What effect, if any, did the press release have on website traffic?

The second chart answers this question.

Both the total number of visitors and total number of unique visiting sites nearly tripled the week of distribution.

Further analysis reveals that 71 percent of the visitors during this period were first-time visitors, and the site’s higher-than-average traffic rates lasted four days.

Online browsers found our paid press release on the first page of Google’s search results. And our paid press release continues to hold the number one spot in Google News for that keyword search.

Somewhat surprisingly, the number of people that viewed the software overview video also spiked one day after distribution. Unfortunately, the testimonial video did not fare as well.

What can we take away from this one case study example? Here are five PR lessons.

PR case study lesson #1: Expect a paid PR service to outperform free PR distribution services
When I compare the results of this press release to others I have done, the free distribution services performed better than expected. Normally, the paid PR service I use outperforms the free services by a factor of 4:1 or greater.

Are the premium distribution services worth the extra cost? You be the judge.

Granted it is not a complete, apples-to-apples comparison, but the first press release issued 14 months ago cost $380. Eighty-five media outlets picked up the story and we observed a two-day spike in web visitors (340 percent and 200 percent, respectively) immediately after distribution. Pre-release traffic levels resumed day three.

The second press release cost $99. Fifty-six media outlets picked up the story and we observed a four-day spike in web visitors (290 percent, 270 percent, 207 percent, and 165 percent, respectively). Pre-release traffic levels resumed day five.

If your goal is to minimize cost and maximize website traffic and eyeballs, a lower-cost PR distribution service fits the bill.

If on the other hand your goal is to strictly create a news archive to boost credibility and SEO, then the free PR distribution services are perfectly acceptable.

PR case study lesson #2: Low-cost and no-cost are not binary options
Companies can expand their reach by issuing press releases over a combination of paid and free distribution services.

In this one example, the free services accounted for 34 percent of the total press release views. We would have missed this significant audience if we had ignored the free distribution services.

PR case study lesson #3: Don’t expect long-term results from one release
Like any form of advertising, a single press release will yield a short burst of traffic.

To maintain momentum, you will need an overall PR strategy that involves distributing multiple press releases over the course of many months.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of this case study on August 3rd. If you can’t wait until then, you can download a copy of the entire case study by following this link:

http://su.pr/1dlOoF

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

+++ Late-Breaking Update +++
Five weeks after this press release was issued, it continues to demonstrate sticking power with the search engines.

A Google search performed just 10 minutes ago lists this press release in the coveted #1 spot of Google’s organic search results. Moreover, the release listed is not from the paid PR service; it’s from one of the freebie PR services! Amazing.

“It’s too expensive.”

“I don’t see the value.”

“We don’t have anything newsworthy to write about.”

These are just a few of the comments I hear from clients when the subject of PR comes up. Most people still believe that press releases are only for large corporations with deep pockets. But it’s time to put away those antiquated notions and recognize that a press release program has a place in any size organization.

Press releases not only work to build company credibility (something you need especially when you’re starting out), they are a source of new website traffic, they help boost SEO rankings, and they can be a relatively cheap way to reach your target market. Yes, I said cheap, because I’m not talking about the big-three PR distribution services. I have found that you can have just as much success (sometimes more so) using a combination of low-cost and no-cost PR distribution services.

Without giving too much away, I wanted to share with you the results of a recent press release I did for one client. The primary goal of this particular release was to announce a new software version, but they also wanted me to weave into the story some tantalizing information about a new international partner. Pretty standard stuff.

I issued their press release through two of my freebie PR distribution favorites and one paid PR service, which cost just $99. I also embedded two videos in the press release distributed over the paid service: a software overview and video testimonial, and I pushed the press release out to several social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and Digg.

In total, the press release generated eight Google News alerts and attracted more than 500 eyeballs over a 10-day period. As you can see from the chart below, the paid PR service outperformed the two freebie PR services by a factor of 2:1. The press release issued over the paid service was picked up by more than 56 online media sites, including Google News and channel behemoth ChannelWeb.

That’s great, but what effect, if any, did the press release have on website traffic?

You’ll have to wait until my next posting on July 20th. In the meantime, check out my story, “3 Tried-and-True Free Press Release Distribution Services,” to see three of my favorite freebie PR services.

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

A recent Adweek Media / Harris poll found 48% of Americans think a male voice is more forceful and 46% believe a female voice is more soothing; but 69% say so what – neither is more likely than the other to sell them a car or a computer. One less thing to worry about when creating those online videos. More info available at Harris Interactive.

Here’s a B2B Benchmark for Sales-to-Marketing Spend Ratio

Buried in a new report from DemandGen Report and sponsored by Marketo (called The New Revenue Engine) is an interesting factoid. Apparently most B2B companies spend three times more on sales than they do on marketing – and marketing contributes only 20% to 30% of the sales pipeline. Is marketing being underfunded? Marketo reveals it runs on a 1:1 ratio and its marketing efforts directly contribute 60% of the pipeline. Something to think about.

In its latest preliminary research released last week Gartner said 2010 PC shipments would increase nearly 20% over 2009 while revenue will increase 12.2%. The increase will be driven largely by sales of mobile computers. This is significantly higher than the 13.3% shipment growth and 1.9% revenue growth Gartner projected last December.  Read more at InformationWeek.

Marketing budgets grow; dollars continue to move to digital.

According to a recent Econsultancy survey, 46% of companies plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2010 and 66% will increase their investments in digital marketing channels. 28% of marketers are shifting at least some of their overall marketing budgets from offline to digital channels. The shift to digital marketing is being driven at least in part by the ability to track online marketing’s contribution to financial metrics. Read more at MediaPost.

Clearly, there are some people who believe that content should be judged on substance, not technicality and structure. Several people brought up prior incidents where they felt their own words were nit-picked incessantly and unnecessarily.

One person speculated that the woman who canceled her New York Times subscription had another underlying reason for doing so, and he called her a fool for canceling.

Still others were willing to cut people some slack depending on the communication medium used and the type of person committing the writing error. Techies, for example, were more likely to be forgiven than journalists or professional writers.

What’s also clear is that there is a second group of people that believe writing errors are a strong indicator of bigger problems.

One of the questions in the survey asks people what (if anything) they question whenever they encounter a writing error in business communication.

Respondents could write in their own answers to this question, and interestingly, one person said that errors made them question the legitimacy of a business. Credibility, professionalism, and quality were also points of concern raised by some folks.

It’s not too late to weigh in with your own opinions. Just five questions long, the survey should take you less than two minutes to complete. As a participant, you can remain completely anonymous, or you can submit your e-mail address to receive survey results.

I’ll keep the survey open until February 28th and will post results in this blog during the March/April timeframe.

To take the survey now, go to:
http://bit.ly/6yXttb.

Thanks in advance for your help and participation.

- Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

P.S. Please help me spread the word about this survey by sharing the survey link with your own network of friends and colleagues. More people will equal more accurate results.

The opinion piece was about the Leno-O’Brien debacle, but in passing he mentioned that one of his neighbors was canceling her daily subscription to the New York Times because it contained typographical errors.

Fast forward a few hours later, and I couldn’t help but notice the number of errors in a web marketing book I was reading. Before you ask, no this wasn’t a self-published book. It was published by a company that’s been in business for the last 23 years. And no, the errors I found weren’t obscure errors that only another writer would notice. This book had numerous, obvious errors — like missing periods at the end of sentences. As I continued to read and encounter errors, I couldn’t help but question the merits of what I was reading.

Of course nobody’s perfect (especially me ), but I’ve always been a stickler for error-free writing because I know I have a tendency to judge people by how well they write.

At the same time, I secretly wonder if text messaging and twittering is turning us into a bunch of illiterates that no longer care.

Yet here on this Saturday, I had two concrete examples where writing errors definitely affected business.

Is it possible that on the surface we say grammar doesn’t matter, when the truth is we subconsciously judge others by their writing?

And if the answer is “yes,” can writing errors hurt or kill business?

To answer these questions, I need your help.

Follow this link to take an informal survey that will take less than 2 minutes to complete. I’ll ask you 5 quick questions, and at the end of the survey you’ll have the option to remain completely anonymous or submit your e-mail to receive survey results.

The survey will remain open until February 28th, and I’ll share my findings in this blog during the March/April timeframe.

To start the survey, click this link or paste this URL into your browser:
http://bit.ly/6yXttb

Thanks in advance for taking the survey and for sharing the survey link with your friends and colleagues.

- Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

From the week of January 4, 2010

2010 Outlook projects increase in tech buying

InformationWeek’s recently published Outlook 2010 indicates good potential for growth in spending on customer-facing projects (45%), apps to support sales (31%), apps or systems to support new or expanded product lines (31%), apps or systems to cut operating costs (27%), apps or systems to support expansion into new markets (26%), data analytics software or strategies to identify growth opportunities (23%). You can download a full copy here: InformationWeek Outlook 2010.

“Green Marketing” on the rise.

According to a recent study published by Environmental Leader and MediaBuyerPlanner, green marketing is more of a trend than a fad. 33% of respondants said their green marketing efforts were more effective than normal marketing efforts. Just 7% thought them less effective. The report summary does not define green marketing, but presumably the term refers to the messaging rather than the tactic. Download an executive summary.

New FTC guidelines for bloggers and advertisers

Word of mouth marketers and those who use advertising endorsements now have a set of disclosure guidelines to follow. Ignore them at your own risk. Read 2010 Heralds New Disclosure Policies for Marketers and Bloggers by Sue Anderson.

For my first blog entry of 2010, I was hoping I could provide an overview of the changes that impact marketers and copywriters, but alas, with an 81-page document, that goal, I fear, is unattainable.

If you’re not interested in the debate that led up to the rulings, skip to page 56 where the final FTC revisions start.

In a nutshell, you’re affected by the revised FTC Guides if you dabble in word-of-mouth marketing or use endorsements in advertising. The revisements do not purport to regulate advertisements, only endorsements, which it defines as:

“any advertising message (including verbal statements, demonstrations, or depictions of the name, signature, likeness or other identifying personal characteristics of an individual or the name or seal of an organization) that consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings, or experiences of a party
other than the sponsoring advertiser, even if the views expressed by that party are identical to those of the sponsoring advertiser. The party whose opinions, beliefs, findings, or experience the message appears to reflect will be called the endorser and may be an individual, group, or institution.”

In terms of enforcement, both endorsements and testimonials will be treated identically.

If you use testimonials, the new ruling states that endorsers “must be bona fide users at the time the endorsement was given,” and that advertisers “may continue to run the advertisement only so long as it has good reason to believe that the endorser remains a bona fide user of the product.”

Word-of-mouth marketers should pay close attention to section 255.5: Disclosure of material connections, starting on page 75. Anyone that participates in a network marketing program is affected, as are bloggers, book reviewers, etc. that receive cash, free/discounted product, or other inkind compensation for reviews and endorsements.

Included are several examples applying the provisions to what the FTC deems “consumer-generated media.” Blogger discussions dominate, but I can see the Guides impacting messages distributed via other social networks like Twitter or Facebook, too.

I can’t claim to fully understand what it will take to comply with the FTC revisions. There’s an awful lot of gray areas, and even the FTC admits they can’t address every possible scenario in the Guides.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with this very important document, and if you are doing something that isn’t cut-and-dried, error on the side of caution and disclose your relationship in an FTC Guides Disclosure Policy. Both advertisers and endorsers are liable, and failure to comply can result in a hefty $11,000 fine.

– Sue Anderson-Lenz

Marketing Lure, Inc.

From the Week of December 7, 2009

Search Engine Marketing Most Important Tool for Small Businesses in 2010

According to a recent study of businesses with fewer than 500 employees conducted by VerticalResponse, the most important tool for small businesses to succeed in 2010 is search engine marketing. These businesses also consider email marketing, public relations and social media cited as crucial for success. A second study by StrongMail found global business leaders agree, with 42% intending to increase spending on search marketing.

Talk of Exclusive News Corp – Bing Deal Continue

Stories continue of Rupert Murdoch’s threat to remove its publications – including the Wall Street Journal – from Google’s search and news pages and provide them exclusively to Bing, which is willing to pay for it. That’s one way for Bing to increase its share of the search market. Read more at The Daily Finance.

US Online Ad Spending Down in 3rd Quarter – or Up

Depending on how you look at it, online ad spending in the US was either down or up in the 3rd quarter. It was down 5.4% from the same period a year ago, but up 1.7% from the 2nd quarter. And Google reports a 7% increase in search revenue. Bottom line – search spending is increasing while other online spending such as banner ads is decreasing. The dip in non-search spending is enough to drop overall online ad spending for the first time since 2002. More at Media Post.

Talk of Exclusive News Corp – Bing Deal Continue

Stories continue of Rupert Murdoch’s threat to remove its publications – including the Wall Street Journal – from Google’s search and news pages and provide them exclusively to Bing, which is willing to pay for it. That’s one way for Bing to increase its share of the search market. Read more at The Daily Finance.

US Online Ad Spending Down in 3rd Quarter – or Up

Depending on how you look at it, online ad spending in the US was either down or up in the 3rd quarter. It was down 5.4% from the same period a year ago, but up 1.7% from the 2nd quarter. And Google reports a 7% increase in search revenue. Bottom line – search spending is increasing while other online spending such as banner ads is decreasing. The dip in non-search spending is enough to drop overall online ad spending for the first time since 2002. More at Media Post.