Track Press ReleasesYou can Track Press releases. That is to say, you can track the leads from your press releases. And you can do it cheaply and easily. This is a useful evaluative technique. How You Do ItLet's say you are announcing a new product. You're using both advertising and public relations vehicles.In advertising, your company has long been using codes to track the leads from your ads. You use a different code for each ad. The code might be a serial number such as 3276 (just like a check number) or a date plus a serial number such as 20091021-012. Or, you are using a separate toll-free number or email address in each ad. If you don't do something similar in PR, then advertising "gets all the credit" for all sales leads that convert to sales. Moreover, you don't get the navigational guidance you need in order to keep improving the impact of your releases. You can correct this situation by including a "for more information" email address or toll-free telephone number at the bottom of the release. This specific email address or telephone number would be for PR only – part of a set of emails/phone numbers reserved only for the PR department. (For this idea, I am indebted to Greg Jarboe, president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization firm. A pioneer of PR measurement in the high-tech world, he was urging marketers to use techniques like this more than two decades ago, when he was at Lotus Development Corporation.) StrengthsIf editors include the email or telephone number in the news coverage (and many editors in the trade publications will), you can track sales leads from your press release.And of course, on the web, many prospects and other interested parties (not just journalists) go directly to your "press" releases for product information. Press releases are now stored online indefinitely, not only on the issuing company's web site, but also by trade publications and blogs (which often publish press releases word for word). When the prospect converts, even several months later, PR can "get the credit" for having brought in that lead. WeaknessesIt takes a little time to set this up. And it uses up a few email addresses (virtually free). It may tie up some 800 numbers (modest cost). But you can avoid that cost by using a telephone extension or a person's name (which can be a pseudonym for this purpose).All in all, this is a great bargain in most situations, even in small companies and in medium and large companies running on tight budgets. So, track press releases that announce products and services – and releases that announce free content such as white papers.
Return from Track Press Releases to Measuring What They Did
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