Appendix
The ABCs of Inbound PR
A: Attract
Attract is the very first stage of the inbound PR methodology. Everything starts here—a consumer's journey, a client's discovery, a journalist's search, a blogger's experience. It's all based on how we make decisions today, which is fundamentally different than a few decades ago simply because technology has given us so much choice and power. With inbound PR, you need to have deep knowledge of all stakeholders in your or your client's business and define where and how their attract stage begins so that you can turn them from strangers into visitors and readers of your content, and ultimately into paying customers or media people you end up working with on a story.
B: Buyer Persona
The most central aspect of all inbound, whether inbound PR, inbound marketing, or inbound sales, is the buyer persona. Nothing works well without a clear definition of your buyer persona or, when we speak about media relations, of your media persona. The persona is a semifictional representation of your ideal customer or any other stakeholder; it's that deep dive into their problems and needs and the questions that your potential customers or good media contacts are asking before they make a decision to buy from you or work with you. You need to know this information backward and forward. If you don't, you won't be able to succeed at any of the steps of the inbound PR methodology nor will you be able to create relevant content.
C: Content
Content is at the center of inbound PR. It's the one thing that PR people excel at far more than any other professionals out there. Content creation includes things like blog posts; press releases; special content offers like e-books, reports, or white papers; videos; and interactive storytelling. All these allow you to enhance your reputation and build your expertise. Here we come back to the attract part; people will come to you because you create relevant and engaging content, either for buyers or for the media and through the media. And this is all inbound. It's pulling people in with blogs, then converting them into leads with relevant content offers, and then closing them as customers with a targeted sales approach that is still supported by good content in personalized e-mail.
D: Delight
Delight is the last stage of the inbound PR methodology and is the one that is almost always forgotten, although it really shouldn't be. It's also the one that PR can have a tremendous impact on because it's all about maintaining and enhancing relationships with existing publics, for example, customer engagement on social media or via e-mail with relevant content. The same goes for the media or bloggers you've already cooperated with; engage with them even further by sharing their work or commenting on it to spark more conversations. Why is this so important? Because acquiring new customers is generally a lot more expensive than retaining existing ones. Similarly, developing a relationship with a new influencer takes a lot longer than nurturing existing relationships and capitalizing on them. In addition, the delight stage includes activities such as surveys and research that allow you to further understand your stakeholders and their needs as well as to gather accurate data for better decision making with your client.
E: E-mail
A greatly ignored or poorly done tactic in communications is e-mail. That's a shame because e-mail has such big potential, especially when we are talking about PR combining forces with e-mail. In fact, e-mail is the most effective tactic for lead generation and it's not that hard to implement. Because PR people understand audiences so well and are great content creators, they are well suited to craft good e-mails. E-mail is not only a must in the close stage of the inbound PR methodology but also in delight because you can continue engaging with existing customers or the media with personalized e-mails and content that truly add value.
F: Facts
Give me the facts—you hear that from journalists a lot and from customers, too, when they want benchmarks. And often what works really well for content offers is to create reports with the results of a study or research you have done for your client or your business and industry. Because we love data on such a deep level and we always need the latest, people will be interested to hear your facts. The media will, too. So use data and facts wisely in your content and throughout all paid, earned, shared, and owned channels.
G: Google
You'd better not ignore Google in your inbound PR efforts. It seems that SEO has escaped the attention of PR professionals, but with inbound PR you simply cannot leave it out. Because for attract to work, for you to be found, you have to understand how Google works and how it ranks content. Then you have to create a relevant keywords strategy based on what your buyer or media personas search for and then create the content. Finally, you must optimize the entire website with technical on-page SEO. None of the rest of inbound PR will work if you don't do this.
H: History
So many PR or marketing professionals start working with a new client or on a new campaign and approach everything completely anew, forgetting to do some research and analysis into the past first. The same thing happens when the client engagement or the campaign continues—three months in and no one looks into what has happened during that time but rather focuses on creating a brand-new content strategy and some fresh, new ideas. No, don't do that. Make your decisions based on past performance, look at the data to give you insights. Also, there's probably plenty of existing content that can be refreshed, repurposed, improved, or updated instead of you and your team spending time creating something from scratch. Define your efforts based on what's done in the past, what's worked, and what hasn't.
I: Inclusion
People like to feel part of something; they like to be involved. So give them that; they'll be grateful and they'll reward you with some word of mouth. Include others in the conversation on social media or cocreate stories and content for your next campaigns with customers or other brands. People also want to hear from others like them so get your case studies going, create some videos with customers and include people in your storytelling. It's real life that matters when it comes to inbound.
J: Journalists
You can't ignore media relations even though PR is not only about media relations. Inbound PR focuses far more on all other channels, not simply earned. Still, earned plays a huge role but the way to achieve it has changed. Journalists now act just as any other customer; they do their own research online, they build their brands and have influential voices, and they have the ability to ignore you. You can use the inbound PR methodology to attract and engage them and to secure a media placement in a far more personal and customized way than just a cold e-mail or phone pitch. This is about media relations the inbound way.
K: Knowledge
You are going to have to know your industry or your client's industry very well. That's not only essential so that you can develop the buyer or media personas; it's important because you need to develop some business acumen to properly advise and achieve real ROI that affects the bottom line. Knowledge in this case also includes being able to do more than just write. PR professionals, I know you hate math, but sorry, you won't survive unless you acquire those broader business skills.
L: Listening
One thing I don't see PR people do enough is listening. Learn to listen more. Listen on social media, listen when reading blogs or newspapers, listen when you are at events, listen when in meetings. Listening helps you learn, it helps you get to know the audience, the client, the media. It's how you then make informed decisions and how you build relationships. Listen and show real interest. Then conduct outreach in a personalized manner or advise correctly. Listening is all about diagnosing before prescribing. Don't skip this step.
M: Measurement
Oh dear, measurement, PR's biggest challenge! Anyone who works in PR hears this multiple times a day. The issue with not being able to properly measure PR activities has been around since the birth of PR. But with inbound PR, that goes away. With digital in general, you should be able to measure any activity from all paid, earned, shared, and owned media and tie it back to your investment, time, and efforts. You just have to connect the dots and do everything according to the goals you've defined in the beginning and bring all measurement back to them.
N: Newsroom
Companies should start utilizing their websites better. Here, I'm not only talking about lead generation and blogging but also about creating an inbound PR newsroom that serves the media well. Not only have consumers changed, so have journalists and bloggers and YouTubers. The way they prepare a story is different. They now do their own extensive research online and on social media, just as consumers do. They will find your website and poke around. Even if you've pitched something and they haven't found you on their own, they will still check out your website. So why don't you make it easy for them to get the information they need? That's simple to do—get a newsroom on your website and put press releases, relevant downloads, interviews, and whatever materials your media persona would benefit from on it. They'll be grateful because you are saving them time. In addition, you will improve your SEO.
O: Offer
Get creative with the offers that you put on landing pages to convert people or the media. We spoke about facts, research, and reports. Yes, those are great, but what else? How about some videos or webinars? Hidden live streaming? Some infographics or templates? There's so much storytelling you can do with formats other than text. People get bored when they are offered the same thing again and again. Attract and engage them in a better way; help them to not get bored.
P: Planning
You better know what you are doing. You can't achieve your goals without a solid plan. Planning is about choosing the right tactics, methods, timelines, responsibilities, and roles in order to achieve your goals. It basically means deciding how to get where you want to be. Consider all possible avenues and make a detailed plan that describes your daily, weekly, and monthly tactics and to-dos; which PESO channels you'll use; what content will need to be created or repurposed (and by whom) and then published and distributed, promoted, and worked on with the media. The biggest piece of advice with inbound PR is this: don't rush in before you know what you are doing. You can always adjust and adapt, and you should, but don't just do something for the sake of doing something.
Q: Quality
Yes, you need a lot of content to rank on Google, generate leads, or attract the media, but it's not just about the quantity. Your content needs to be relevant, meaningful, helpful, value-adding, and informative. This is more about quality than quantity, not only in terms of your communications, but also the relationships that you are building and the leads that you are generating. One quality lead with potential to turn into a customer or a media publisher is better than 10 who never will. It's the quality of your content and your conversations that matter, not the number.
R: ROI
The most favorite corporate buzzword: ROI! It goes back to measurement. So to repeat, PR has never really been able to tie its activities back to the bottom line. With inbound PR, that's possible. PR can and does drive sales. You just have to demonstrate it, which is possible with a methodology such as inbound PR and the help of some software. Getting there is more about changing your mindset and becoming comfortable with numbers and data.
S: Social Media
I think we are past the stage where every business doubted the need to be on social media. The issue that we are facing now, however, is that social media is not really done correctly or efficiently enough. Social media is essential for every stage of the inbound PR methodology. You need it to attract people to your content; you can use it to communicate with journalists and close a story deal; you should be leveraging it to continue delighting existing customers, clients, or bloggers you've worked with. You can only be successful at this if you commit the time. I mean a lot of time, not just ad hoc activities here and there. You need to be consistent and tie social media into the bigger picture.
T: Transparency
Transparency is the fuel of influence. It's the fuel of trust. It's the fuel of relationships. It's the key to inbound relationships. It's the one thing that would ensure you don't end up in a situation where you'll need some serious crisis management. Transparency prompts companies to stop hiding behind the true agenda, admit shortcomings, be honest and fair and so appear human and authentic. This is very important because people want to do business with real people. You work in PR, meaning you build relationships with different publics—you can't do that if people don't trust you.
U: Understanding
To succeed with inbound PR, you'll need to have a deep understanding of the inbound methodology in order to connect the dots. The same goes for the PESO model and how inbound PR fits with the different media types. I urge you to do as much learning as possible around all those concepts in order to see the bigger picture and only then to start applying the methodology to your business. Without this basic understanding of all fundamentals, you won't be able to leverage inbound PR to its full potential.
V: Value
Everything you do with inbound PR has to provide value. This is why it's called inbound—it draws people in because your content is useful, helpful, informative, fun, cool, creative, and innovative. It adds value to that person, that customer, that client, that blogger or that media representative. It's not about you, it's about them (“What's in it for me?”). Do everything with this thought in mind.
W: Workflows
Workflows are the mother of automation for PR people who have such busy schedules already. Stop doing things manually. Define the goals; establish the strategy; create the plan, the content, and the assets and then let the software do the work. It doesn't have to be HubSpot from the start (although it's great!); you can go with Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, MailChimp, Hootsuite, or another tool. I suggest you take a look at PRStack.co to get you started with the tools to optimize your daily efforts and reduce manual work.
X: X-Ray
In our digitally driven world, nothing stays hidden—people can explode in rage on social media, they can freely express their opinions on their own blog or on Medium and LinkedIn. This is why, as PR advisers, we need to ensure that words are aligned with actions. It's this integrity that builds and guards a company's reputation as well as encourages people to come to us and trust us. Because they will put you under the radar; they will x-ray you. This is how we make decisions today: We go on Google when we have a problem; we search for it; we read peer blogs or social posts; we examine company websites, blogs, and social media presences; we compare and only then we make a decision. We don't even need to speak to a salesperson. We as consumers have the power, not businesses. You better ensure that your online presence can handle that x-ray.
Y: YouTube
Video content is booming. Just think about how much effort Facebook is putting into it, and so is Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and all the rest. But YouTube remains the second biggest search engine so SEO can be big here. And let's not forget all the YouTubers you should be engaging with for cooperations or campaigns. Leverage your own video materials but also make sure you are part of others' videos. Here's where some earned media would work wonders for you.
Z: Zen
Zen is a Buddhist sect that practices meditation, which does not just help the individual self but ultimately benefits others. This is how inbound PR should be, too. It's not about you, it's about them: your clients, your or their customers, the media, bloggers, YouTubers, and each and every public you are involved with. All the content you create and the touch points you develop are for the benefit of each of those stakeholders. Otherwise, it won't attract, and if you don't attract, you cannot move to close, convert, or delight.