How To Measure PR (pt. 2 of 3)
Thought leadership influences B2B buying, so measure it
Time for some sweet sweet PR goodness.
Welcome to part 2 of this series. In part 1, I listed 6 key PR measurement metrics. That edition had a 41% open rate and set a record for signups. Uhh! Bay-buh-bay-buh!
If you missed it, I covered the first two critical KPIs and shared advice on how to answer the “does PR even work” q. I’m only diving into #3 here: measuring PR by the number of thought leadership pieces placed. It deserves much love.
Number of thought leadership pieces placed
“Does thought leadership drive sales?”
Pause your marketing content production, and wonder no more if thought leadership influences B2B purchasing behavior.
Nearly 6 in 10 B2B decision-makers agree: an organization's thought leadership is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities than its marketing materials and product sheets
A 2019 study found that nearly 50% of decision-makers spend 60 mins or more reading content from thought leaders per week.
When people hear “thought leadership” they often struggle to define it or feel it’s ambiguous. However, there’s nothing vague about thought leadership because it is centered on someone with interesting viewpoints. Someone who has done the work. Someone who can make education predictions on what’s coming next.
You may know common goals for B2B thought leadership programs are landing guest posts (like this I secured), trend commentary in media stories (like this I landed in Forbes last month or this in Digiday), and speaking gigs (booked 6-12 months out).
If someone knows something from experience — that many don’t — they may be a thought leader. But it must serve others, and not be self-promotional.
It may surprise you —> you don’t need an ego or ideas that will change the world. Some of the most humble people I know are thought leaders. Those peeps often have ideas based on their lives and how they see life. In addition, they’re not voicing contrarian perspectives for attention.
Using thought leadership to lift revenue
“How come I didn’t know about you before?”
Stings to hear that from potential customers, right? One fix using PR is generating quality thought leadership content. If you’re in B2B marketing, you’ll want to know how to use the thoughts of company leaders to grow sales pipeline.
For B2B businesses, thought leadership is an effective form of marketing because it shows value to audiences. Why it matters is that when leaders get their voices heard, they can create new biz opps, build trust with audiences, improve retention, define or shape company reputation, and more.
88% of decision-makers say that thought leadership can be effective in enhancing their perception of an organization.
Getting granular, here are 5 ways thought leadership helps revenue:
Puts you on the radar of prospects
Creates FOMO (who’s growing using your product?)
Builds credibility
Supports client retention
They can see you know your shit
One of the best, low-risk ways for a subject matter expert to demonstrate their expertise is in the form of guest posts, AKA bylines. Some execs who don’t see the phones ring after their article is live for a month will say they don’t work, and that’s because their expectations are wrong. Bylines aren’t designed to drive immediate conversions but rather built your brand.
Another suh-weet outcome of bylines is how they can be leveraged. One request from conference organizers are links to existing content from a nominated speaker showing that others respect his/her thinking. If you were running an event, would you want to take the risk of accepting a speaker that isn’t qualified?
When you have the right ghostwriter interviewing execs and writing on their behalf, bylines can be an extremely cost-effective way to not only get in front of prospects, but also peers, analysts, investors, and online communities.
Note: bylines often take months to be published
If you know something from experience — that many others don’t — you can be called a thought leader. This may surprise you = you don’t need an ego and ideas that will change the world. Some of the most humble people I know are thought leaders. Those peeps often have ideas based on their lives and how they see life.
Thought leaders have “earned secrets”
A popular term in tech coined by a16z founder and author Ben Horowitz is “earned secrets.” To him, it means “you did something in your past to solve a hard problem and learned something about the world that not a lot of other people know.”
I bet, with some digging and interviews, you have founders or department leads that can teach others something they either learned overcoming something and how they see something others don’t.
How many thought leadership placements should you aim for per quarter?
It depends on the vertical your company is in, what a leader has to say, if their expertise is in demand or connected to a hot topic, how many journalists there are, and other reasons including their availability.
If you really want a number, 1-2 placements per month should be doable. It can be a mix of bylines, blog posts, videos posted to LinkedIn, Q&As by journalists, or slide decks.
While we’re here, please oh please make quality stuff. If not for me, then for others. Almost 1/3 of B2B decision-makers in 2019 year said that they reliably gained valuable insights from consuming thought leadership — down from 39% in 2018.
Tip: Pitch experts to media outlets that you know your target audience consume. How would you know? Your marketing personas should include that info after doing customer interviews.
Part 3 of “How to Measure PR in 2021” will be sent to you soon. Ciao!
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-John