So far in this blog series we’ve discussed what digital PR actual is, how to audit your owned channels, how to leverage social media for success, how to ‘own’ your owned channels, are your conversion channels up to scratch, evaluating your content, and creating expert channels.
However, what does success in digital PR actually look like? In this blog post I’ll be doing a deep dive into one of our recent client case studies to demonstrate how combining all the elements of digital PR together can drive excellent results and generate real business impact.
First, a bit of background: Lloyd Edge is a property expert and buyer’s agent based in Sydney. He’s the founder and director of Aus Property Professionals, and the best-selling author of two property books, Positively Geared and Buy Now.
Lloyd recently engaged Agent99 PR to promote the launch of his newest book Buy Now. For the PR campaign, Agent99 utilised a variety of different tactics- including writing and pitching out a book launch press release, pitching success stories from Lloyd’s clients to media, and jumping on any reactive media opportunities that arose during the campaign timeframe. By the end of the three-month period, the results were fantastic, with 50+ unique pieces of media coverage (200+ pieces if you included national syndications). While this was a very strong campaign, what set it apart was that wherever possible (and aligned with editorial guidelines), we asked for media to include backlinks to Lloyd’s website/ book webpage – as a result we were able to secure a substantial number of backlinks directly to Lloyd’s website, meaning we could get a greater understanding of website traffic and referrals.
However, the proof is in the pudding! The huge uptake in PR activity significantly contributed to an increase in website traffic and an SEO boost during the campaign timeframe. We benchmarked the Aus Property Professional website in March this year, and then checked in again 3 months later during the height of the book campaign in June/July. The data showed that PR was having a huge impact on the website’s backlinks, visitors, and total site visitors. Traffic to website increased by 160 per cent during the book campaign and the number of backlinks increased by 25 per cent.
Furthermore, when a key piece of media coverage went live on July 16th, it positively correlated to a direct spike in clicks and impressions to the website. Anecdotally, when key articles went live, Lloyd said his phone was “ringing all week” with enquiries from potential new clients- which is a terrific outcome, especially considering that rising interest rates and a declining property market has made many people feel wary about buying into the property market at this time. This is what we like to refer to at Agent99 as “driving high impact results”- meaning that it’s not enough for us just to see our clients covered in the media, we always want to ensure we’re using the right strategies and targeting the best publications to ensure that our PR activities are providing tangible, measurable value to our client’s business.
While we don’t have the final book sales numbers yet, it’s safe to say that Buy Now is well and truly on the way to being another best-seller for Lloyd, with sales numbers throughout the campaign going from strength to strength.
Lloyd is also an excellent example of a client that utilises multiple ‘owned’ channels really well as part of the overall marketing strategy (alongside our ongoing PR tactics). Lloyd is active on social media, with a thriving community of passionate property investors in his Facebook group called ‘Base Camp Property.’ Through Facebook, Lloyd will regularly communicate with his community, including current clients and potential clients, by sending them updates about the property market, interesting media articles or other conversation starters to prompt discussion and engagement. Lloyd has also created his own podcast, the ‘Positively Geared’ podcast where he discusses all things property and property investment. So far, he’s had some great guests featured on the show, including Janine Allis (entrepreneur and founder of Boost Juice). The awesome content on the ‘owned’ channels works alongside the PR to create the entire brand package- and gives a potential client multiple touchpoints at which to discover Lloyd/ Aus Property Professionals and interact with the brand before finally committing to making a purchase.
But wait- there’s more! Lloyd Edge is only one of our PR success stories, and we have many case studies of happy clients for whom PR has generated real business impact.
If you’re curious about any of our services, or how we could use PR to help your business thrive and grow, get in touch today and we can get the conversation started!
By Agent Kath
