Like the gift that keeps on giving, public relations has a shelf life beyond the initial contract period. In that sense, it is like a stock: you invest in the equity because you expect it to increase in value and pay dividends over time.
In addition to exposure generated by articles, PR delivers a number of benefits:
- Better search results. Positive exposure in the media expands keyword search results. After a year of solid media relations, one of our clients went from page 18 on Google to page 1.
- A shorter sales cycle. Greater awareness of your company can significantly shorter a sales cycle and make prospecting easier.
- Material for content marketing. Good articles make terrific content for blogs, social media and other channels.
- Exposure to analysts and conference coordinators. Being quoted frequently in articles and contributing byline articles raises the exposure of both companies and executives. This is especially important in industries that are covered by analysts and for companies wanting to score speaking invitations.
- A history for awards applications. Most business awards ask about thought leadership. PR gives executives a bank of articles that can demonstrate this.
- A ticket to future article opportunities. Executives who can deliver a good interview and meet a reporter’s deadline, will make it to a short list of trusted sources. This in turn leads to even more media opportunities.
Finally, don’t get discouraged if an interview doesn’t amount to anything. Chances are the reporter will use your comments at some time.
Recently, a client did a strong interview with a high profile reporter for a national publication and he was anxious to see the results. Time went by and the reporter never wrote about the topic. Finally, nearly a year after the interview took place, our client was featured in a story written by the reporter.