global study sets stage for the digital pr...

GLOBAL STUDY SETS STAGE FOR THE DIGITAL PR REVOLUTIONThe digital PR revolution is here. Are you ready for it?Part one of a three-part series

GLOBAL STUDY SETS STAGE FOR THE DIGITAL PR REVOLUTION 2© MYNEWSDESK & BERGHS SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE PR PROFESSIONAL? WHAT’S IN YOUR WAY HOW TO CRAFT A DIGITAL PR STRATEGY

Do you want to be more effective in your digital PR efforts? You’re not alone. Only 36% of practitioners say their efforts in digital PR are effective, according to the findings of the recently released state of digital PR survey, a global initiative conducted by Mynewsdesk in cooperation with Berghs School of Communication.

Now is the ideal time to expand your efforts given the emerging opportunities for PR. Traditional advertising, once the favored marketing approach of businesses, is often viewed by consumers as an imposition and an unwelcome intruder, as emphatically claimed by world-renowned marketing expert Al Ries in his book, The Fall of Advertising and The Rise of PR.

Consumers no longer have to tolerate advertising. Advancements in technology enable them to resist those intruders with ad-blocking software, streaming television and music services, and apps. In some cases, for example Spotify Premium, customers are even willing to pay a subscription fee to avoid advertising.

We are witnessing a deep marketing transformation – from interruption to involvement. And while consumers’ ability to avoid advertising significantly threatens traditional publishers and broadcasters, it also triggers the digital PR revolution.

Challenges and opportunities facing digital PR What leading professionals are doing and how you can strategically improve your efforts

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Advertising-Rise-PR/dp/0060081996

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Advertising-Rise-PR/dp/0060081996



As PR professionals, we must find ways to be part of our customers’ days by providing value where they are. The revolution requires us to be more creative, to be part of the culture. We must give our customers the content they want – we must be part of their world and not expect them to be part of ours.

Results from the comprehensive study focused on digital PR reveal a number of challenges and opportunities. It creates a collective insight with responses from 2,500 PR professionals, primarily managers and directors, in eight countries. They work in local, regional and global PR across more than 17 industries, including media and entertainment, business services, software and internet, government, and non-profits.

How effective do you consider your efforts related

to digital PR*?

By digital* PR we mean combining traditional PR with content

marketing, social media and search engine optimization for

increasing your online presence.

Not at all effective – 5%

Slightly effective – 19%

Moderately effective – 40%

Very effective – 26%

Highly effective – 10%



The greatest challenges expected by PR professionals over the next 12 months include:

• Lack of resources/funds (61.9%)• Finding the right measures/metrics to evaluate

work results (57.7%)• Lack of time to try new strategies/technologies

(58.8%)• Limited internal skills/competencies (51%)

Interestingly, a 2015 survey of practitioners by Mynewsdesk reflects similar challenges – ever-increasing workload, expectations to produce more without sufficient budgets, lack of quantifiable ROI evidence, insufficient training on new digital channels and not enough support from the C-suite.

What’s in your way

Given those ongoing obstacles, it’s not surprising that in 2016 almost one-third (32.1%) of practitioners say they’re trying to create a cohesive digital PR strategy and measurement plan, but find it challenging. In addition, more than two-thirds (64.6%) don’t have or don’t know if they have a documented digital PR strategy, and only one in 10 said they are achieving success with their digital PR by successfully implementing, measuring and aligning their activities to business objectives.

Do these challenges sound familiar? Are you struggling to focus on the long term because you’re so busy doing what needs to get done each day?

Having examined the challenges, Mynewsdesk’s global survey uncovered what most effective PR professionals are doing in response, and this eBook shares key findings.

The greatest challenges expected by PR professionals over the next 12 months include:

Finding the right measures/metrics to evaluate work results

Lack of resources/funds

Lack of time to try new strategies/technologies

Limited internal skills/competencies

62%

58%

59%

51%

http://pages.mynewsdesk.com/rs/763-HDU-978/images/Mynewsdesk_Digital_PR_Challenge_2015.pdf



The starters

Doing some aspects of digital PR, but haven’t yet started to make it a

process (26%)

Trying to create a cohesive digital PR strategy and measurement plan but

find it challenging (32%).

The achievers

Achieving success with our digital PR by successfully implementing,

measuring and aligning our activities to business objectives.

The challengers Seeing early success of our PR strategy and becoming more sophisticated in publishing, distributing and measuring our digital communications.

58%

32%

10%

The digital PR pyramid



What makes an effective PR professional?Professionals who have successful digital PR programs operate from a strong foundation. As the state of digital PR survey reveals, thriving professionals are more likely to tie their digital PR strategy to the organization’s overall business strategy. Of those who consider themselves very effective in digital PR, almost two-thirds (63.19%) have a documented digital PR strategy. And this group is more likely to revisit and update that strategy, which is particularly important in this rapidly evolving tech world. In contrast, of those practitioners who say they are ineffective in digital PR, more than eight in 10 don’t have a documented PR strategy.

If data makes it obvious – if you document your digital PR strategy and align it with your company’s business goals, your program is better positioned for across-the-board success. A documented plan can help you secure financial and intellectual buy-in from executives and your own PR team. When they read a well-thought-out strategy, they can better understand the why, what and how of your digital PR program, and execute it more efficiently. Most importantly, they can know what success looks like. And when you have the data to show your digital PR strategy is effective, you have the business case to secure more funding for digital PR in the long term.

Do you have a documented digital PR strategy within

your organization?

Ineffective PR professionals say...

NO

Effective PR professionals say...

YES

NO

YES

HOW TO CRAFT A DIGITAL PR STRATEGY





Don’t be overwhelmed at the thought of creating an effective digital PR strategy. Start small: it doesn’t need to tackle every possible opportunity at your company. If you make it realistic and manageable, you’re more likely to achieve success on which to build and grow the strategy. Besides, the process for developing a strategy is the same no matter the size of the initiative.Once you’ve done it successfully, you can simply repeat the process.

But before you think PR strategy, think about business strategy. Identify your company’s business objectives and goals. Executives usually don’t see merit in supporting a program unless it positively contributes to what the company seeks to achieve.

How to craft a digital PR strategy

TIP: Pick the highest-priority business goal where you believe digital PR can have the biggest impact in the shortest time.

Now, how do you develop PR goals

to contribute to companywide

objectives? That’s what your digital

PR strategic plan should address.

Follow these seven steps to create a

comprehensive but navigable road

map.

HOW TO CRAFT A DIGITAL STRATEGY

Define the audience




You need to know who you want to talk with. In addition to the standard demographic and socio-graphic factors, you should understand your audi-ence’s digital behavior – where do they consume information online, what formats do they prefer, etc. The more you know about your target audience, the more effective your strategy will be.

Define the audienceYour target audience likely will fall under one of three general categories:

• Earned media Representatives encompass media (traditional and non-traditional) as well as influencers. These are the gatekeepers who communicate with and can affect your ultimate target audience (prospects/customers).

• Owned audiences Customers, website visitors, social media followers, etc. These are the people with whom you can communicate directly.

• Paid audiences are people who have similar characteristics to your target audience profile but whom you don’t know. They are attracted to your messaging through paid digital promotion or targeting.

TIP: Resist the temptation to target multiple audiences. Pick one or two targets to enable

your messaging to be more

customized so it will better

resonate with your desired

audience.

Determine goals



Once you select your target audience, set a strategic goal. What does your company want this audience to do as a result of seeing and consuming your PR efforts? Do you want to educate them? In which case you might want to set a goal around awareness or perception. Or do you want to inspire them? If so, your goal could be around acceptance or belief. Or would you like your audience to take a specific action?

In setting a goal, you must also identify how it will be measured so you know if your efforts are working. For example, you can’t state that you want your digital PR outreach to ‘raise awareness of the company’s new product’. You must be specific and attach numbers, such as ‘to create buzz for our new product, we will secure 25 online mentions from our target media and 10 online reviews from our target influencers in the next three months’.

Determine goals


TIP: Don’t forget to include a timeframe for your goal. Without an end date, it’s not a goal but a hope.

Detail key topics and messaging



Now that you know what you want your digital PR program to accomplish, it’s time to think again about your audience. How will your efforts involve (not interrupt) the audience? What content can your company offer to help or entertain your audience that relates to their daily lives and connects to your strategic PR goal? Compile the list of topics and craft relevant messaging.

Detail key topics and messaging


TIP: Put yourself in audience’s heads and ask: ‘Why would I care about [insert your

topic/message]?’

If you struggle to answer, find a new

topic or message.

Make a distribution plan



Your target audiences have their communication preferences – email, social media platforms, push notifications and so on. They also have their preferred devices – smart watch, phone, tablet, laptop or desktop. You must communicate with your target audience where they consume digital information. If you don’t, no matter how relevant your messaging is, your audience won’t see it.

Don’t forget to ensure your message reflects the preferred format, length and tone of the selected digital platform.

Make a distribution plan


TIP: Technology can be an invaluable asset. It can help identify your audience’s

preferences and track how well

they respond to your messaging

whether you reaching out to

individuals or communicating with

a group.

Create an editorial calendar



Now that you have the key components of your strategy, it’s time put together a comprehensive schedule – your day-to-day operating script. With each piece of content scheduled, list the audience, format and distribution method.

Make the editorial calendar even more efficient by providing space for analytics for each piece of content. This will enable you to understand the effectiveness of each outreach effort. These are not necessarily the same as the overall strategy analytics.

Create an editorial calendar


TIP: Be transparent to ensure everybody is reading from the same script.

Make sure your editorial calendar is

accessible to your digital PR team

as well as key stakeholders in your

company.

Establish a measurement process



One of the biggest selling points of a digital PR strategy, unlike most traditional advertising or marketing efforts, is that it can be more comprehensively measured, which makes it much easier to know if your digital PR efforts are having the desired effect.

Start by understanding what media measurement categories are most important to your organization. In the state of digital PR survey, the five ones cited by more than half of respondents include:

• Brand perception (70.17%)• Return on investment (60.60%)• Total impressions (60.06%)• Total reach (58.79%)• Sales/sales pipeline (52.77%)

Now, when it comes to specific metrics to use, the five most frequently used metrics cited in the survey include:

• Followers – number of subscribers or people who engaged with content (84.3%)

• Reach – extent to which followers share the content and extend its reach (78.24%)

• Interactions – number of likes, comments (78.23%)

• Volume – number of conversations/posts a program is generating (58.8%)

• Sales pipeline/lead generation (51.6%)






Make sure to be as specific as possible in defining what you’re measuring (category) and how (metrics). Recognize that some categories (e.g., total impressions, total reach) are easier to measure than others (e.g., brand perception, return on investment). But don’t pick categories just because they’re easier to measure.

Your chosen measurement methods must be linked intrinsically to your strategic goals. For example, if your digital PR strategic goal is about growing your email subscriber base, metrics like the number of interactions and followers won’t tell you how successful your program is. However, if your goal is related to improving your brand perception, follower and interaction numbers could be helpful metrics but so could third-party surveys.


TIP: Create a standard analytics-reporting format. List

each strategic goal along with

its benchmarks. Then add the

live data on a pre-determined

frequency.



Brand perception Return on investment Total impressions Sales pipeline Share of voiceTotal reach

The most important media measurement categories:

70% 61% 60% 59%53%

50%





The five most frequently used metrics:

Followers number of subscribers or people

who engaged with content

Reach extent to which followers share

the content and extend its reach

Interactions number of likes, comments

Volume number of conversations/posts a

program is generating

Sales pipeline number of leads converted to

sales contacts

84% 78% 59% 52%



78%

Use data to evolve the digital PR strategy



Don’t just report the numbers – use the data to advance your digital PR strategy. Make an appointment on your calendar (at least quarterly) to dig into the data on a micro and macro level. It’s critical to see how well the program is achieving its goals, and what tactics are working better than others.

Don’t restrict your analysis to internal numbers. New data and trends will emerge from outside the PR team. Talk to other departments in your

organization to learn about the changes they’re experiencing. Review external sources that speak to trends in your industry and about your audiences.

Use that comprehensive analysis to inform the update of your strategy, expanding on successes and tackling newly discovered obstacles.

Use data to evolve the digital PR strategy

TIP: Don’t forget to make sure all stakeholders are aware of what was revised in the documented digital PR strategy and understand the reasons why.




Given that people have unprecedented control over the content they consume today, your company’s digital PR efforts must become a part of – not a disruptor of – the lives of your audiences. You must provide relevant content in the formats they prefer on the digital channels where they get their information. To do that successfully requires an emergent digital PR strategy arising from a foundation of goals that serve both consumers and company.

Crafting that strategy takes time in the short term, but the documented road map will be instrumental to your PR team’s success. Not only will it ensure everybody is working from the same page more efficiently, its inclusion of measurable analytics will

make it easier for you to build a case and secure additional investment in digital PR from your executive team in the long term.

Most importantly, remember that being a leader in the digital PR revolution doesn’t require an all-consuming strategy. You don’t need to address all of your company’s challenges that could benefit from digital PR. Tackle one challenge, ideally a high-priority goal of executives that addresses a much-needed solution for your target audience. Use your data to understand the victories and losses, and adapt accordingly. If you build and grow from that initial success, you’ll soon win the digital PR revolution for your company.

The PR revolution demands an emergent strategy

Given the wealth of data from the state of digital PR study, we’re creating two more e-books to help you learn what your peers are doing and how you can improve your own digital PR efforts, with a particular emphasis on technology and the future of the industry. Subscribe today to ensure you don’t miss them.

http://pr.mynewsdesk.com/digital-pr-revolution/?dc=all

http://pr.mynewsdesk.com/digital-pr-revolution/?dc=all



Stockholm

Mynewsdesk Sweden

Rosenlundsgatan 40

118 53 Stockholm

+46 (0)8-644 89 50

[email protected]

@mynewsdesk_se

Gothenburg

Mynewsdesk Gothenburg

Kungsgatan 23

411 19 Göteborg

+46 (0)3-352 65 00

[email protected]

@mynewsdesk_se

Malmö

Mynewsdesk Malmö

Stora Varvsgatan 6A

211 19 Malmö

+46 (0)40-608 4700

[email protected]

@mynewsdesk_se

Umeå

Mynewsdesk Umeå

Storgatan 50

903 26 Umeå

+46 (0) 706-157 190

[email protected]

@mynewsdesk_se

Oslo

Mynewsdesk Norway

NHST Media group AS, Chr. Krohgs gate 16,

PO Box 1182 Sentrum

0186 Oslo

+47 2200 1019

[email protected]

@mynewsdesk_no

Copenhagen Mynewsdesk Denmark

Nordre Fasanvej 113-115 3. th.

2000 Frederiksberg

+45 3812 3630

[email protected]

@mynewsdesk_dk

Helsinki Mynewsdesk Finland

Fredrikinkatu 61 A

00100 Helsinki

+358 40 575 8565

[email protected]

London

Mynewsdesk United Kingdom

125 Wood Street, 7th floor

EC2V 7AN London

+44 (0)20 7645 2355

[email protected]

@mynewsdesk_uk

Leipzig Mynewsdesk GmbH

Hainstraße 20-24

04109 Leipzig

+49 (0)341 / 350 587-77

[email protected]

@mynewsdesk_de

Singapore Mynewsdesk Singapore

20 Upper Circular Road

The Riverwalk #04-04 Singapore

+65 6557 0028

[email protected]

@mynewsdeskasia

Contact

mailto:[email protected]


mailto:malmo%40mynewsdesk.com?subject=






mailto: [email protected]




About Berghs School of Communication

Berghs School of Communication offers strategic and creative education at different levels, including full-time diploma courses, international Bachelor Programs, over 80 part-time courses and customized programs for organizations and businesses. About 3,000 people participate every year in some form of training at Berghs - in Sweden or abroad. Also, another approximately 3,000 people visit the school’s open seminars. Berghs has received the prestigious Future Lions School of the Year Award five times and fuelled the global communication industry with a great number of talented professionals. Berghs is located in central Stockholm.

www.berghs.se

About Mynewsdesk

Mynewsdesk’s digital PR platform enables communicators to publish news stories and press releases to the right people at the right time. Create and distribute content, network and analyze data – all from one digital newsroom. Over 5,000 companies and 77,000 communicators use Mynewsdesk. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Mynewsdesk also has offices in Norway, Denmark, Finland, the UK, Germany, and Singapore.

www.mynewsdesk.com

https://www.berghs.se/

http://www.mynewsdesk.com

http://www.mynewsdesk.com

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