I will say it until I am blue in the face – “Integrated marketing works best.” The market is crowded and consumers are distracted. Amazingly, I can’t tell you how many companies we meet that spend five or six figures monthly on one individual marketing stream, rather than diversifying their spend. As CEO of 5WPR, my experience has shown that this to be a major mistake.
Why spend time and effort on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay per Click (PPC) when you don’t do your all to also capture organic mindshare and market share? Companies that spend on Google are already way ahead of the curve in knowing that search is often the first place anyone interested in you or your company looks. But you should also work with a Public Relations agency to ensure that great stories are secured – with the right links in high page rank outlets.
Content is and always has been king for search engines – so make sure you get good placements in the right media outlets. By creating placements in the right outlets, SEO can take those media placements and turn them into long-lasting organic traffic, and organic business builders for your company. Search Engine visibility offers the chance to have people read and notice the story – even if they never read the original publication you were featured in.
Some ideas I wanted to share with the online community which have worked for some of the thousands of clients we have served at 5WPR:
- Pontificate Often & Regularly: As an example, many in the professional services industry love to “hear themselves talk.” Use it to your advantage as we do – we have doctors, lawyers and accountants blogging regularly on high ranking sites about issues of importance. And guess what – within those well-written, thought provoking articles, include some relevant links (And yes, I practice what I preach).
- If Only Your Mom Reads the Press Release… its ok. As long as the links are right, using distribution sites (PR Web, PR Newswire, etc.), linking with the right keywords can help you radically affect rankings. We distribute news releases regularly forSEO purposes. Given the amount of links you can secure, the news wire done right is effective – and media sees it.
- If the Media Says It, People Believe It: We represent a major player in a very competitive industry who simply wants to ensure the company is included in every round-up story on the industry. With us aggressively targeting reporters who cover the company’s space, it’s nearly every time that media covers the space they are mentioned. And with every mention comes a hyperlink – and as long as he’s mentioned alongside his competitors he is happy.
- As I say often, content is king: Websites need regular updating, and by adding media placements from Public Relations efforts to your sites it’s considered a content update (Update your site map to Google.). Along with the incoming links you can also outbound link to your company in the stories.
- Say It & Say It Again: Create a website or blog “Company in the News”. You can make your positive news stories rank higher and protect your brand when inevitable negative stories come.
This integrated approach strategy is really quite simple – Search engine visibility is key and Public Relations is a very effective tool to drive sales, demonstrate traction and improve search engine rankings. Expect me to continue to pontificate on why it all works best when you do a lot of different things.
Photo credits: Above the Noise – courtesy © JERMVUT KITCHAICHANK – Fotolia.com
