PR has PR problems.
In an age of data-driven marketing, agencies and in-house teams can have a tough time convincing CMOs that press releases, bylines, influencers, and other tactics are driving revenue.
Part of the problem is that PR outcomes are usually on channels that are owned by someone else. Syndications, press releases, interviews, and events aren’t exactly easy to track. But with Bitly links, you can actually measure third-party platforms to see what’s driving ROI.
Here’s how:
1. Events
When you’re hosting an event, you can use Bitly to track engagement on booths and emails alike. So if you’re pitching journalists, use Bitly to include more links to your collateral. That way, you can see if they opened and clicked through to the email.
If you’re giving a talk or presentation, use Bitly links in the slides to see if people are interested enough to learn more after the event. You can include a link at the end of your slides that leads to more information.
At the booth, you should make sure that there are Bitly links in all of your hand-outs, from case studies and product sheets to business cards. If you create a Bitly campaign to track all of these activities, you can readily show what efforts had the most impact.
You can even break it down by channel to get more granular, like if you wanted to see whose business cards got the most clicks after the conference:
2. Bylines
If you’re regularly syndicating content to media outlets, blogs, or websites, include Bitly links in your author bio and within the article itself. This won’t just help drive traffic back to your owned properties – it will let you track where people are engaging the most.
When you know that one article drove 1,000 extra clicks to a resource or product page, you know that PR is helping move the needle. And you have the numbers to back it up.
3. Pitching
Journalists are busy. Influencers are busy. But if you know that they clicked something in your pitch, it’s a good sign that they’re open to talking more. When you link to collateral in an email, use individual Bitly links to see what engages people the most. Create different links for different journalists and content, so you can see who might be the best brand advocates.
4. Influencers & Bloggers
A lot of consumer products benefit from brand advocates on blogs and social networks. Building an influencer marketing program is a great way to leverage smaller audiences for a greater PR goal.
To figure out where your time and money is best spent, use Bitly links for each influencer in the program. When influencers use individual links to promote landing pages, events, or products, it’s easy to see which influencers are most effective for the campaign.
5. Press Releases
Wondering if you should spend the money to write and syndicate a press release? Use Bitly links in the announcement. Whether you’re linking to the company website or specific collateral, Bitly helps you measure how many readers take the next step to find out more after reading the release.
Press Relations, Linked
The biggest hurdle for proving ROI in PR is that you usually don’t own the properties. You don’t have access to analytics, which means you can’t give your boss – or your client – solid numbers that show the impact of your efforts.
Bitly can change that. By shortening, sharing, and measuring with Bitly links, you’ll be able to quantify, strategize, and build a data-driven PR program like never before.