Web analytics are still almost completely ignored or misunderstood by (most) public relations professionals. If you have a PR firm, I\u2019d love to hear what data they report, and better yet, how they\u2019re using it to make decisions.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m willing to bet the majority of agencies and client-side PR pros aren\u2019t\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0paying attention to their web analytics packages, establishing conversion goals and deftly slicing and dicing data via advanced segments.<\/p>\n While at the digital agency, I had access to reports from a variety of PR firms: boutique to massive. And I was in shock looking at what metrics most of them reported (or didn\u2019t report). That was actually one of the reasons I was compelled to leave the pure digital consultancy and join\u00a0LEWIS PR, a firm which runs both digital-specific and traditional PR programs. As a data geek I was excited for what could be unlocked on both sides of the spectrum.<\/p>\n At LEWIS, we use web, search and social analytics in some interesting ways for clients. I\u2019m not going to share all of them today because the specific mix of metrics you use to trend results and make decisions is going to be different for each brand. But I will share a few to get you thinking.<\/p>\n 1. Referring sources (high traffic and conversion)<\/strong><\/p>\n This is\u00a0ridiculously\u00a0simple to report and use to make decisions. You can do this right now. Just log into Google Analytics \/ Omniture (if your PR firm \/ team doesn\u2019t have access: wow, just wow) and access referring sources.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s have a look with a sample site \u2013 I\u2019ve circled the media sending the site traffic:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If more media placements\u00a0that send web traffic<\/em>\u00a0is a goal, all you need to do next is analyze\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0they linked to and\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0they linked there by slicing \/ dicing the data. From there, you can easily see what content you created that was successful at attracting traffic from media.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy from there to get iterative and create the next version of that piece of content. Or, maybe a guest post you drafted is sending lots of good traffic. Now you know it\u2019s worth the time to craft another one for that site. Or go back to your media database to do more research and approach other sites in the same vein. Rinse, repeat and build\u00a0sustainable returns\u00a0on referral traffic and links.<\/p>\n But why stop at visits? PR people can now go deeper \u2013 why not also look at what types of media convert highly, then refine your outreach accordingly?<\/p>\n With goals setup, you can easily see how well organic media traffic converts based on each goal:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And remember,\u00a0everyone<\/em>\u00a0can get to conversion, even if you\u2019re not directly selling anything on your website. If you can\u2019t do this, it means you\u2019re not trying hard enough.<\/p>\n 2. Branded search engine traffic<\/strong><\/p>\n Your SEO and inbound marketing team\u00a0should be<\/em>\u00a0focused on increasing non-branded traffic specifically. Savvy PR teams are also celebrating success here and fleshing out unique, useful and updated content on client (or their brand) websites \/ blogs to\u00a0create long term value.<\/p>\n But even if your PR team hasn\u2019t ever touched your website, they should be reporting on and showing the impact of their efforts on branded search engine traffic. This is a metric multiple teams can celebrate and use as an indicator of program success. It\u2019s really simple: setup an advanced segment in analytics that includes\u00a0the brand name \/ permutations. Now every month, you can trend brand awareness along with other key metrics and see how things shake out:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Of course, search engine brand awareness is\u00a0just one<\/em>\u00a0indicator of success for building a brand, but it\u2019s a pretty good one based on current user behavior and should be standard in marketing and PR dashboards.<\/p>\n 3. Inbound links<\/strong><\/p>\n Most PR firms know to put inbound links in press releases. Some even understand to use anchor text links that follow an SEO sitemap and help provide context to search engines (and users). But few actually\u00a0track<\/em>\u00a0link metrics (volume, diversity and quality) let alone use link data to inform decision making. Sad in both cases because for many, a PR firm is their number 1 link \/ social signal generator. In nearly all cases though, they\u2019re building this all too critical equity blindly.<\/p>\n Tools like SEOmoz\u00a0Open Site Explorer\u00a0or\u00a0Majestic SEO\u00a0are aimed at search engine optimization professionals, but there is a wealth of information for PR professionals as well: both to prove success of programs\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0conduct research (have you actually looked at your competitor\u2019s link profile?).<\/p>\n These are\u00a0just 3<\/em>\u00a0examples of metrics PR pros should be using. And that\u2019s the point, there is so much more I don\u2019t have enough time to go through it all in one post.<\/p>\n Your PR team should no longer be operating in the dark: they should be equally as\u00a0data-driven\u00a0as any of your other marketing groups.\u00a0Sophisticated PR pros are already here: reporting on a specific mix of metrics and using them to show results and make decisions. If your team isn\u2019t, it means\u00a0they\u2019re late<\/em>. Get them up to speed today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Web analytics are still almost completely ignored or misunderstood by (most) public relations professionals. If you have a PR firm, … <\/p>\n