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A public relations campaign has increased your web traffic. So what?
This is the third installment of this three-part series about using a public relations or media campaign to increase traffic on your site. In part 1 - Driving web traffic through coordinated public relations – we offered tips on coordinating and launching a campaign that maximizes online exposure. In part 2 - What’s next to get click through vs. click away? - we suggested ways to grab the attention and increase the participation rate of new traffic driven to your site by the public relations campaign.
The question is, so what? You could label the media campaign a success because you increased site traffic. But why stop there? These visitors are not just site traffic; rather, they are donors just waiting to be converted. On a scale of commitment, these new visitors rate high. After all, they read your press release, clicked on a link (or better yet sought out your site via search) and dug deeper into your site. They are just waiting for you to ask.
You should ask them to take some action immediately:
- Include other interactive options like “email to a friend” or a small poll “What do you think about this issue?” And remember to ask for their email. Ideally you can record these nonfinancial actions on an existing contact’s “action” history.
- Evaluate the press release to guide you on what the next action step should be.
- Announcing a new report? Require sign-in to download the whole report.
- Is the press release about some legislation? Have visitors sign a petition.
- Are you announcing a new program or long-term work after a disaster? Create an email sign up for info on this specific issue, especially if it is core to your mission. These folks are prime candidates for a monthly giving program.
- Record it all—site stats, content page views, email or petition signups, or reader comments from this media-driving effort. With this set of data you’re developing a baseline for evaluating the effectiveness of future media-driving efforts. Of course consider influencing factors when comparing efforts like:
- Timing of the news release, (time of year, time of day)
- Relevant mass media coverage that might be contributing to the lift or sag in traffic
- Website, links and form functionality
If you’re lucky enough to capture a lot of email addresses from this effort, plan a special follow-up email within the next 10 days that will thank them for their action and start the process of bonding them to your organization.
If you would like more information about launching a successful online campaign, contact NPA at: info@npadvisors.com
February 2007
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