Can PR help generate leads?

PR Strategy
Media Relations
Corporate PR
Lead Generation

Traditional PR has always been about building a company’s profile in the media in a way that is aligned with the company’s business targets.

For example, a target could be to raise awareness of a new product or service. PR will achieve this through press releases, developing relationships with key media outlets and linking that product or service with the news agenda.

It could be establishing a new spokesperson or highlighting a significant new hire. Again, PR can help by creating interview opportunities, securing opinion pieces and much more.

The point is that PR can help get a business out there, but more and more often, PR is being asked to complete a dual role of not only building a company’s profile in the media, but directly generating leads for that company.

The truth is that in many ways it already does. After all, those of us that work in PR will argue that the traditional approach does generate leads, it just might not be instantly obvious that a lead came from PR unless the lead tells you.

Was it one piece of coverage that caused a lead to pick up the phone? Was it a number of articles? Had they heard about a new service a while ago but had to wait for an existing contract to come up for renewal?

It’s not always clear. But one thing that is clear is that there is an easy way to build PR campaigns with lead generation to offer more measurable, and more valuable results.

Building profiles AND generating leads

It all starts with building credibility. The more familiar target media outlets are with a brand, the more opportunities there will be to contribute to the daily news cycle. The more often a company is featured in its target media, the more potential there is for leads to flow in.

It’s a powerful cycle, but the right ingredients are needed to get it working. Clear messaging, great spokespeople, proactive campaigns to generate coverage, and using coverage for marketing purposes can help keep the plates spinning.

The key thing to remember is that the press won’t buy into marketing content. They are interested in the issues behind a product or service, and why their audience should care.

Therefore, it’s vital to consider questions like:

  • Why does that problem exist?
  • What will the problem look like in the future?
  • What needs to happen to bridge the gap?

Asking these questions helps to refine messages and be as clear as possible with PR content, whether it’s a press release, opinion pieces, news comment, case study, research or a report.

It helps build credibility, and that is what will bring in leads.

Squeezing content

Getting those ingredients right is the start, but how do we get to an end result where we know exactly where leads came from, and what piece of content helped generate them?

Well, with clever use of PR assets it's possible to use PR to run marketing and lead generation campaigns.

For example, any piece of research that requires a report is great for PR outreach. The key findings, what they mean for specific sectors, by-line articles – it’s all gold dust for PR purposes. But with a lead generating mindset they can be used far beyond the initial findings.

These assets can also be used in lead generation campaigns. It can be emailed to prospects, shared with customers and used to start conversations about overcoming challenges presented and the opportunities that exist.

There’s plenty of ways to squeeze your PR content, but best of all you can use tools such as sign up forms, dedicated emails and other tracking methods to find out who is interested in that content and how to develop those leads further.

Measuring steps

Whether a campaign is a blistering success or not, the ability to measure and review its impact in terms of both PR and leads can help improve the process for the next campaign.

It’s also a valuable way to prove the impact that PR has on achieving business goals, and those results can be shared too. Coverage can be collated and reviewed with metrics like average views, social shares and links back to a website. Web traffic can be monitored. Share of voice can be analysed.

This strategic approach to PR takes time, effort and buy-in from stakeholders. But it will not only achieve coverage in the press to further business targets, but also directly generate leads by making content work harder.

The real winners will be those who understand that great PR content isn’t dead as soon as coverage is achieved. An integrated strategy that recognises how valuable content can be used to achieve different goals will be the one that secures leads as well as coverage.

James Barnes, PR & Content Manager, Essential