Joint presentation by Laura Sturaitis, Exec. VP, Media Services & Product Strategy for Business Wire; and Greg Jarboe, President, SEO-PR at the 2011 PRSA International Conference. The presentation covers how to optimize your press releases, when best to distribute them, and how to measure your return on marketing investment from a PR campaign.

1. Maximizing Press Release
Performance Online
Greg Jarboe, President, SEO-PR
PRSA 2011 International Conference
Tuesday, October 18, 2011

2. SEO-PR distributed 10 optimized press
releases for Rutgers CMD in Q3 2011
Day Date Headline Release views
Wed 7/6 Rutgers University Online Mini-MBA Program Offers Conversion Optimization Course 1,718
Thurs 7/14 Rutgers University Online Mini-MBA Program Offers Social Media Marketing Course 5,635
Fri 7/22 Rutgers University Online Mini-MBA Program Offers Search Engine Optimization Course 2,825
Mon 8/1 Rutgers University Online Mini-MBA Program Offers Pay Per Click Course 2,493
Wed 8/3 Rutgers University Offers Short Courses in Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing and 5,286
Web Analytics
Tues 8/16 Rutgers University Online Mini-MBA Program Offers Web Analytics Course 2,697
Thurs 8/18 Rutgers University and Business Wire Collaborate on New Digital Public Relations Course 6,177
Featuring David Meerman Scott
Fri 8/26 Rutgers University and Business Wire Digital PR Course to Feature Katie Paine as Instructor 3,226
Thurs 9/1 Rutgers University Integrates Apple iPad 2 Into Digital Mini-MBA Program 4,102
Wed 9/28 Rutgers Center for Management Development Offers Sports Management Program in 1,580
$400 Billion Sports Marketplace

3. Distributing on Thursdays generated
biggest share of 35,739 release views

4. Distributing on Thursdays generated
largest share of 722 clicks on links

5. Tagging links allows Google Analytics
to show which activities are paying off
Source: http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55578

6. People see blue anchor text link, but
only Google Analytics sees tagged link
http://www.cmd.rutgers.edu/mini-mba-going-digital-the-new-rules-of-pr.html?
utm_source=BW&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=KP

7. Tagged links show 1,139 PR visits to
Rutgers CMD website vs. 492 BW clicks

8. Websites that post releases with links
produced 647 of 1,139 PR visits, 56.8%

9. BW/PR is #5 traffic source, generating
1,139 of 22,658 visits, 5.0% of all visits

10. BW/PR has 6.8% goal conversion rate,
77 of 1,344 leads, 5.7% of all leads

11. 15-25% of leads became participants
in $595, $3,500, or $4,995 programs

12. Rutgers got a 2.4X return on marketing
investment from its 3-month campaign
• Rutgers CMD spent $23,230 on 10 optimized press releases
– $10,500 for press release optimization
– $12,730 for Business Wire distribution
• Three-month campaign generated at least $55,660 from 15
registrations
– 2 registrations were for $595 programs
– 7 registrations were for $3,500 programs
– 6 registrations were for $4,995 programs
• Rutgers CMD got a return on marketing investment of at least
2.4X from its 3-month campaign
• Nielsen Analytic Consulting found that the average return on
marketing investment in the first 90 days is 1.1X

13. What was PR’s impact on direct traffic,
referring sites, and search engines?

14. Visits coming directly to site increased
34.9% from baseline of 2,659 to 3,587

15. Some websites show unclickable URLs
or plain text but not anchor text links

16. Visits from referring sites increased
22.9% from baseline of 2,340 to 2,876

17. Some articles about Rutgers Mini-MBA
programs didn’t link to CMD’s site

18. Non-paid visits from search increased
30.5% from baseline of 4,784 to 6,243

19. Most posts linked to CMD’s site and
inlinks (inbound links) increased to 576

20. Did Rutgers CMD actually get a 8.6X
return on its marketing investment?
• Rutgers CMD spent $23,230 on 10 optimized press releases
– $10,500 for press release optimization
– $12,730 for Business Wire distribution
• Three-month campaign may have generated $198,870 from
52 registrations
– 15 registrations from tagged links in optimized press releases
– 12 registrations from 34.9% increase in direct traffic
– 5 registrations from 22.9% increase in visits from referring sites
– 20 registrations from 30.5% increase in non-paid searches
• Rutgers CMD may have gotten an 8.6X return on its marketing
investment from the 3-month campaign
• Google CPC generated from $177,785 from 46 registrations

21. PR needs to become more data driven
and you need to be an analysis ninja
• Avinash Kaushik is the Analytics
Evangelist for Google and the
Chief Education Officer at Market
Motive, Inc.
• Web Analytics 2.0 provides
specific recommendations for
creating an actionable strategy,
applying analytical techniques
correctly, solving challenges such
as measuring social media and
multichannel campaigns,
achieving optimal success by
leveraging experimentation, and
employing tactics for truly
listening to your customers.
Source: http://www.webanalytics20.com/

22. Rutgers CMD offers Mini-MBA Short
Courses in Web Analytics for $595
Source: http://www.cmd.rutgers.edu/mini-mba-short-courses.html

23. Rutgers CMD offers an Online Mini-
MBA in Web Analytics for $3,500
Source: http://www.cmd.rutgers.edu/online-mini-mba-web-analytics.html

24. Rutgers offers Mini-MBA: Going Digital
– The New Rules of PR for $4,995
Source: http://www.cmd.rutgers.edu/mini-mba-going-digital-the-new-rules-of-pr.html

25. Anatomy of the 21 st
Century Press Release
Laura Sturaitis
EVP, Media Services & Product Strategy,
Business Wire

26. Compose with the End in mind
CONTENT + CONTEXT = IMPACT
(Message) (Channels) (ROMI)

27. CONTENT + CONTEXT = IMPACT
• CONTENT: • CONTEXT:
 Press Release  Audience
 Headline  Distribution Method
 Keywords  Hosting
 Links
 Channels
 Call to Action
 Search Visibility
 Multimedia
 Landing Pages / Traffic
 Landing Pages / Traffic
 Authority
 Experts / Messages
 Archive
 Posts
 Global
 Tweets
 Mobile

28. EARNED: OWNED:
• Media Coverage • Landing Pages
• Links and Rich Content • Online Newsroom
• Search Ranking • Blog
PAID: SOCIAL:
• Marketing Mix • Social Networks
• AdWords PPC • Experts and Employees
• Events • Audience Engagement
TRADITIONAL + SOCIAL MEDIA

32. Checklist for Press Release Optimization:
Key components of a well optimized multimedia release:
 Headline is key and all many people will see to click thru
 Subheads help include more keywords up top
 Multimedia: Logo, photos, charts, videos, captions tell the story
 Links reinforce keywords / drive traffic to key landing page
 Formatting makes your release look and act like a web page
 Contacts direct viewers to the right contact for ROI
Publicize all your Channels so your audience can find you:
gather friends, fans, subscribers - include links

37. Your image
from the
wire

41. MEASUREMENT: METRICS:
• Press Release • Traffic Stats
• Quality vs. Quantity • Referral Site Authority
• Activity on Release • Conversion for ROI $$
MONITORING: SOCIAL MEDIA:
• Clipping • # Fans/ RTs / Comments
• Context / Sentiment • Audience Engagement
• Competitive Ranking • Referrals / Conversion
TRADITIONAL + SOCIAL MEDIA

42. IMPACT
• What is the goal? What is success?
– Writing for Humans and Robots
– ROI from a Call to Action
– Maximize Your Influencers and Authority
– Manage Engagement and Feedback
– Campaign Horizon: Visibility over Time
– The Company’s Personality
– Metrics vs. Measurement vs. Monitoring

46. Our Case Study:
What We Learned
• Do your SEO checklist every time.
• Get your AdWords list of KEYWORDS
• Create a STYLE GUIDE for your messages
• Have your MULTIMEDIA available all over
• Customize your LANDING PAGES and URLs
• Integrate all your social media CONNECTS
• Be ready to be PORTABLE and MOBILE
• Be ready to be INTERNATIONAL
• Gather, Monitor and Study your ANALYTICS then
modify your message for conversions

47. The Takeaways:
• The performance ROMI of your release and
other messaging is determined up front with a
newsy message, optimized for online visibility
• Use all the channels and platforms available to
meet your audience and influencers where they
are
• Make your message easy to consume, easy to
share and ready to be measured
• Use your results to take credit for your campaign
strategy and apply your resources

48. Thank You!
Questions?
Laura Sturaitis, Business Wire
Twitter: @lsturaitis
Linked In: Laura Sturaitis
Email: Laura.Sturaitis@BusinessWire.com
Greg Jarboe, SEO-PR
Twitter: @gregjarboe
Linked In: Greg Jarboe
Email: Greg.Jarboe@SEO-PR.com