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Webinar Moderator:

Jiyan Wei,Product Manager, PRWeb

How to Improve your ROI withHow to Improve your ROI with

Online News ReleasesOnline News Releases

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Richard D. LeeRichard D. LeeFounder and CEO, Pillar Consulting Corp.

• Founded Pillar in 1995.

• Pillar combines an interactive agency with IT support for a turnkeyexperience.

• We develop self-manageable websites with a focus on e-marketing.

• Pillar believes that websites should be newsworthy and therefore highlymarketable.

• This subsequently makes an online news release work moreeffectively.

www.pillarcc.com

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Dr. Mihaela VorvoreanuDr. Mihaela VorvoreanuFellow of the Society of New Communication Research &

Assistant Professor, Clemson Universityhttp://prconnections.net

• Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research

• Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies- ClemsonUniversity

• Research and teaching interests: public relations and new Internettechnologies; the impact of online communication on public relationspractice, culture, and society

• Research published in journals such as Public Relations Review andJournal of Website Promotion 

• Author, “Website Public Relations: How Corporations Build and

Maintain Relationships Online.” 2008, Cambria Press

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Research Methodology

• In-depth quantitative and qualitative study

• Survey informed by in-depth interviews w ith PR andmarketing professionals

• Survey conducted in conjunction w ith TWI Surveys over atwo-week period in March/ April 2008

• 423 respondents – primarily North America

• Sample: PR, Marketing, SMB owners/ managers

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Online survey

• March 31-April 16, 2008• 423 respondents:

- Marketing professionals (32.9% )

- PR professionals (30.1% )

- Small business owners (23.7% )

- Primarily U.S. (83.9% )

- Type of organization:

Service/ retail (52.6% ) Technology (24.6% )

Other: nonprofit, government,manufacturing, resources

Sample

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Results Highlights

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Goals of Online NRs

Goals of Online News Releases

SEO optimization

Creating readily

available online content

Announcing news

Gaining increased

visibility and credibility

Increasing visibility

Reaching

customers/consumers

1 2 3 4 5

   T  o  p 

  g  o  a   l  s

Mean

Goal importance

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Audiences

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Primary Tactics

0

20

40

60

80

100

Good headline/subhead withkeywords

Interesting & newsworthycontent

Keywords in body of newsrelease

Links to corporate website

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Measurement Criteria

0

20

40

60

80

100

NR republished on websites

Number of online views

Article based on NR

Media interview requests

Traffic to organization's site

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Measurement

How important is it that your releases are postedon specific websites?

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Top advantages of online NRs

1. Opportunity for SEO (34.1% )

2. Ability to reach both consumers and media (31.5% )

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Challenges

1. Cutting through theclutter

•

 Difficulty of cutting through the clutter -

 aking sure your release gets noticed

 •

 The overwhelming amount of people doing

it as well…

 thousands of releases are sent

out each hour, thus watering down my

releases and rendering them just internet

“noise”

•

 Difficulty of cutting through the clutter -

 aking sure your release gets noticed

•

 The overwhelming amount of people doing

it as well…

 thousands of releases are sent

out each hour, thus watering down my

releases and rendering them just internet

“noise”

2. Targeting/ Distribution•

 Difficult to find right market at times

•

 Deciding which was the best outlet

•

 Hitting right market

• Difficult to find right market at times

• Deciding which was the best outlet

• Hitting right market

3. Measurement•

 I couldn’t tell how effective it was

•

 Accurate tracking of pick-up. Lack of tools

to provide measurement value of pick-up (ineyeballs or dollar value)

• I couldn’t tell how effective it was

•

 Accurate tracking of pick-up. Lack of tools

to provide measurement value of pick-up (ineyeballs or dollar value)

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Challenges

1. Affordability

2. Detailed & accurate metrics

What would make you use an online press releaseservice more often?

• Ab i l i t y t o ge t r epo r t s o f cove rage in do l l a r  am o u n t , t o sh o w t o m y cl ien t h o w m u ch co v er a g e  t hey ac tua l l y r ece ived . To j us t i f y t he ROI on PR serv ices  

• Ab i l i t y t o ge t r epo r t s o f cove rage in do l l a r  am o u n t , t o sh o w t o m y cl ien t h o w m u ch co v er a g e  t hey ac tua l l y r ece ived . To j us t i f y t he ROI on PR serv ices  

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A Closer Look…

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Organization Size:Goals

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User Groups

Significant Differences: Goals of online news releases / user group

PR1. Announcing

news2. Enhancing

thoughtleadership

Marketing1. SEO

optimizationfor website

2. Reachingcustomers / consumers

Small Business1. Using the

release as asales tool

2. Reachingcustomers / consumers

• Increasing visibility• Gaining visibility & credibility

• Increasing visibility• Gaining visibility & credibility

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PR/ Marketing:Audiences

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The big picture

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Preparing to Assess ROI with an Online Press Release

1.Use your website and Google to measure your impact.

2.Lower your expectations: don’t expect explosive traffic or sales.

3.Create a landing page on your site, unless it’s a new site launch.

4.Have a call-to-action on this page (free consultation, 25% OFF, etc.)

5.Use a website traffic tool such as Google Analytics to monitor site traffic.

6.Google “yourdomainname.com” before and after.

7.Strive for newsworthy activity in your business.

www.pillarcc.com

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How an Online Press Release Got PILLAR Business!

1. We developed an online tool for website owners to better understand SearchEngine Optimization (SEO).

2. We made it easy to use and friendly, and gave it a name to ensure that:www.KeywordFriendly.com

3. Believed that the site would serve as:a. a useful tool to keep website owners away from black hat SEO

b. a useful internal tool to assist in web development sales

c. a showcase of our ability to program a solution 

www.pillarcc.com

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How an Online Press Release Got PILLAR Business!

4. The Press Release was professionally written by our Publicist.

5. I tweaked the Headline, as per PRWEB’s past suggestion*

From : Innovative New Service Provides Valuable Information for SEO

To : Leading NYC Web Development Firm Launches KeywordFriendly.com

* Waste no time getting to the point and driving it home.

www.pillarcc.com

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How an Online Press Release Got PILLAR Business!

6. Sent the press release out using Vocus and PRWEB’s “Media Visibility”package so that we could make the biggest splash online.

7. Days and weeks after, we continued to receive emails from reporters tellingus that we could expect coverage in their publications on a certain date.

8. We even saw us on an online news site in Taiwan, in Chinese.

9. Using the tool we sent the release for, we were able to easily track howGoogle’s ‘view’ of us changed.

Analysis of PRWEB.com using KeywordFriendly.com

www.pillarcc.com

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How an Online Press Release Got Us Business!

10. That SAME afternoon we received an inquiry from a reporter, whichread:

“I'm interested in establishing a new business centered around a 

website concept that I've developed. I'm looking for someone who can build and help maintain the site. The site could potentially see a 

high volume of traffic, it may require cloud computing.” 

He learned of us from our press release.

www.pillarcc.com

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The Outcome

He was our ideal customer:

Someone with a vision to improve the way apopulation of people communicate online.

We have begun building his vision and when it’s complete, we willbe sending a press release out announcing its launch!

www.pillarcc.com

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Now that we found the golden ticket, what’s next?

We will continue to use press releases to increase our online visibility.

Use Vocus to target reporters in specific categories.

Send a new Press Release every month.

Stay busy creating “newsworthy” sites and activities.

www.pillarcc.com

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Questions & Comments?Questions & Comments?

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Live In Person SeminarJune 3, 2009 Washington, D.C

“The Real Secrets to Drive Traffic to yourSite with SEO and Online News Releases”

To register for this event contact:Nida Haque at nhaque@prweb.com

WhenWednesday, June 3, 200910:00am - 4:00pm EST

WhereMandarin Oriental Hotel1330 Maryland Avenue, SWWashington, DC 20024, USA

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Contact Information

• Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu, mihaela@exchange.clemson.edu

• Twitter: prprof_mv

• Blog: http://prconnections.net

• Richard D. Lee, chief@pillarcc.com

• Twitter: chiefatlarge

• Blog: http://therightclickblog.com

• Moderator, Jiyan Wei, jwei@vocus.com• Twitter: prweb

• Blog: http://www.newinfluencer.com/

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About PRWeb

• The Leading online news and news release distribution service

worldwide.

• Pioneer in direct-to-consumer distribution, search engineoptimized press releases and multimedia news.

• Used by more than 40,000 organizations to increase thevisibility of their news, improve their search engine rankingsand drive traffic to their Web site.

• Wholly owned subsidiary of Vocus, Inc., a leading provider ofon-demand public relations management software.