1. How to win new business with online PR & social media

2. Agenda
1. Tactics & tools
– Social media outreach (blogs, Twitter, social networks, forums, podcasts)
– Video
– Widgets
– SEO PR
2. Measurement & evaluation to demonstrate ROI
3. Overview of potential packaged services
– Creative campaigns
– Amplification
– Online press office
– SEO PR
4. New business development
– Lead generation
– Qualification
– Pitching
– Budgeting & pricing

3. My background

4. My background

5. My background

6. Brands

7. Agencies

8. My background

9. My background

10. Tactics & tools

11. Blogs

12. Overview
• Matured - blogging has now matured
as a phenomenon to cross all
consumer interest areas
• Extensive - vibrant communities can
be found collecting around vast
ranges of topics
• Culture - blogger outreach carries
with it different expectancies in
regards to form of communications
than traditional media

13. Consumer

14. B2B

15. Technology

16. Finance

17. Healthcare

18. Regional

19. Regional

20. Opportunity
• ‘Link etiquette’ of the blogging world encourages quick viral
dissemination of well-targeted stories and engaging content
• SEO - this ‘link etiquette’ is also responsible for blogs faring extremely
well in search returns – ranking highly in Google
– As a result, blog posts can be extremely visible and influential
– Impacting consumer opinion
– Driving mainstream coverage
• Brand advocates - the highly focused nature of blogs – with bloggers
becoming passionate opinion formers on very specific topics – offers
distinct opportunity to encourage strong advocates of a product or service

21. Case study - Beck’s Canvas

22. Case study - Beck’s Canvas
Key Outputs
• Over 120 pieces of online coverage
achieved
• 40,148,733 unique users
• £257,000 equivalent online media
value
• ROI – 9:1

23. Blogger events

24. Overview
• Blogger events can be run in a very similar way to media events
• These can either be run in tandem with mainstream media events or
independently
• Successful blogger events tend to adopt very tailored methods of syncing
specific elements of an event to bloggers’ personal tastes

25. Opportunity
• With bloggers currently not invited
to a large number of events, they
offer a powerful means by which
to build strong relationships and
brand advocates
• Face-to-face time allows impact to
be made far beyond that possible
during normal email
communications
• Following blogger events,
bloggers frequently post detailed
and well-branded reviews and
posts

26. Case study - Panasonic

27. Case study – Panasonic
• 52 pieces of coverage
• Equivalent Advertising Value of
£91,800
• 94% of sites mention Panasonic
• 71% of sites link to
NextGenerationTalent.co.uk
• 42% of sites linked to or embedded
videos

28. Case study - Smirnoff
• Popular London ‘Blogger Meet-
up’ event sponsored by Smirnoff
• Two Smirnoff ‘mixologists’
placed at bar
• Profile book designed with
detailed background information
on all of the blogger invitees
• Special cocktail design for each
blogger: for example Fake
Plastic Noodles received a
cocktail infused with twisted
lemon skins for noodles

29. Twitter

30. Overview
• UK lead - over the past year Twitter has
grown hugely in the UK to overtake the
US in terms of take-up
• Extensive - the similarity to texts and the
brief, quick nature of posts have
resonated strongly with UK consumers,
now spanning many demographic groups
and interest areas
• Complements blogging - Twitter now
has found a place alongside blogging,
where it is used to share quick views and
opinions. Blogging instead is used for
more detailed descriptions and analysis

31. Regional

32. Opportunity
• Influential hubs - the culture of people on Twitter ‘following’ others that
they find interesting has created a number of very influential hubs
• ‘Twitter Elite’ now hold considerable sway, with their posts being seen by
thousands of people instantly
• Viral - the medium, like blogging, also lends itself extremely well to quick
dissemination of news. If a person following a Twitter user likes a post,
they can ‘ReTweet’ further increasing the audience base that the
message reaches

33. Case study - Zappos
How?
• Full Twitter engagement campaign
using only Twitter
• CEO Tweets regularly personally
and professionally
• Sponsor ‘Follower building’
competitions
• Twitter micro-site
Results?
• Over 106,000 followers
• 442 employee Tweeple
• Increase in buzz
• Return on sales

34. Social networks

36. • Targeted ads – displays ads solely on users meeting the demographic
profile requested
• Partner campaigns - special pages are designed to hold communities
around specific topics
• Traditional PR activity - Facebook is a notoriously hard environment to
engage directly with consumer as a result of its closed nature (you have to
be friends with someone to see their full details)
• Facebook groups - the most accessible way to engage with communities
of people on Facebook– either by setting one up or through engagement
in groups already existing

37. Case study – Road to V

38. Case study – O2

39. • Drop in users - MySpace’s user base in
recent years has dropped significantly as
a result of the rise of Facebook and Bebo
• Music - the profile now of MySpace
users is now very music-focused
• Targeted ads - much like on Facebook,
targeted ads can be run on MySpace, set
to appear only on profile pages of users
that fit within a certain demographic
profile
• Open - MySpace is based on a far more
open environment than Facebook, and
therefore enables far more extensive
engagement

40. Case study – Road to V

41. • What is it?
– Photo storage and photo
sharing community
• How does it work?
– Users upload photos, tag
them and/or submit them to
groups
• Importance of tagging
– Allows search functionality
– SEO visibility through
Google and Google Image

42. • DIY - an open social network platform
that allows you to easily create your own
social network
• Flexibility - this can be designed to
focus upon any topic imaginable
• Numbers - currently over 1 million
individual networks have been created
on Ning – by companies and individuals
alike
• Functionality - Ning easily incorporates
all of the features commonly available
today on social networks – including
multimedia content, and easy sharing of
opinion and views

43. Opportunity
• Control- Ning offers
complete control over who
can join a social network and
what they can do when they
are part of it
• Moderation - constraints can
thus be placed on the age of
participants
• Targeted - opportunity to
create niche networks that
are designed to complement
other marketing initiatives

44. Social bookmarking
• Distribution - A powerful way
for stories to disseminate
online
• Tags - Users ‘tag’ stories they
find interesting
• Easy access - The URL for
the story is saved on the web,
for easy future finding (online
bookmarking)

45. Social bookmarking
• Online influence - Very
popular with news hungry
web geeks
• Community - People
follow friends ‘feeds’, and
are kept up-to-date with
stories they find
interesting
• Comments – People
comment and share views
on stories
• Traffic – can be a major
source of traffic to
websites online

46. Social bookmarking
• User-generated news
website
• No editor
• Ranking of stories
decided by community
• A central group of a
1000 or so users
command great
influence
• Major traffic driver online
• SEO boost

47. Forums

48. Overview
• Well-established - forum communities were the first form of
social media to take-off on the web
• Community - completely driven by community posts
• ‘Forum Master’ - oversees content moderation
• Threads - are either initiated by the Forum Master or by the user
community
• Consumer research – very popular with consumers when
researching complex topics or making purchasing decisions
• Opinion-formers –most forums provide information on the
activity of its users:
– Number of posts
– Number of threads

51. Opportunity & constraints
• Seeding – in the not too distant past,
forums were a popular medium for viral
marketers
• Legal constrictions – changes in
European law two years ago, however,
severely curtailed this activity, making it
illegal to act under false pretence when
marketing online
• Forum thread sponsorship – The main
opportunity for active forum engagement
is by contacting a Forum Webmaster to
organise a sponsored thread

52. Podcasts

53. Overview
• Podcasts are very much a social media equivalent to radio
– Blogs:journalism
– Podcasts:radio
• RSS technology utilised to download straight to your iPod
– Lead to podcasts being consumer on the go at times
convenient to the listener
• Podcasts can now be found covering all interest areas and
industry sectors

55. Opportunity
• Opportunity exists to pitch in
stories and content just as
with radio
– Interviews
– Guest speaker slots
• As it is still a relatively new
medium, podcast producers
do not receive as many
approaches from PRs –
leading to increased
opportunity

56. Video

57. Overview
• Engagement - video offers
tremendous opportunity to
engage audience groups online
• Media thirst – traditional media
sites are constantly trying to
compete with the BBC’s
extensive libraries of content
• PR opportunity – creates
opportunity for high-profile story
placement
• Creative extension –
opportunity to add further depth
to a story

58. Video-sharing
• Large and varied – more than
just YouTube. Sites such as
Dailymotion, Videojug,
Metacafe, Blinkx and many
others also have large
communities
• Easy sharing – ‘embedded
players’ are now offered by all
video-sharing sites making it
easy to pass content to
journalists
• Viral spread – it is also very
easy for consumers to share
video content – meaning videos
can spread very quickly online
(e.g. recent London fire)

59. Communities
• Social networks – more than just
video posting
• Shared interests – people connect
to other users who like similar
content, or post videos they like
• Channels – YouTube channels
create audience bases that are
informed when new content is
uploaded
• Comments – people post comments
and views on videos. Star ratings are
a powerful determination of ranking
in YouTube and whether it achieves
the all-important feature on the front-
page

60. Video production
• Affordable quality – the explosion of video consumption online
has brought with it a reduction in the expectancy of video quality
and resolution
• Script writer – finding a good script writer is a very valuable
exercise. Substantially reduces expensive to and fro
• Production – hiring a video producers is extremely important –
more often that not they will manage the whole project, including
editing
• Budget – costs can be in the hundreds, depending on the scope
of work
• Length – it is best if videos do not shoot past 1 minute in length
online – further reducing production costs

61. Video seeding
• Audience reach – do use other video-sharing
sites in addition to YouTube. You can easily find
extensive lists of them online
• Relevance – particularly ensure your video is
posted on sites with relevant focus and audience
bases
• Web tools – there are a number of tools that can
be used to post a video simultaneously to many
video-sharing sites at once – massively reducing
admin time (e.g. http://heyspread.com/)
• Monitoring – such sites also enable easy
reporting of total views and comment activity
across the video-sharing sites used

62. SEO
• SEO – when posting videos on video-
sharing sites, you have complete
control over the copy and content that
runs alongside the video
• Keywords – by researching
appropriate keywords, it is possible to
ensure the video ranks well in
relevant search engine returns
• URL links – use of relevant URLs
and ‘anchor text’ ensures that popular
videos provide an SEO boost to your
website
• Traffic – Popular sites such as
YouTube can be key drivers of traffic
online

63. Moderation
• Hugely active sites such as YouTube so attract a
large number of ‘spammers’ – people posting
inappropriate links and content in comments to
capture people’s attention
• Popular videos can also attract abusive comment
as a means to scandalise and shock
• When it is your own video post, it is possible to
control the following:
– Removal of inappropriate comments
– Complete removal of ability to comment

64. Case study – Virgin Mobile

65. Case study – Virgin Mobile
Key Outputs
• 105 pieces of online coverage
• Over 20 million impressions
• Over 95% of placements mentioned
Virgin Mobile
• Over 89% of placements linked to or
embedded the 30 Peas video
• Over 87% linked to
virginmobilepeople.com/30p

66. Case study – Ramada Encore

67. Case study – Ramada Encore
Key Outputs
• 12 pieces of national online
coverage
• 78 actively generated pieces
of coverage across
influential blog titles
• Stimulated over 20 million
impressions

68. Widgets

69. Overview
• Interactive web tools that can be
‘embedded’ on websites and
downloaded to desktops
• Engagement – great means by which
to actively engage consumers
• Rich information – powerful way to
display rich and varied information
• Content – work for all means of
different content, from video to games
• Stand-out – as this is still a a largely
unexplored area by the PR industry
generally, substantial opportunity exists
to catch online influencers’ attention

70. Case study – BBC 5Live

71. Measurement & evaluation

72. Social media metrics
• Unique user statistics in social
media are impossible to
acquire across the board
• A blogger will have to
provide information
personally
• Therefore, does not support
overall campaign
measurement
• Different social media
platforms require different
metrics

73. Social media metrics
• Blogs
• Number of actively generated posts
• Number of virally generated posts
• Tone of posts
• Key messages
• BlogScore
• Number of comments
• URL links
• ‘Anchor text’

74. Social media metrics
• Twitter
• Number of actively generated Tweets
• Number of Retweets
• Tone of posts
• Key messages
• TwitterScore
• URL links

75. Social media metrics
• Forums
• ForumScore
• Tone
• Key messaging
• Podcasts
• Number of listeners
• Tone
• Key messaging

76. Social media metrics
• Video
• Number of views
• Stars
• Favourites
• Comments
– Tone
• Social networks
• Members/ friends
• Level of active
engagement
– Comments
– Uploads

77. Search engine impact
• Ranking of actively generated
posts in search returns
• Assess ranking of negative
articles in search returns
• Pre and post activity keyword
search returns analysed
• Work with SEO agency/online
marketing department
• Online PR/social media campaigning
will not be the only influence on
search returns
• Note the Google PageRank of
coverage generated

78. Traffic
Utilise web analytics to track the
following:
1. Site visits encouraged as a
direct result of online PR
activity
2. Uplift in traffic levels
3. Conversion of traffic to
sales (or other important
marketing metrics, for
example sign-up)

79. Packaged services

80. Objectives
Increasing the number
Raising brand Search engine ranking
of links from quality
awareness online boost
websites
Increasing customer
Website traffic
acquisition & sales

81. Online PR tactics
Blogger outreach Twitter promotion
Audience mapping Online media promotion
• Content pitching • Client Twitter feed set-up
• Guest blog posts • Post drafting
• Blogger events • Twitter feed promotion
Social network Social bookmarking Forums Podcasts
promotion • Thread sponsorship • Production
• Facebook groups • Interview pitching
• MySpace profile recruitment
• Niche networks
• Ning
Video production Video promotion SEO PR Widgets
• Script writing • Search engine optimisation • Press release optimisation • Production
• Filming & production • Seeding • Syndication • Promotion
• Editing • Measurement & reporting
Online monitoring Online PR measurement
• Online media buying value
• Search engine visibility
• Web analytics
• Social media metrics

82. Creative campaigns

83. Creative development
• At the core of social media strategy is
traditional PR
– Must be new
– Must be sufficiently interesting for someone
to want to take their own personal time to talk
about it
– Relevance is highly important
• Simplicity is vital
– Online influencers are extremely time poor
– Key messaging must come through instantly
• Attention-grabbing works
– Humour
– Innovation
– Risqué (great example is Diesel 30 year
anniversary campaign)

84. Story development
• Get to the core of the story
– Describe it in one sentence
• Build associations from this base
• Relevance is key
• Focus first on this before considering appropriate social media
platforms
– Platforms should fall naturally from creative concept
• Think BIG
– Creative implementation online is far, far cheaper that offline
– There are some very competitively priced development suppliers out there

85. Use the full palette
• Never before have so many tools
been available, so easily, to PRs
• Bring the story to life as much as
possible
• The further you go the stronger
the message, the reach, the
impact
• Video is enormously powerful

86. Two-way
• The key feature that
differentiates social media
from traditional media is its
facility for two-way dialogue
• This brings with it a number
of important advantages:
– More powerful engagement
• Improved recall
– Active involvement
– Participative for both parties
• Make this principle core to
a social media campaign

87. Competition mechanics
• Incentivise people to
participate
• Make prizes relevant to
resonate
• Competitions have long
been a core strand of
consumer PR campaigns
– Social media offers far more
flexible, creative mechanics
• You have to think why
would some get involved?

88. Case study – Hotel Chocolat

89. Language & tone
• ‘PR speak’ just does not work
– Avoid exaggeration – people can spot it, and do not need to put up with it
– Is it really ‘the world’s leading’?
• Be human
– Chatty, simple language works best
– Avoid jargon at all costs
• Be friendly
– Relationships can be formed very quickly online
• Be open
– People are largely very understanding. If issues arise be up-front and open
and maintain dialogue
• Transparency
– Always state your intention
– Always state who you are representing

90. Mechanicals
• Make it easy to share
– URL links
– Social media ‘share’
buttons
• Be mindful of people’s
inboxes
– Make full use of online
tools and sharing sites to
distribute content
– YouSendIt

91. Amplification

92. Overview
• Extend – online PR can work very well as a means to ‘amplify’
or add further depth to a planned PR/marketing/advertising
campaign
• Advertising – ‘amplification’ is very much a buzz term in the ad
world. Represents a means by which to take the core ad
message out to a wider audience base
• Media fragmentation – the fragmentation of consumer media
has made it impossible for advertising to reach as large groups
of people as before
• Word-of-mouth – at its core lies the ability to stimulate word-of-
mouth and viral spread of key marketing messages
• Social media – the two-way, personal nature of the medium
perfectly complements the prime objective of any advertising
initiative

93. Implementation
• Core messaging –
creative scope is focused
upon taking campaign
messaging and applying
them to the online medium
• Interaction & depth – tools
such as video and widgets
enable softer elements to
be added to a campaign –
increasing levels of
engagement
• Assets – content produced
to-date as part of the
campaign can prove
extremely valuable

94. Implementation - timeline
• Anticipation – one core
focus for amplification
strategy is building
momentum ahead of a
campaign launch
– Early glimpses of assets
– Smaller campaigns to support
major push
• Extension – an additional
focus commonly is then
extending interest and
intrigue past the main
launch dates
– Interactive elements
– Competitions

95. Opportunity
• Extend current client PR campaigns – opportunity to pitch in
amplification projects onto current client campaigns
• Extend other client marketing initiatives – opportunity to
begin further supporting other agency initiatives
• Slot in aside current retained PR agencies – opportunity to
get to the client table without a full re-pitch. A foot in the door
• Partnerships – scope to partner with advertising and media
agencies

96. Case study – Sony Bravia

97. Case study – Sony Bravia

98. Case study – Beck’s

99. Case study – Beck’s

100. Case study – Beck’s

101. Case study – Beck’s

102. Online press office

103. Online monitoring
• Many options – there are now a large
number of monitoring services on offer
• Consultancy – value for clients is in the
consultancy offered in addition to raw stats:
– Flagging crises before flaring
– Prioritisation of articles for reaction
– Insight to inform PR planning and campaign
creative

104. Managing comments
• Commenting is a necessary element of the two-way nature of
social media
• Once you start the dialogue, it is important to remain involved
– Reply to comments
– Engage in conversation
• However, the more impersonal nature of online communications
can cause people to sometimes be more offensive
– Keep a watchful eye for inappropriate comment or spam
• If this occurs on your uploaded content or site, this can be
mitigated with removal as necessary
– Ensure this is an appropriate action
• YouTube allows comments to be disabled

105. Managing comments - prioritisation
• The proliferation of sites and
commentators can be mind
boggling and very difficult to
manage
• Priority is key
• Not all sites similar sway
• Some comment at best will only
require a watchful eye to check
if it spreads further
– In such circumstances, engaging is
a waste of resources and may only
fuel the fire

106. SEO PR

107. SEO PR
• Google is very much the window through
which people access everything online
• Online PR and social media outreach
directly impact:
1. Brand website rankings
2. Journalist and consumer endorsement
rankings
• Online PR and social media outreach can
also be utilised to minimise the impact of
damaging articles ranking highly
– Hotel Chocolat example

108. Implementation - keywords
• Keywords – keyword phrases
are selected that are most
important to the client for driving
relevant traffic to their website
• Input – first check if client has
list of priority keywords. Their
online marketing department will
definitely have focus areas
• Keyword generation –
otherwise, there are numerous
free, or paid-for, keyword
generator tools
• Focus – build focused list of up
to five keywords to focus upon

109. Implementation - drafting
• Careful drafting – PR collateral is
fused subtly with keyword phrases
• Extend use – opportunity to
extend use of press releases and
other collateral already being
produced for a client
• Focused content – otherwise,
focused collateral can be created
around keyword areas
• Anchor links – appropriate URL
links to the client site are placed
behind keywords
• Link choice – work with online
marketing department to select
most appropriate URLs

110. Implementation - syndication
• Syndication wires – PR collateral is
posted on SEO PR wires (PRWeb,
Source Wire, Real Wire)
• Mechanical costs – Each post costs
around £100 (varies across wires)
• Targeted – collateral is syndicated
across sites relevant to the content and
keywords
• Link creation – each syndicated piece
of coverage contains keywords and
URL links to clients site

111. Online PR support
• Dual benefit – more traditional online PR activity also has a
direct impact on search
• Top web real estate – achieving coverage on high ranking
sites, such as BBC Online & Guardian Online, which includes
URL links, creates substantial SEO boosts for a client
• PR-dependent – PR is the only mechanism by which to
achieve this
• Relevant content – PR-generated articles linking to a client
are likely to include relevant keyword phrases, further
increasing effects

112. New business development

113. Competitor landscape

114. Overview
• Online PR has been very late to develop as a PR/marketing
discipline
• With the advent of the Internet, most forms of marketing
quickly developed an online equivalent
– Print advertising: online display advertising
– Direct mail: email marketing
– Classified advertising: search marketing
– Marketing: online marketing
• In comparison, ‘online PR’ has only come to prominence in the last two
years
• The rise of social media created the stimulus for this, but there has been
considerable opportunity for years

115. Opportunity
• Transition - the past two years have seen a transition where
‘online PR’ is now seen as an important element of the
marketing/PR mix
• Widespread awareness – interest and need for online PR
services now spans all industry sectors and vertical
markets
– Consumer
– B2B
– Finance
– Healthcare
– Public Affairs
– Technology

116. New competition
• Online PR sits squarely
between PR and Online
Marketing as a discipline
• As a result, Online PR is
garnering interest from a
number of other marketing
sectors:
– Search agencies
– Digital agencies
– Media agencies

117. PR agencies

118. Overview
• Slow adoption – the PR
industry has been slow to
realise the opportunity
Online PR represents
• There were a few early
adopters
• Some industry sectors have
voiced demand for Online
PR & social media services
earlier than others
• Varied – as a result Online
PR skills are extremely
varied across the PR
agency market

119. Online PR specialists
• Arrival on scene – As a result of the opportunity gap and
market needs, a number of digital specialists have arrived
on the market
• Focused entirely online
• Positioning – there are noticeable differences in how each
is positioned – highlighting the tremendous opportunity for
differentiation and specialism
• Take-outs – interesting lessons to be taken from each

120. Online PR specialists

121. Sister agencies
• A fashion of late has been creation of ‘sister agencies’ –
individually branded Online PR agencies that are financially
tied to a large PR agency
• This approach offers a number of advantages:
– Appropriate marketing positioning
– More coherent communication of an agency’s digital expertise
– Portfolio of brands to operate across to fuel initial growth
– Sharing of staff resource across agencies
– Useful ‘conflict vehicle’
• Potential challenges include:
– Focused pocket of Online PR expertise created, but not across
agency as a whole
– Viable in the long-term?

122. Sister agency brands

123. Integrated offerings
• Popular – the approach that has been adopted by most
over the past year has been a drive to integrate Online PR
within the current agency structure
• Recruitment – Spike in creation of dedicated positions
such as ‘social media strategist’ & ‘head of online PR’ over
past year
– Hot demand for PRs with hands on experience
• This approach offers a number of advantages:
– Easier set-up
– Easier integration with current agency set-up
– Faster education of all staff
– Solid long-term strategy
• Challenges include:
– Harder to differentiate and clearly position online expertise

124. Digital agencies

125. Overview
• Business fit – online PR represents a natural business
growth area for digital agencies
• Closing the loop – online PR is a natural tool by which to
publicise sites designed and promoted by digital agencies
• Client demand – the majority of web design and online
marketing briefs are now including, or even focusing upon,
social media elements
• Tech heads – the combined technical and online marketing
specialism of digital agencies means they have been well
positioned to grasp early the opportunity presented by
social media

126. Positioning
• Recruitment – digital agencies too have been hiring
people to fill dedicated social media positions
• Advertising focus – however, as digital agencies’
background in marketing is largely advertising based, these
new positions tending to take form of ‘social media
planners’
• Social media to digital agencies is less a PR tool and
instead a new medium for buying very targeted ad space
• This is changing - efforts are being made to step fully into
online PR

127. Active digital agencies

128. Media agencies

129. Overview
• Causing a stir – media agencies have been raising
concern within the PR industry of late, as a result of some
high profile online PR campaign wins
• Natural fit – responsible for strategically planning where a
brand focuses its efforts in the media space, such agencies
are well positioning to recommend how social media should
fit into the mix
• Amplification – growing demand from brands for
‘amplification’ of advertising campaigns within social media
has further strengthened media agencies’ position

130. Positioning
• Advertising focus – as with digital agencies, media
agencies’ background has led them to approach social
media in terms of buying advertising space, rather than
engaging with PR communications
• Shift – however, the realisation of the online PR budgets
on offer, and the opportunity to diversify their business, is
leading agencies to also now offer fully fledged online PR
services

131. Active media agencies

132. Search agencies

133. Overview
• Dual focus - search marketing agencies’ services can be
split into two categories: SEO and PPC
• SEO – SEO services are focused on optimising a client’s
website and then planning and implementing a ‘link building
strategy’
• Commodity – much link building work is becoming
commoditised
• High value links – the most high value links that can be
achieved are influential media and social media sites,
which cannot be purchased
• Business fit – online PR offers search agencies a means
by which to differentiate and offer higher value services

134. Positioning
• SEO – search agencies’ approach to online PR is entirely
SEO-based
• Solid technology understanding – search agencies are
highly competent at explaining the technical basis for online
PR work, and measuring its impact
• Creativity – where they lack is on the creative side,
developing PR campaigns that stand-out
• PR skills – previously, another difficult area for them has
been in mastering core PR skills, in particular, quality
editorial production and PR communications
• Recruitment – there is now a noted recruitment drive
across the search agency market for more traditional PR
practitioners

135. Active search agencies

136. Lead generation

137. Current client portfolio
• Easy wins – prior to starting an external new business
drive, make sure you have maximised all opportunities
across your current client portfolio
• Case studies – relevant case studies are hugely valuable
in building credibility and proving ROI
• Strategic approach – work with relevant account directors
to ensure all opportunities are maximised
• Revenue generation – Great opportunity to achieve
incremental increases in retainer fees, or sell-in additional
projects

138. Client marketing toolkit
• Introductory meetings – secure opportunities with
relevant decision-makers to showcase your digital services
• Introductions to other contacts – request introductions to
other untapped contacts within client organisation (e.g.
online marketing)
• Other agencies – speak with other agencies to determine
current projects they are working on and where there might
be fit for online PR support
• Training – offer training sessions to client PR team, to aid
them getting up to speed with social media. Very useful tool
if there is an education gap
• Discounted test campaign – As last resort, potential to
run discounted activity as means of building case study
portfolio

139. New business targets
• Dual focus - New business development in the Online
PR/social media space benefits from the fact that there are
two routes to market:
– PR
• PR Directors/ Communications Directors/ Head of PR
• PR Managers
– Online marketing
• Marketing Director
• Online Marketing Director
• Online Marketing Manager
• E-commerce Manager
• Social Media Manager
• Characteristics and business needs of each do vary

140. PR decision-makers
• Early steps – the majority of in-house PR teams at an
early, experimental stage in regards to social media
adoption
• Non-tech background – in-house PR teams have shared
the same difficulties that the PR industry has whole has
experienced in recognising and adopting social media
services
• External pressure – PR Managers are finding themselves
under pressure from other company departments to ‘solve’
the social media ‘dilemma’
• Complexity – for some, the complex nature of social media
is a headache, but still one that needs treatment
• Industry recognition – for ambitious others, online PR
offers a fast track way to gain profile

141. Online marketing decision-makers
• ROI – online marketing departments are extremely results
driven. Almost all activity is closely measured by its effect
on the bottom line
• Another channel – for online marketing managers, online
PR represents an additional medium to reach customers
• First foray into PR – most will have no PR experience.
This has a tremendous impact on how you present online
PR. Often, understanding of how PR operates can be very
mistaken. It is vital to stress the PR basics
• Tech heads – on the other side, online marketing
managers are very tech savvy, and will be quick to focus
upon SEO benefits and the more technical aspects of
campaigns
• Imbalance – Online marketing teams tend to hold far larger
budgets than the respective PR team
•

142. Lead generation
• Opportunity – as this is still a new area, there is far more
scope and higher success rates when calling contacts
directly
• Electric marketing – monthly list of new starters. Majority
keen to leave their mark quickly: online PR/social media
represents untapped area where they can demonstrate
their expertise
• Salesforce – flexible CRM system, which aids keeping on
top of calls
• Media scanning – PR Week/Gorkana PR are very
valuable sources for lead generation. If you do not have
resource support, Pearlfinders offers a purchase solution
• Linkedin – another useful source for relevant contacts

143. Networking
• ‘How to conferences’ – there are a proliferation of one-
day events on offer to aid PRs get to grips with online PR.
These are often highly frequented by brands, who are keen
to make more moves into this space
• Evening meet-ups – there are a large number of social
media and blogger meet-ups…enough to soak up your life!
Choose wisely, as many are not suited to new business.
Some, however, are very valuable
• Social networking – there is an extremely active network
of PRs blogging, on Twitter, and across a number of social
networks sites (e.g. P2PPR)

144. Marketing support
• Marketing support can help hugely in supporting your new
business initiatives and increasing the number of people
you can reach
• Website – make sure your agency website properly
positions your digital services. Closely assess your
competitors positioning and ensure you stand-out
• PPC – Google ads can be very inexpensive in vertical b2b
sectors such as PR, but very effective in establishing
qualified leads
• Case studies – make sure you have professionally
designed pdfs showcasing your digital credentials and
experience

145. Qualification

146. Qualification
• Non-competitive – Dedicated online PR briefs have a far
higher propensity to be non-competitive
• Response – rather than brands taking briefs to market,
often they are created in response to an approach from an
agency
• This brings both opportunity and challenges with it

147. Qualification
• Establish certainty of brief – it is vital to ensure that the
brief is not speculative in scope
• First contact – make sure to establish experience levels
across team at first meeting
• Objectives – clearly establish business reasons for a
campaign. If these exist there is far higher chance it is an
opportunity that it can convert
• Budget – make sure to get budget up-front. In-house
teams often do not have sufficient experience to effectively
budget digital activity. This makes it very difficult to price
effectively. Make sure to get a ballpark area at the least

148. Smoke and mirrors
• Hype – the sudden surge in interest in online PR has
brought with it a large amount of buzz and hype
• Caution – some of this is due; much is not. When qualifying
briefs, make sure to consider fully the rationale for activity
and the scope of work
• Long-term relationships – plan for long-term relationships
when responding to briefs. ROI is key

149. Pitching

150. Language & tone
• Over-complification – there has been a trend across the
industry of over-use of jargon and tech phrases
– Brands are looking for clarity
– Demystify to win
– Simplicity is key
• Do not forget the basics:
– At its core, ‘online PR’ is based on the same principles of ‘traditional
PR’ – only the medium has shifted slightly

151. Bring to life
• Examples – showcase examples of previous similar
campaigns (whether your agency’s or another’s). It is vital
that the client can clearly see how the campaign will work
• Visual – use visual explanations where possible to explain
more complicated elements of campaigns
• Design – invest in design support to highlight how
campaign will look and feel

152. Budgeting & pricing
• Speciality area – online PR is currently a very in-demand
skill-set and service area
• Rate card – it might be worth considering a separate rate
card, at least initially for online PR work, particularly for
projects
• Online marketing – bear in mind that online marketing
budgets tend to be larger in scope than PR
• Third party costs – there is significant scope to shop
around for third party suppliers to gain very competitive
prices. Look to agree a fixed cost with client and see what
margin you can gain from there
• Web design build – shop outside of London