It’s not enough to just want to do PR because you think it sounds cool or interesting. It has to be a strategic decision. And I know that for lots of you, that strategic decision is going to come down to, if it is bringing you in more money. It’s not always going to be that though, it might be something that you really enjoy doing.
But I wanted to just do this post for those of you who are choosing to prioritise PR, but you’re not yet seeing that return on investment and you’re not sure if it is for you. I’m going to give you some things that you might be able to try and implement to see if you can make the most money possible from your PR coverage.
This is a blog post based on the latest episode of PR in your Pocket, listen below!
Enjoyment and long-term gains
Now, the first thing it’s worth saying is there are some things in our business that we don’t do just for money. There’s things that we do because of our overall long-term gains and things that we really enjoyed doing.
But for most of us, the other sorts of stuff that we do, we are thinking about, is this worth my time investment or my money investment? And it might be that you listen to this and you actually think the answer is no. There’s some stuff in business that I know everyone’s saying that I should do. LinkedIn is a big one.
I know that people have had really great results from it. I did a challenge that loads of you recommended. It was actually a really good challenge, but I just can’t get my head around it. And I just can’t see how it can work for my business. So I completely get that PR might not work for everyone’s business, but let me just talk you through a few things that you could consider if you want to do PR, but you’re not seeing the profits!
- You’re not mapping the customer journey out.
Now, one of the biggest reasons actually that PR does not make people money is they’re not actively thinking about what they want the person to do when they read the coverage. Now, if I’m featured and it says Jenna Farmer, is that enough for somebody to sort of stop what they’re doing and Google Jenna Farmer and find me?
Probably not. So we always want to make sure that we’re getting the credit. And this sounds obvious, but the number of people I speak to that don’t do this. It’s quite a lot. So when I say getting the credit, it’s about making sure every time you speak to a journalist, you’re giving them your website link, your bio.
Think about where you’re directing people to. Now, for most people, that is going to be the website because one thing as well, which we’ll talk about a little bit later is that don’t forget when you’re getting these website links, it’s really helping with your SEO and overall Google authority.
So for most people, it makes sense to have a website link, but if people are clicking on your website and there’s nothing for them to do next, is the email free that you want them to sign up to there? Is the website full of useful content they can delve into? Does it have your Facebook group on there?
If you’re relying for that link to automatically just make a purchase straight away, then I think you’re making a mistake because just like in business, I’m sure in all of the areas of business, we’ve learned that people need time to get to know you, to come into your audience. And if you’re a product based business, those buying decisions are sometimes more straightforward.
I’ve had some businesses, they’ve been in an article, they’ve literally sold out that day, but for lots of us, like service based businesses, it doesn’t work that way. And that’s why we need to have a bit of a long game and thinking about, okay, what do we actually want the audience to do? They’re probably not going to click through and immediately buy a £10,000 program with you.
2. It’s not clear what action you want them to take (when someone finds you from PR)
So do we want to get them on our email list? Do we want to get them to listen to our podcast? Do we want to drive them to our Facebook group? That’s a really simple thing you could be doing. If you’re spending your time getting PR, you might as well make sure that you’re driving everyone to it and you have a plan what you’re going to do with that PR.
If it’s not your website link, Facebook group, podcast, you might even have a look at your analytics, like where are your customers coming from at the moment? Where are people converting better for you? And it might make sense to drive them there. However, think carefully if it’s a limited-time thing. For example, my current group programme eight weeks to get media visible (we’re on week two at the moment!) is closed. So if I got some PR coverage a few weeks ago to promote that, then anyone that read that PR coverage now is going to get a link that they’re not going to be able to buy from. So it’s also worth remembering, and we’ll talk about SEO in a second, that this coverage is not always about the instant effect. People are going to find it years on. And that’s why I think it’s better to use a website link as well, because that also means that that website link is always going to stay the same while the link for a particular service may not. .
3. You can’t always effectively track leads.
Let me break down why sometimes the money from PR can take longer to come in. So the first and the most obvious one is that we can’t always track who’s coming in from PR. With online, it’s a lot easier, but with print magazines, it can be quite tricky.
So I encourage you, if there’s any way that someone’s coming into your audience new, like joining a Facebook group, and you’re really focusing on PR Just give them the opportunity to tell you where they found you because you might be surprised. They might have read you in a print magazine and we’ve got absolutely no way of knowing that.
Of course, print magazines have a shelf life. So you’ve probably got like one month unless it’s a quarterly magazine or even shorter if it’s a weekly magazine. But for online, it really can take some time. So I have somebody that I worked with three years ago that still gets most of their sales from one online article.
With online, even when you can track, it’s not always instant.
And remember, obviously, the algorithm is changing/ So it could be that you get consistent traffic from one article for a long time, or it could be the algorithm changes and suddenly an article gets to the top of the list and suddenly you’re getting a lot more traffic from it. So it can take time.
4. You’re Not utilising SEO,
And the biggest thing that a lot of business owners don’t do is they really don’t recognize the SEO benefit of PR, and that is going to inadvertently make you more money. So put really simply, we know that when we get links from high authority sites, the Guardian, the Telegraph, all of those big newspapers, that it really helps our domain authority. And we know that sites with higher domain authority rank higher on Google. Now, not everyone cares about that, but if you have a business that you know, people are finding you via SEO, then having that PR coverage will subtly and it doesn’t always happen instantly.
I’ve worked with brands over a three month period, and managed to really increase that domain authority, but it’s not the day that the link is published and the day the article comes out. So it does take some time, but that will really help, help your SEO and your Google. And as well as that, it’s not just about you coming at the top of Google searches.
One thing I absolutely love when I start working with a client is the first time you work with them, you type in their name and maybe their personal site comes up and soon you type up their name and 10 and 15 things come up. And doesn’t that help buying decisions when you immediately just say, you don’t even have to read every article necessarily, but just to see that they’re all over Google.
It’s not just about articles. When you’re coming up in different forms, when you’re coming up with different content, you’re coming up on the news tab, and the video tab, and the images tab, on the webpage tab, that is really, really going to help you. So SEO, really, really key there.
5.You’re not making the most of it!
And the last reason why your PR isn’t making you any money, and this is actually one that is also really, really common, surprisingly, is that you’re just not making the most of it. You’re not taking advantage of your PR coverage. Now, you might think you absolutely are, but let’s break down all the different ways that you can take advantage of your PR coverage and see if you’re doing them all.
So first of all, let’s talk about when that article goes live, whether that is print or online. Are you sharing it yourself? I imagine you probably are, but it’s not just about bringing in a new audience to you. It’s actually about showing your existing audience your thought leader opinions, your insights, your expertise, and your credibility.
So, It’s not just about sharing it once and then forgetting about it. Let’s talk about Instagram. Instagram has a highlight section where you can create different stories. I would be having a highlight section and put all of your press in that. So whoever lands on your Instagram page can immediately see your press coverage.
And then it becomes evergreen because if you share it to your stories or your posts, either way, it’s going to become further down your feed eventually. So if you use the highlight section of Instagram, people are going to see all the time. The number of people I see that have brilliant coverage whether they’re working with me or somebody else or just doing it by themselves and absolutely smashing it, but do not have a press page is crazy. A press page is such an easy way to make more money from your pr coverage, all it is is a page on your website that lists the press coverage.
We want to make sure it’s really business. So someone can literally find it by checking you out from the homepage and just think every time somebody clicks on your site, whether they’re coming from Google, whether a friend’s recommended them, whether they’ve just stumbled upon you, they’re going to see that press tab and they can click and see your coverage.
Becomes really passive because once you set the page up, you don’t have to actually do anything other than update it occasionally. And that’s really going to help, but don’t just have it there hidden away. Really shout about that page, link to it on your sales pages, link to it on your about page, let people know that you have a page of your site that you can really show them all the coverage.
So that is one of the biggest mistakes. It’s not collating this coverage. Most people are pretty good about shouting about it for a day or two, and then they forget about it. I really want to encourage you to create places such as your press page, such as your Instagram highlights, about page, or wherever else you think it could be where you’re constantly showcasing your media coverage and making it work for you week after week.
PR isn’t for everyone but if you’re going to do it and if you’re going to invest either your time or your money you really need to make sure it’s working for your business, so make sure you take the time to make the most of your PR!