Press Relations is an important element to your construction marketing, and involves enhancing the success of your content by distributing it to the relevant audience groups as an effective ‘push tactic’. We see how effective PR can be through how we choose to implement this for our clients, but if you’re sat there thinking “how come I’m failing to see direct benefits from implementing PR?” then perhaps this post is just for you…are you guilty of the following 5 points?
1. It’s all “me me me”
What percentage of the content you distribute to press starts with an opening paragraph about the services you provide? How often throughout the piece do you bring it back to you and your product? Your audience don’t want to be sold to. Try transforming your piece from a sales pitch into an engaging story. What interesting project can you share – what unusual challenges were faced – who else was involved on site and how did everything come together to provide a unique solution? Rather than referring to your services throughout, succinctly summarise this within the end paragraph and focus on what you know will be more of a hook for the reader.
2. Your content is great but not for that magazine
We’ve just covered the importance of creating an effective case study for PR – one that incorporates the use of “storytelling” to showcase an interesting project from start to finish. Yes, you’ve learnt to not talk purely about yourself. Yes, you’ve remembered to refer to specific architect groups and contractors involved, but have you taken the time to analyse the target audience of your media publication?
Consider what content you’ve chosen and whether the magazine is the right fit for you – how large is their readership, what success stories do they typically share, and what percentage of their readership will drive through the right traffic to your website?
3. You’ve gone for the ‘all-print’ approach
Without a doubt, print will always remain popular within the construction industry (especially to show off those all important high-res images!) but are you limiting yourselves to this one tactic? While this can be measured, how well can you rely on readers typing in a specific shortcode? Maximise the exposure and measurability of your content by opting for ‘unique packages’ with press publications – the more “forward-thinking” publications will supply this for you. These packages will typically include a range of solus email activity, E-newsletters, online articles and social media distribution.
4. You aren’t measuring what you’re doing
So you’re supplying a different product story or case study to a range of magazines, but are you analysing what content is working the hardest to bring qualified leads to your construction website? Without this, you could be wasting precious time, money and effort in the wrong places. You can read more on measuring content with UTM tags in our latest updated post.
5. You’re sticking with what you know
So you’ve nailed the content, built up a good rapport with publications, included UTM tags, but how often are you using your Analytics to refine your existing strategy?
You should create a ‘master press list’, detailing the magazines to distribute to and from this, how they should be prioritised. You’ll only know this through tracking the percentage of PR traffic gained from each magazine, and subsequently the level of conversion rates obtained. Don’t just stick to what you’re familiar with – cut ties with those magazines that are simply failing to meet your business goals.
For more information on how to implement PR into your content marketing strategy, give us a call on 01908 671707 or download our Press Relations eBook.
