News Releases, Media Exposure, SEO and More Business--How Does It Really Work?
Many companies, marketers, and influencers are trying to find the golden goose with Public Relations--after all, 20% of the entire market cap is based on goodwill (reputation)--so, it bears explanation as to WHY. Karla Jo Helms, CEO of JOTO PR Disruptors™, explains the phenomena with real-world case studies and why, without knowing the rationale behind the metrics and ROI, practitioners will blindly apply tactics to "game the system."
TAMPA BAY, Fla., Nov. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Public Relations may be hard to define or understand as it works in the realm of thought. In the end, you are changing minds—so the battlefield to conquer is the human mind.(1) This is hard to grasp for many executives and CMOs who are mired down in tactics, stats, and lead funnels. But if a key principle is underlying the entire foundation of these tactics, then it bears exploiting WHY. All stats, algorithms and methods bend to the will of a main tenet—it's the size of your targeted exposure and the number of repetitions to it that determine your ROI. "Businesspeople should never underestimate the value of broad, targeted PR dissemination. When done correctly, you will generate more leads, more business, and a higher ROI for your marketing dollars," said Karla Jo Helms, Chief Strategist and CEO of JoTo PR Disruptors.(2)
For those stuck in the function, take a look at how conquering the court of public opinion (the realm of thought) works with mathematics—a case study of real-world PR ROI. Four companies with fast trajectory plans, marketing, and sales processes in place. Add a new factor: Public Relations. Here's how different industries with different PR strategies and media algorithms increased their return on investment.
Case #1: Unrelenting Expansion—The Case of a FinTech Company(3)
Campaign deliverables with custom Strategic Plan:
- 24 news releases per year
- 8 additional media stories per month per year, on average
The FinTech Company obtained eight-plus media placements (e.g. articles, interviews, and TV/radio segments) per average each month for four consecutive years. This equated to an exposure aggregate of 539,495,046 unique views. Per industry standard, you can expect 2.5%, or 13,487,376 people, to have read the articles or have seen, or listened to, the news clips.
ROI:
- Revenue and Company 3-Year Growth: 679%
- Revenue: $16 million
- Jobs Added: 320
- Search engine dominance
Case #2: Temporary Interruption in Consistency—The Case of a Hi-Tech Company(3)
Campaign deliverables with custom Strategic Plan:
- 12 news releases per year
- 5 additional media stories per month per year, on average
In two years, this Hi-Tech Company averaged five published media stories a month for a total of more than 150 earned media news stories and interviews published.
These efforts earned an exposure aggregate of 230 million potential views within mainstream media, business, technology and various trade publications, radio programs, and popular news websites. Based on that aggregate and the expected industry standard of 2.5% for actual views, 5.8 million of their target audience (i.e. prospects) read or listened to these media placements.
ROI:
- Revenues doubled YOY from year one to two;
- 119% increase in leads from year one to year two.
Temporary hit:
Then COVID-19 struck, executive leadership contracted the virus, unable to give media interviews for three months. Exposure dipped in those months.
COVID-19 Interim Results:
Google instantly noticed the drop in consistent media coverage for one full quarter of 2020. Because new major and industry publications were not found when Google crawled the internet, that affect Google's indexing of the company's prior media links, which "disappeared" as well. Income dipped two months later.
Case #3: Wrong Sequence of Expansion Exercised—The Case of a Healthcare Company(3)
Campaign deliverables with custom Strategic Plan:
- 18 news releases per year
- 3 additional media stories per month per year, on average
Three years of monthly press releases, three media stories published per month in key industry, regional and targeted consumer publications for a total of 32,791,066 media circulation exposure, with 2.5% of the total targeted readership being 655,821.
ROI:
- 3-Year Growth: 97%
- Revenue: $5 million
- Jobs Added: 26
- 18% higher ROI from their marketing dollars (including SEO)
- The number of visitors to their website grew by 100%
Cutbacks:
On the fourth year, the company overexpanded into new facilities that constrained their capital, so they did the age-old erroneous economizing tactic of cutting their marketing budget. They decided to cut back their press releases while trying to keep their media stories (TV, radio, digital print) in a high range.
Cutback Results:
Impressions were knocked down because of lowered number of press releases: a 528,000,000 drop despite published earned media stories remaining high. At the end of the fourth year, the company's income flat-lined rather than increase like in the other five years.
Note Bene: It does not pay to decrease exposure to "help" expansion.
Correct sequence:
Promote first and foremost in a setback or crisis. Otherwise, you will not be able to economize or cut back on income you don't have.
Case #4: Back on Top After a Decade of Anonymity—The Case of an Enterprise Tech Company(2)
Campaign deliverables with custom Strategic Plan:
- 24 news releases per year
- 10 additional media stories per month per year
The company has a 30-year history. For 20 years, they were at the top of their industry with relationships and a hefty referral association with a global corporation. In the last decade, they did not maintain their reputational position and had declined due to not understating how to maintain power with PR.
Determined to get back on top, they started PR again.
Campaign deliverables with custom Strategic Plan:
- 24 news releases per year
- 5 additional media stories per month per year
During their two-year campaign, the Enterprise Tech Company achieved a total of more than 125 placements in precisely targeted media outlets including many industry-specific publications, podcasts, and television news.
This amounted to an exposure aggregate of more than 440 million potential views within industry-specific IT publications and popular business websites. Based on that aggregate and the expected industry standard of 2.5% for actual views, more than 11 million of their targeted decision-makers (i.e. prospects) read, listened to, or saw these news stories which were reaching more of the core of their audience.
ROI:
- Revenues increased by 19% from year one to year two.
- New business close ratio up 5% from the previous year.
- Grew the number of impressions by 50% with more click-throughs to sign up for webinars, view videos, landing pages, blogs, and articles.
Bonus:
Another interesting note is that Google rewarded them by re-indexing and logging all past publicity from 10+ years back, plus their new publicity—putting them back on top of credible exposure.
The Intelligent Promotion Lifecyle(TM) is three parts—PR > Marketing > Sales. High-credibility third-party exposure equates to more overall business— it's mathematical. PR starts the fire. Marketing fans the flame. Sales CLOSES and reaps the rewards.
According to JoTo PR, the company size, their expansion goals, and growth trajectory determine the estimation of the effort of a campaign.
"One must accurately calculate every project from the standpoint of getting a better return on investment for one's marketing dollars. High credibility exposure makes [your audiences] more comfortable and more interested in doing business with you," said Helms. "Without knowing the math, you could be just short of hitting the vein of gold."
About JOTO PR Disruptors™
After doing marketing research on a cross-section majority of 5,000 CEOs of fast-growth trajectory companies and finding out exactly how they used PR, how they measure it and how they wanted the PR industry to be different, PR veteran and innovator Karla Jo Helms created JoTo PR and established its entire business model on those research findings. Astute in recognizing industry changes since its launch in 2009, JoTo PR's team utilizes newly established patterns to create timely PR campaigns comprising both traditional and the latest proven media methods. This unique skill enables them to continue to increase the market share and improve return on investment (ROI) for their clients, year after year—beating usual industry standards. Based in Tampa Bay, Florida, JoTo PR is an established international public relations agency. Today, all processes of JoTo are streamlined PR services that have become the hallmark of the JoTo PR name. For more information, visit JoTo PR online at http://www.jotopr.com
About Karla Jo Helms
Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR Strategist for JoTo PR. She learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the line—and how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen, or another is brutally rejected. Being an alumni of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators and the media to help restore companies of goodwill back into the good graces of public opinion—Karla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances, and doing what it takes to excel. Karla Jo has patterned her agency on the perfect balance of crisis management, entrepreneurial insight and proven public relations experience. She speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of PR to drive markets and impact market perception.
1. (1988), "The Mind Is the Ultimate Battlefield: An Interview with Master Marketer Al Ries", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 4-7. doi.org/10.1108/eb039233
2. Helms, Karla Jo; "Public Relations: Influencer Pyramid," e-book, copyright 2013; jotopr.com.
3. JOTO PR Disruptors; PR case studies et al. 2014-2020.
Media Contact
Karla Jo Helms, JOTO PR Disruptors, 727-777-4621, [email protected]
Daniel Mutter, JOTO PR Disruptors, 727-777-4621, [email protected]
SOURCE JOTO PR Disruptors
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