How to Integrate PR Into SEO Strategy

By Samuel ScottSenior Director of Digital Marketing, The Cline Group

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About Us

The Cline Group- Global, strategic marketing and PR firm- Offices in New York, Philadelphia,

Tel Aviv, and Naples

Senior Director of Digital MarketingSamuel Scott- Former journalist turned Internet

marketer- Certifications from Google, Hubspot, and

Hootsuite- B.S. in journalism from Boston University

with International M.B.A. studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel

- Based in Tel Aviv

What is PR?

It’s a lot more than being a spokesperson

What is PR?

What is PR?

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)’s official definition:

“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds

mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

What is PR?

PR Channels

Why is PR Important?

Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing:

– Outbound (like PR) creates new demand– Inbound fulfills existing demand

Why is PR Important?

The best “off-page SEO” methods have always just been PR by other names

– “Guest posts” are just by-lined articles– “Content plus outreach” predates the Web– Asking anyone for links is just PR

Why is PR Important?

“If I had to choose between your average link builder and

an expert PR professional who knew how to approach and

interact with media outlets and presented well on camera,

I’d go for the public relations person any day of the week.”

—Everett Sizemore, seOverflow

The Results

The Results

Coverage included:

The Results

Open Site Explorer: • 591 links• 253 domains• 462 tweets

• 1033 Google +1’s• 344 Facebook Likes• 1253 Facebook shares

The best links come as natural results of just doing

good PR & marketing!

The Marcom Process

The PR Process

1. Goal Identification

2. Target Market Identification

3. Messaging and Positioning

4. Media List Creation

5. Press Release Development & Pitching

6. Packaging and Follow-Up

Goal Identification

Examples:• Gain VC funding or to exit by selling

• Maximize downloads of our mobile application

• Gain more users of our B2B software

• Build our brand through authoritative content

PR is a means to the end of getting coverage that supports a company’s overall goals.

Target Market Identification

Research and compile a list of the general targeted audiences based on the goals

Messaging and Positioning

Positioning:How will you brand yourself?

Messaging:How will you use text and more to

communicate the positioning?

Media List Creation

• Compile a list of outlets read by the target audiences + relevant writers

• An ideal media list contains:• Publications read by the target audience• The specific writers who’d be most interested• Large social-media followings• Online sites with high Domain Authority

Press Release Creation

Integrating PR and SEO

• PR is people and SEO is things and data

• Need a decision-maker

• The following process occurs concurrently

Goals and KPIs

B2C sales? B2B leads? App installations? Brand awareness? Something else?

Audience Research (SEO)

• Create a persona (http://moz.com/blog/personas-understanding-the-person-behind-the-visit)

• Use random affinities (http://moz.com/blog/growing-your-audience-with-random-affinities)

Audience Research (PR)

• Existing company information & CRM data• Customer surveys• Audience data from firms such as ESRI (http://

www.esri.com/library/brochures/pdfs/tapestry-segmentation.pdf)

Audience Research

Use all of the research and information to create an overall persona of the target audience!

Messaging & Positioning

Fill out these blanks:

Keyword Research (SEO)

The Importance of Co-Occurrence

Get reporters and writers to describe you with the keyword-influenced terms you want!

Overall Positioning

XXXXXXXXX is a performance advertising platform, focused exclusively on mobile. XXXXXXX’s targeting technology makes use of all available data to guarantee advertiser’s ROI.

Supporting Messages

XXXXXXX generates revenue for advertisers based on a cost-per-action (CPA) business model, rather than cost per impression (CPM) or a cost per click (CPC) offered by other mobile advertising providers, XXXXXXXXX reaches more than 190 countries, generating over 2 billion impressions per month.

XXXXXXXX has five operational sites around the world, with a focus on the most dominant and emerging markets in the US and Asia Pacific regions.

XXXXXXXXX is backed by strategic investors in the mobile space including XXXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX and XXXX, providing the company with access to the highly lucrative Asian mobile market.

Competitive Advantages

XXXXXXX is the dominant mobile performance advertising player in Asia, the fastest growing and the leading region of the world concerning mobile advertising revenue and investment, with 49.2% of total mobile ad revenue in 2011 alone:

– XXXXXXXX has little direct competition for its mobile real-time targeting solution – Ad networks do not performance CPA marketing, advertiser authentication, or

effective targeting solutions.

User targeting technologies are currently focused primarily on the online segment with the world’s largest brands struggling to apply those same rules for mobile. XXXXXXX’s technology allows brands to take advantage of the mobile’s unique traits (on-the-go, location, click-to-call, always on etc.)

Boilerplate

With five operational sites across the globe, XXXXXXXXX is a leading performance mobile advertising platform which uses real-time, propriety targeting technology, to guarantee advertiser ROI.

XXXXXXXXX helps advertisers monetize their advertising budgets, through acquiring customers and gaining valuable insight into usage patterns.

Backed by some of the most respected investors in the mobile industry including XXXXXX, XXXXXXX, XXXXXX and XXXXX, XXXXXXXX works with Fortune 500 companies to plan, design, execute and optimize their mobile ad campaigns, guaranteeing they achieve their ROI goals.

Other Messaging Documents

• Elevator pitch• Customer pains and your solutions• Top five points (for interviews)• Executive bios, FAQ documents, etc.• Blurbs for social-media profiles• Website meta titles and meta descriptions• Website text

Channel Research (SEO)

Research Tools: Google Analytics, Open Site Explorer, ahrefs Bulk URL checker: SEO Weather

Channel Research (PR)

Major PR Software Programs: Cision, Vocus, and Meltwater

Channel Research (PR)

Channel Research (PR)

Channel Research (PR)

Channel Research (PR)

Channel Research (PR)

Channel Research (PR)

Channel Research

• Create together a final list of publications and websites to target

• Relevancy is MORE important than Domain Authority!

Content Creation

Execution & Adjustment

Both SEO and PR can use data!

What PR Can Learn From SEO

• Which traffic from what outlets tends to convert the most and bounce the least?

• Are branded searches increasing following the PR work?

• When links from outlets are broken or have disappeared

What SEO Can Learn From PR

• From what outlets (and type of outlets) is it easiest to get coverage and links?

• The best practices for personal outreach and communication (for social media and more)

• How reporters and others are responding to the company’s online presence

The Point to Remember

Don’t think about how to get links. Think about how to get coverage and publicity! The links will then come naturally as a result. You are not building anything artificially, so you will never have to worry about Google penalties.

Thank You!

Design: @tomckerr

Email: sam.scott@theclinegroup.comTwitter: @samueljscottWebsite: http://www.theclinegroup.com

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