What are your PR and marketing goals? (ps: "clips" = wrong answer!)

Ever seen "press clips" or "advertising awards" on a company's balance sheet? Of course not because clips and awards are not company goals.

Effective web marketing and PR delivers compelling content to buyers and drives action. Companies that understand the new rules of marketing and PR have a clearly defined business goal – to get qualified leads for the sales team, to sell products, to generate contributions, to get people to vote or join.

Successful organizations aren't focused on the wrong goals, things like press clips and advertising awards. At successful organizations, news releases, blogs, web sites, podcasts and other content draw visitors into the sales-consideration cycle, then funnels them towards the place where action occurs. When content effectively drives action, the next step of the sales process – an e-commerce company’s "products" button, the B2B corporation's "please contact us" form, or non-profit's "donate" link – are easily found.

On the speaking circuit, I have noticed that many traditional PR pros and ad guys are uncomfortable working toward real business goals. I get folded arms and tight-lipped stares when I talk about real company goals.

How about you?

Here's how to tell if the new rules are right for you. You need to consider your goals for communicating via marketing and public relations. Why are you advertising? Is the reason you are doing that Super Bowl ad to score great tickets to the game? Are you doing a creative magazine ad to win an award for your agency?

And why are you doing PR? Is the reason you're doing PR to create a book of press clips from mainstream media outlets to show your bosses? Is the reason you're doing PR because the CEO wants to be on TV? Are you doing PR to meet Oprah?

If the answers to these questions are "yes," then the new rules (and my book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" that I am writing via this blog) are not for you.

However, if you are focused on your organization’s real goals, then please jump in and help me write my new book over the next months!

Comments

[Melanie Surplice]

Hi David,

I agree that marketing must be more than just about events and advertisements and that PR should be more than just press releases and clips. It's got to be about driving real business outcomes.

We spend quite a bit of time here at Factiva debating internally how we can demonstrate the value of PR to the business: how we can support our organisation's goals, which as you point out, do not include "Generating great media coverage in the world's business media".

Of course I get a sense of satisfaction when I see a positive clip about Factiva in a Tier 1 target publication, or when I think about how in the last 18 months, we've built a program that pretty much guarantees coverage about Factiva in some of the world's most influencial business media each month.

But I get far greater satisfaction when a sales person calls me to say that a clip about Factiva helped him/her to either get a first appointment with an elusive VP, or better still, that it helped him/her to close a sale.

It's why my marketing colleagues and I regularly attend sales meetings - we have to know what's going on out in the field and what we can do to help our organisation engage with the right publics.

We certainly don't have all the answers. I think part of it is a symptom of the PR industry not being able to agree on a uniform way of measuring and evaluating PR outcomes, or proving ROI - and also a legacy of a view that saw PR as a function that simply sent out press releases.

Times are definitely a changin. I'm looking forward to seeing what tips you can provide in your book.

Cheers,
Melanie
Factiva PR

[David Meerman Scott]

Right on Melanie.

It sounds like you are definately aligned with organizational goals. And good on you for also monitoring blogs like this one. No, Web Ink Now is not a "tier 1 pub." But 1000 or so smart marketers read this blog and now they know about Factiva. Keep it up!

David

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