the ability to drive traffic to content mapped at different points in the buyer’s journey; if leveraged effectively, and as part of a comprehensive and connected multi-channel plan, PR can promote and drive qualified leads through the funnel. It can also be reported as first or last attribution for a purchase.

Here’s how:

IF LEVERAGED EFFECTIVELY,

AND AS PART OF A

COMPREHENSIVE AND

CONNECTED MULTI-CHANNEL

PLAN, PR CAN PROMOTE

AND DRIVE QUALIFIED LEADS

THROUGH THE FUNNEL. IT

CAN ALSO BE REPORTED AS

FIRST OR LAST ATTRIBUTION

FOR A PURCHASE.

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Awareness > Consideration > Conversion > Loyalty & Advocacy

AwarenessDescription: Use PR efforts to drive traffic to top-of-the-funnel discovery content. Another benefit of PR at the top of the funnel: boost your content’s SEO value. Inbound links from earned media placements and social channels signal the value of your brand’s con-tent, and boost search rankings.

Importance: PR efforts at the awareness stage are intended to intro-duce and humanize the brand, so customers gain interest on a personal level. Be helpful, inter-esting and human in PR efforts aimed at the top of the funnel.

Example Tactic: Conduct targeted media outreach, and offer a qualified spokesperson as a source for special-ized insight and expert information.

ConsiderationDescription: Garner earned media to pro-mote content tailored to customer pain points, challenges, and deci-sion-making resources. Along with promoting consideration-content, PR placements at this stage of the funnel promote credibility and trust.

Importance: PR efforts are intended to entice leads to become repeat visitors. Be a resource by providing valuable information, showcase customer successes, and feature wins in credible sources to stay top-of-mind for decision- making leads.

Example Tactic: Create a premium piece of con-tent, such as an eBook, that relates buyer per-sona needs or challenges to your company’s area of expertise, and share via a content distribu-tion network and with targeted media.

ConversionDescription: Promote premium content pieces, and position internal leaders as subject matter experts. You have a captive audience, so use earned media to drive audiences to conversion points where you can learn a little more about them.

Importance: PR efforts at the conversion stage are intended to help capture qualified leads. Encourage your audi-ence to take an action, such as filling out a form before downloading a piece of content. The audience is interested in the information you have to offer, so use this as your opportunity to gather details that help you connect with them more regularly.

Example Tactic: Use multiple channels to pro-mote the premium piece of content, such as email marketing, social media, and owned channels.

Loyalty & AdvocacyDescription: Continue proactive media out reach to garner additional earned media placements. Think outside the box and establish creative tactics to engage with your cus-tomer audience. At this stage, the way you treat your audience drives loyalty; maintaining that high level of service drives advocacy; and, eventually, advocacy drives sales.

Importance: PR efforts are intended to remind customers that the brand is relevant, and motivate the customer to take an action. Brainstorm creative ideas to interact with your audience. Be innovative with your planning, and it may inspire your audience to create user-generated content and organic referrals. Connect with audiences and make them feel like a part of your brand.

Example Tactics: Launch a contest, host an event, create rele-vant case studies, and highlight customer expe-riences through owned channels. And don’t forget content that your sales team can share directly.

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When you develop your next marketing campaign, consider how PR fits into the mix. Would any goals be amplified with support from creative PR tactics? Are there any campaigns that would improve advocacy of your brand? How could PR be leveraged to help encourage sales?

PR has graduated beyond the top of the funnel, and has an impact throughout all stages of the buyer’s journey. Amplify reach, and drive real bottom-line results with your next campaign.

CNW ServicesWith CNW’s portfolio of services and solutions, you can achieve your communications goals—from building awareness and gaining media pickup, to managing reputation and inspiring investor confidence—by sharing, targeting, tracking and enhancing your unique content to make the most of your content investment. Our many offerings include:

• News Release Distribution—Share your message via the most trusted and comprehen-sive network in the industry with national distribution, or laser in on a city, province, region or industry.

• Multimedia Distribution Options—Engage consumers, investors and the media with the rich, compelling content that they are all hungry for: videos, photos, infographics, images.

• SocialPost—Boost the visibility of your news in social media channels via our curated, industry-specific Twitter accounts.