Can PR Directly Increase Sales Lead Generation?

One of the reasons that I love being involved in PR right now is that the industry is changing so rapidly. PR can be the most powerful generator of sales leads if executives use PR effectively.

At the core of effective PR is a good understanding of the exciting changes in how people are consuming media. The printing press is dying, some people say quickly. Other people like Marc Andreessen say not fast enough. The model of a publisher as an omnipotent organization as portrayed in Citizen Kane is no longer valid in today's world of zero-cost, instant distribution. Sales leads will only come if executives understand how customers are finding their products. Embrace the change and thrive.

People are moving to online search engines to find products. They are using aggregation tools like Google News, specialized blog sites like Technorati, or social networks like Facebook to get the latest news and information. True, people still read the New York Times and their local newspaper. However, they may not read it everyday. People skim through dozens of media sources when they have time. This change in reading habits is great for the consumer since it gives them a wide range of perspectives. It's also great for companies that have a good understanding of how readers now find and distribute information.

My colleague Nadja Blagojevic recently wrote a blog posting on Public Relations Optimized for SEO. She also helped to organize a meeting with a Silicon Valley search engine marketing (SEM) firm that we're partnering with on several accounts. Coming from an entrepreneurial background, I find the process of closed loop marketing, lead generation and lead nurturing fascinating.

Many companies feel the economy is about to slow down and are taking a hard look at their marketing budgets. It's an excellent opportunity to assess what will generate sales leads over the next two years. Hopefully, the economic downturn will work as a forcing function to help executives build leaner and more efficient businesses.

Over the last five years, I've continually tried to integrate PR into the business processes of the Silicon Valley companies I've worked with. In my heart, I'm an entrepreneur and enjoy talking to other entrepreneurs about making new products and making money. In the last year, we've really seen companies open up their business processes to us.

Here are just some of the changes I'm seeing:


Google Analytics - The majority of our clients use Google Analytics. Many of them give us login access to directly view reports. We can now assess the effectiveness of PR campaigns in driving traffic to their web site and also see if there is a trend to increase traffic to product information sections or the contact section.

Google AdWords - As part of our messaging and positioning work, we now ask clients what keywords they are buying for Google AdWords. Most clients buy AdWords and know which words are directing traffic to their site. Using other tools, they can also drill down and see which keywords result in high quality sales leads. As part of their integrated marketing plan, PR often helps to push these keywords out to the public.

Web Site Interaction - In many integrated marketing campaigns, our clients are trying to achieve a higher level of interaction. They're trying to get a registered download of a whitepaper or free version of a product, registration in a online technical community, anonymous voting, or online button clicks.

Intentional Information Leaks - Some companies are starting to release information to the online community first and then issue a press release. Although the technique is still new and being developed, some technology executives are putting incomplete information out on blogs or Twitter before official announcements. Due to the speed requirements of online blogging, there are usually no delays with fact-checking or interviews. I've often seen a buzz cycle develop online in blogs, Twitter, and even Wikipedia in advance of a product launch and then really start to gain momentum when the full product specifications appear in a press release. Part of the reason for this strategy might be that the bloggers and people in the online community are the most passionate about the product and might be the best candidates for early product buys.

As an entrepreneur, I find all these changes exciting. It warms my heart to see companies leveraging new PR techniques to generate sales leads. This is one of the reasons Lonn Johnston and I left the entrepreneurial world and started a PR firm. The PR firms we were hiring five years ago were not integrated into the process of helping companies reach business objectives. After seeing the carnage of the dot-com bust, we knew that there was a better way to do PR, going beyond hype machines and working toward supporting the achievements of business goals. It seems that other people see the same thing too.

Manresa Surfing and Camping

I camped at Manresa beach south of Santa Cruz this past weekend. Manresa is a beach break, which means that there is no channel for an easy paddle out. After powering through the shore break with my son, we got to the lineup and started to gaze out at the waves. My son drifted south of me and paddled into the biggest wave of the day. He made the wave and the drop, but fell off the board on the bottom turn when the lip of the wave crashed into foam at his feet. The wave tumbled him toward shore for about 10 yards and released its hold on him just in time for him to get to his board as the next wave in the set crashed down, pushing him under the water again and shooting his surfboard straight up into the air. My wife tried to take a picture of him riding the wave, but only got a shot of the board in the air. It looks grim.

He eventually made it back out and started catching more waves.

With the crash of the stock market last week and forecasts of doom and gloom from Sequoia Capital, I thought that catching, riding, and sometimes wiping out on a wave might be a good analogy to the life of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

Catching a wave can be divided into several components:

Getting to the lineup. Surfable waves are formed a little bit further from shore than the shorebreak. To get to the lineup, the surfer must pass the shorebreak and whitewash. This can be so difficult that sometimes we can't get to the place where the waves are forming. Sometimes, we have to paddle back in without getting a session in. The technology entrepreneur must be in the right place at the right time. It may be hard to get there.

Selecting the wave. What non-surfers don't realize is that riding the wave is not that difficult. Once you're up, it is like skateboarding or snowboarding. The big problem with surfing is selecting the wave that will form at the right location for you. Kids, dogs, and people with no experience can usually get up on the board, ride, and turn it if the conditions are mild and someone selects the wave for them. If you try to catch the wave too early, it will pass under you and not develop enough force to push the board forward. If you catch the wave too late, you might fall off the board.

Getting going. There are moments in life that are critical. The pop-up or time when a person stands up and gets going is critical. Those first few seconds when a person transitions from lying down to standing up is a crucial moment that sets up the entire ride of the wave. Make the pop-up and the rest of the ride is relatively easy, still challenging, but easier. In startup businesses, the first year of a company is the toughest. To really get the revenue going and to start a sustainable business is the crucial moment. The rest is so much easier.


Kicking out. At the end of the ride, it's important to kick out or at least get off the board before getting pushed toward shore back into the shore break. Riding the wave too long might result in a pounding near the shore. The water is smoother and friendlier outside at the lineup.

When I was in Japan in my early twenties, I saw a technology wave and I sprinted to catch it. On a cold fall day in mid-October of 1994, I became the second person in Japan to access the public Internet. It changed my life and became a defining moment that I think about 14 years later. Japan had fallen from its economic heights of the late 1980s. The Nikkei stock index has yet to recover. Perhaps it was because I was from the US that I saw the wave so clearly. Certainly, Silicon Valley was buzzing with the Internet. By 1998, the Nikkei stock index was even lower. It didn't really matter. My ride was over. We sold the company in Tokyo to PSINet for a nice sum of money and I paddled back out for another wave, this time in Silicon Valley.

I don't believe that technology waves are dependent on a booming stock market. Ultimately, I don't agree with the Sequoia presentation. Waves will always come. Some people will always be able to see the wave and through either luck, placement, or knowledge will be able to catch them. Of the people that catch the wave, some of them will be able to ride it all the way to a glorious kick-out and paddle back out to try and catch another one.