{"id":144317,"date":"2022-11-21T12:54:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T12:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=144317"},"modified":"2022-11-21T12:54:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T12:54:43","slug":"how-to-use-digital-pr-and-cross-channel-data-to-amplify-organic-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2022\/11\/21\/how-to-use-digital-pr-and-cross-channel-data-to-amplify-organic-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use digital PR and cross-channel data to amplify organic growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-144319\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/How-to-use-PR-and-cross-channel-data-to-amplify-organic-growth-1024x273.png\" alt=\"How to use PR and cross-channel data to amplify organic growth\" width=\"640\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/How-to-use-PR-and-cross-channel-data-to-amplify-organic-growth-1024x273.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/How-to-use-PR-and-cross-channel-data-to-amplify-organic-growth-300x80.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/How-to-use-PR-and-cross-channel-data-to-amplify-organic-growth-768x205.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/How-to-use-PR-and-cross-channel-data-to-amplify-organic-growth.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3>30-second summary:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">With the right strategy, digital PR can help drive both brand awareness and organic performance <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">During an economic downturn, brand visibility is essential to maintain brand advocacy in the long-term<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Brands that will come out on top are those that take a cross-channel approach to drive more ROI, using data from other channels to inform their approach<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Despite being tempted to pull back on spending during a recession, I believe that it is critical that brands stay visible to maintain brand advocacy \u2014 and Digital PR is a great, low-cost way to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Future front-runner brands will be those that adopt a cross-channel approach to drive more ROI, utilizing data from other channels to inform their approach and ensure it resonates with target audiences<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">With the current economic climate, brands and businesses are understandably scrutinizing every cent, and will likely make cuts to marketing budgets across the globe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Businesses need to be realistic about their growth trajectory over the next few months and ensure every marketing dollar they invest is accounted for. While this may naturally lead to greater investment in performance channels, such as paid media, this will result in increased cost per click (CPCs). A way to still stay measurable but reduce costs is to get creative and focus energy on earning attention rather than continuing to pay for every click and impression.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">As a result, I would argue that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.journeyfurther.com\/services\/pr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">digital PR<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\"> is one of the most important tools in your marketing toolkit, as, with the right strategy, it can drive both brand awareness and organic performance.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>You\u2019re missing a trick if you\u2019re just using Digital PR to drive links<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Digital PR is used to build high authority, and relevant links to key category pages to drive search performance through organic growth. A targeted strategy that aligns closely with SEO objectives will enable you to track ROI if you have the right measurement tools in place. This activity feeds into lower funnel marketing activity as it helps to harvest demand, as increased rankings capture better traffic and conversions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">However, if you\u2019re only using it for this purpose, you\u2019re missing out on a huge opportunity further up the marketing funnel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Through securing brand-led, high-impact coverage on authoritative and influential publications, digital PR can also be used to drive search demand and upper-funnel brand awareness. This third-party validation is the perfect way to build salience, credibility, customer advocacy, and trust while simultaneously driving organic performance through high-quality links.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">In order to achieve both brand and performance though, you need to be <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2022\/08\/17\/data-speaks-link-relevancy-trumps-volume-for-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">creating relevant and engaging content<\/a> that your target audience wants to read and share<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">. You shouldn\u2019t be creating content \u2018just for a link\u2019 but taking into consideration wider business goals &#8211; and making sure you\u2019re actually targeting press that your audience is reading.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">In summary, digital PR shouldn\u2019t just be an \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/10\/07\/align-your-content-with-customer-intent-via-zero-click-search\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">intent-led<\/a>\u2019 marketing discipline to increase rankings. It\u2019s a discipline that can both drive demand and awareness, whilst helping to capture intent-led traffic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Why brand visibility is even more important during a recession<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Recessions are difficult and uncertain times, which is why it\u2019s even more important to continue to build visibility and salience &#8211; as with tighter budgets, consumers are likely to become more selective and want to buy from brands that they trust that stay relevant to them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">We have seen in previous economic uncertainty brands that maintain their brand awareness and relevance, retain more market share, and are able to bounce back quicker. Mark Ritson\u2019s marketing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketingweek.com\/ritson-recession-playbook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">recession playbook<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\"> provides further information and sources on this subject.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">In order to use digital PR to deliver true brand performance, you need to ensure you\u2019re creating it based on as much <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/02\/23\/cross-channel-and-cookieless-how-measurement-will-evolve-in-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cross-channel insight<\/a> as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Sharing cross-channel insight to deliver better ROI<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">While many marketers say they work \u2018cross-channel,\u2019 the reality is that many teams are still working in silos &#8211; especially across brand and performance teams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">To drive the best results, it is essential to break down silos and take data insights from each channel to develop one <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2022\/08\/04\/marketing-during-a-recession-critical-choices-to-preserve-your-pipeline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">overarching strategy<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">For example, to drive organic growth, while it\u2019s critical to start with key SEO insight, search volumes, brand traffic, non-brand traffic, relevance, and the number of backlinks, you should be considering other channels to maximize performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Another example would be that your PPC and paid search teams will have a lot of useful data that you can use to inform your organic strategy. Which are the keywords that are costing the most? You can tailor your efforts to improve organic rankings for these keywords, effectively allowing you to spend less on those terms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Your programmatic team will also have access to display placement reports which will provide insight into the publications and websites your in-market audience is visiting. This should then inform your target outreach list. From a paid social perspective, this team will have lots of useful information on what content performs the best <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\"> providing valuable insight for your PR brainstorms.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Amplifying your Digital PR coverage further<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">You shouldn\u2019t just be working with other channel teams to define your strategy, you need to work with them throughout the whole process, to amplify results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">For instance, if you generate a truly fantastic piece of linking digital PR coverage, on a very credible publication. Whilst this will drive SEO performance and some brand awareness, in order to maximize the opportunity, and the valuable third-party validation, make it work even harder by amplifying through paid social.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Mini case study: Maryland cookies use PR to reach 5+ million people<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Maryland came to us because they needed to align PR, programmatic, and paid social to drive mass awareness of their new Sugar-Free cookie and deliver an immediate surge in new customer sales. Through an integrated approach of PR, paid social, and programmatic, we reached 5.3 million people across all channels. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.journeyfurther.com\/work\/maryland-cookies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">View the case study here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">We have seen in past campaigns that by utilizing PR content as part of your social ads, not only can they actually perform better than the ad creative, but they can also help to prevent ad fatigue and provide you with additional assets (that you don\u2019t need to pay anything extra for!).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Immediate steps to help your 2023 marketing plan<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">In order to be successful, it\u2019s important to create a framework that helps to pull all channels together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">At <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.journeyfurther.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Journey Further<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\"> we use the \u20184Ds\u2019 &#8211; Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Discover<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">This phase involves asking all the channels to provide insight and data based on their recent campaigns and learnings to date. It is recommended to assign a client lead who can be tasked with pulling together a list of questions and a briefing document to ensure the discovery phase is as useful as possible. This will help identify where the biggest opportunities are across channels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Define<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Agree on the best objective and goals based on the insight provided by all channels. Create an overarching strategy that will deliver against them and drive maximum ROI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Develop<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Set a clear roadmap, with roles and responsibilities outlined across each channel. Whilst in the case of an organic growth strategy, SEO and PR will take the leading role, it\u2019s important other channels are clear on the ways they can amplify the activity at each stage, and what learnings they can also gather from the activity to improve their own results in-channel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Deliver<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Marketing activity is activated. If this is a digital PR campaign then influencer marketing and paid social tactics may be used for example, alongside outreach, to bolster the campaign and drive more buzz and engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Reporting on the right metrics<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Another benefit of working cross-channel is that you will be able to report on many more metrics, giving a more holistic and accurate view of ROI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\">Creating a live, 24\/7 reporting dashboard utilizing tools such as Data Studio will allow you and your team members to check in and monitor progress at all times. This will provide you with a continuous cycle of insight <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 300;\"> to allow you to continuously improve your marketing efforts and deliver one overarching strategy that enables you to remain visible while also driving performance.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Beth Nunnington is the VP of Digital PR and Content Marketing at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/journeyfurther.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Journey Further<\/a>, leading Digital PR strategy for the world\u2019s leading brands. Her work has been featured in The Drum, PR Moment, and Prolific North. Find Beth on Twitter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BethNunnington\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@BethNunnington<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/#newsletter-modal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Search Engine Watch newsletter<\/a><\/strong><strong>\u00a0for insights on SEO, the search landscape, search marketing, digital marketing, leadership, podcasts, and more.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Join the conversation with us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/61126\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sewatch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the brand vs performance marketing debate, why digital PR is a great route to drive SEO, increase ROI, and build brand <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":144319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,27694,5],"tags":[1489,28152,27268],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-144317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","category-roi-marketing","category-seo","tag-cross-channel-marketing","tag-data-strategy","tag-digital-pr"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":"Independent","tad_content_format":"Expert commentary"},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/How-to-use-PR-and-cross-channel-data-to-amplify-organic-growth.png","category":"Industry","timeago":"3y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144317"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=144317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}