Comments on Social Media Surfer @ LEWIS Pulse: Can PR Directly Increase Sales Lead Generation?

Sales lead generationSales lead generation services and outsourced telemarketing services provided by a specialist sales lead generation company and telemarketing agency offering sales lead generation telemarketing services.

We agree on almost every point here. Too many PR ...

2008-11-10T11:21:00.000-08:00

We agree on almost every point here. Too many PR efforts out there are just about nebulous "noise" goals ... and aren't concerned enough about getting the right kind of noise. If the publicity goal is simply to get *anyone* to visit a web page, then that suggests the marketing and PR folks aren't really taking the sales goals to heart. It's not about # of clips, spikes in web site traffic and Alexa rankings - it's about sales. There have been many, many IT vendors over the last ten years that had tremendous #'s of clips, web traffic and site visitation and then flamed out tremendously.

The fact that all these new methods of analysis are available is exciting. And tech PR folks should be spending almost as much time getting their hands dirty with these new technologies as they are publicizing their clients' technologies.

I agree that Compete.com is extremely misleading - I have very little respect for their stats. I also think that Alexa is extremely easy to manipulate, and that it has way too much perceived credibility. I tried Quantcast and didn't find it very helpful. Google Analytics I find extremely reliable and useful - I just wish they had a public version (that in the same way as Alexa lets you see stats for sites other than those you've been permissioned in).

I haven't used Meltwater, LoopFuse, Marketo or Eloqua ... but based on what I have seen so far a lot of the "share of voice" and "sentiment" types of coverage overlays I have found to be very vaporous and not very scientific. The idea that you can write algorithms that auto-generate sentiment maps on top of coverage is laughable - it implies a level of "semantic" / "AI" machine interpretation that currently is not very reliable. Reuters has been pushing these semantic notions with things like Open Calais (http://www.opencalais.com/), and supposedly we've been on the cusp of machine interpretation of text for quite some time. But these things are only as good as the ontologies / taxonomies that they run on top of. And based on what I've seen so far in the existing IT taxonomies / ontologies - there is nothing out there that can match the insight / intelligence of a human being with actual experience in the IT industry. Deep Blue couldn't beat Kasparov at first, and the chess board has only 64 boxes in it. The IT industry has hundreds of thousands of themes and technology pieces, and there is no system out there that can analyze huge blocks of content and accurately apply sentiments or significance. I think it's very exciting what these new semantic technologies are exploring WRT text mining ... I just wish they'd be a little more frank about what they are currently good at versus their vision for the future, because a lot of it really is just hot air.

The other thing that I've experienced with the publicity metrics tools I've seen so far is that they are missing huge volumes of publications and authors that matter. They don't tell you what your share of voice is - they tell you what your share of voice within THEIR universe of tracked authors and content. Quite a difference between those two notions. And again - there is some misrepresentation about the scope of service, and it's a disservice to clients who think they're getting some holistic catch-all when they're only seeing a partial view.

It will be interesting to see how things progress. I think a lot of these current approaches have some serious flaws (with the exception of Google Analytics, which I think is fantastic). But obviously I can't criticize those tools that I've never even seen, so I will continue to look out for your commentary to lead me in the right direction.

Travis, thank you for taking the time to read the ...

2008-11-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

Travis, thank you for taking the time to read the blog and express your thoughts.

One of the really interesting things that I've learned from my research into SEO techniques is that PR firms can take responsibility for what type of traffic is being pushed to the web site for the product. Too many PR people have too much pride in tier-1 article placements in WSJ, NYT, or the Economist and ignore what the impact of this placement is on lead generation. We should be more focused on how the product is positioned in the article, what type of person reads the article and what action they take after reading the article. Obviously, a tier-1 placement is awesome, but I think we need to take a balanced view of the value. Sales leads, web site traffic, and article mentions are all good. I believe that the PR people need to work with the SEO, advertisement, and web site people. If we all feel responsibility for sales lead generation, then we'll force ourselves to work together and deliver a better service for our clients.

I agree with you that it is a shared responsibility with the organization that develops the web site. However, I think that PR people often take too much of a hands-off approach. We say, "sure we can bring'um to the web site, but then it's up to the web site to convert." While I agree with this to a large extent, I'm no longer in complete agreement.

I want to be the type of PR person that understands how the client gets leads and where the problems occur. I want to get access to their Google Analytics and tools like LoopFuse, Marketo, or Eloqua. I don't think I'll be able to affect everything. I don't think the client is going to turn their web site design over to a PR firm. However, I do think that an understanding of the sales lead process will make my PR better.

At the end of the day, I'm looking to provide a better service to our clients. I think that the current economy will be a great opportunity to improve PR services across the industry.

I think the concept of a "lead" is so multi-dimens...

2008-11-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

I think the concept of a "lead" is so multi-dimensional that it's often hard to boil down what to credit / blame when you do / don't get leads. Certainly the bread crumbs that lead a potential customer to a web site deserve a lot of respect - and I think that's PR's most obvious role in the lead-gen effort. But once the potential customer has arrived at the web site, if the intrigue and authenticity of the content / design are totally lacking, they are going to disappear back into the night. So whose fault is that? PR? Marketing? Sales? All three?

I've generally been baffled at how unimaginative most IT vendors' web sites are. Now that I'm trying to build a product and running around with my hair on fire I'm definitely more aware of how easy it is for something so important to slip through the cracks when time / money are so fleeting.

But seriously - look at the mismatch between consumer-oriented sites and B2B-oriented web sites. I have a buddy who has done a lot of design for record co's like OM Records (http://www.om-records.com/), a small label in San Francisco. They do a lot of cool design stuff with Flash and create these really unique, immersive experiences for their users. And whenever one of their artists comes out with something big they come up with a section on their site that really does it justice. Look and feel seems to be a starting point, rather than something that's just slapped on at the end.

By contrast, most tech vendors are running plain old HTML template web sites with one or two PHP sign up forms and some lame VIZIO product graphics. Where is the creativity? Why is it that in the consumer world cool sites are the price of admission, but in B2B IT, they are the exception? It's ESPECIALLY unforgivable considering how many of the IT vendors whose sites suck the worst are huffing and puffing about the frontiers of new technology.

I think the ad agency's notion of a creative director needs to be brought into integrated marketing / publicity campaigns. The starting point should be really understanding the target audience and creating an amazing experience at the landing page. And *then* the marketing and PR lead- gen efforts (and how audiences are driven to that page) should be the focus. Too many folks out there seem to think that web site traffic automatically equals leads. I think the opportunity cost of driving people to a crappy web site (which I myself am currently guilty of since I just have an awful placeholder up, by the way) needs to be weighed more in discussions about lead gen.

John thanks for your comment. It seems to me like...

2008-11-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

John thanks for your comment. It seems to me like PR agencies are in a good position to take advantage of the changes in marketing. At our core, we develop a messaging platform and bring it out through channels. These messages are often reused in SEO and ad campaigns.

Do you work for a PR firm? I clicked on your name and couldn't get access to your profile. It sounds like your ideas are similar to mine and I would like to exchange more opinions on how PR firms can adapt to the changing marketplace.

Lead Gen is a good place to start the conversation...

2008-11-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

Lead Gen is a good place to start the conversation, but I would agree that actual value/vision of what you are talking about here is much higher level.

“Sales lead generation" is, in the end, almost too general to even be useful as way to get at what an integrated search/PR strategy can do. This is because sales lead generation is the ENTIRE business function – and makes up the brand, the messaging, the differentiation and is backed up by ALL the processes that engender somebody paying your for something.
Differentiation and competitive advantage has historically been derived through OWNING language – and now the game has changed and you need to own not only advertising and media language, but SEARCH language. If you don’t own search language, you will not be first to market, you will not be first in your market, and you cannot sustain competitive advantage. This is true of any new company, or any company that needs to build market share in some new space.
So what types of companies historically have the capabilities to help other companies with language/communication? That’s right – PR agencies! So, imho, PR agencies that have traditionally been strong on the strategy side of their practice will do very well to add the search capability.

Great post, Craig. I'm enjoying the new dynamics o...

2008-10-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

Great post, Craig. I'm enjoying the new dynamics of PR and learning more and more all the time!

Perry, thanks for the comment. I completely agree...

2008-10-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

Perry, thanks for the comment. I completely agree with you that PR is just part of the process to boost sales leads. What I find exciting is that we're starting to get more involved in the process. The PR team can be helpful in creating the marketing assets used in drip marketing.

Do you work for a firm that specializes in lead analysis? I would like to hear more about what you do.

Yes, I really believe that PR can boost your sales...

2008-10-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, I really believe that PR can boost your sales leads. However, you should depend on it alone. There are still a lot of things that you have to do in order to make sure that you can maximize your leads. Besides performing lead analytics, you also have to track and nurture them, perhaps through a process called drip marketing.