Driving Web Traffic through Coordinated Public relations

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Driving Web Traffic through Coordinated Public relations

The easiest and cheapest way to acquire new supporters online is by using the media to draw interested visitors to your site. After all, that’s what most disaster giving is predicated upon – news stories that offer links to “how you can help.”

Unless you’re the Red Cross and there’s a hurricane or tsunami, you’ll need to make sure everything is working together to maximize the online results of your campaign. Here are some tips:

Review the communications strategy and draft press releases with your communications staff so you know what’s going to be said, by whom, and when. Then you can guide some web content to support the message.
Ask the communications staff to add the URL to the press release, but not just as a gratuitous “visit our web site to learn more.” Instead, offer more relevant content – more video, more facts, more photos.
When they add the URL, have them include the “http://” before the URL. If a media outlet republishes the entire press release (like Yahoo! will), then the URL becomes a “hot” link that will direct visitors to your site with one click. That’s good for two reasons: first, you’ll get more visitors. Second, you’ll be able to track those visitors through your site stats package.
Make sure your communications people know of the various on-line media that may be very different (and more productive) than the typical print and broadcast outlets they were trained to pander to.
Review site statistics to see which sites are driving traffic to yours, and share that with the communications people (we found that a big source was a radio station that our media people didn’t realize had picked up the story – and was featuring on their home page!).
Also use site stats to find the key phrases people are using to find you with this new media push. It may be quite different from the normally productive search phrases, and it may be different than the phrases used in the press release.
Bid on those keywords, so even if other organizations get into the same media frenzy, you’ll still have your link in front of interested visitors.

All of this requires careful coordination and (gasp!) sharing information between marketing, online techies, and communications. We know that’s uncomfortable for some nonprofits – actually working well with other departments – but if you believe the web is here to change things, then why not let it change things right in your organization?

For more tips on converting site visitors to supporters, read the rest of the articles at:
http://www.npadvisors.com/Conversion.asp.

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January 2007