Connecting PR to Business Success at On24, Inc.

I asked the dynamic duo of Kim Ryden (marcom/lead gen) and CeCe Lee (PR/marcom) at ON24 to give me their perspectives on how that company integrates PR into the marketing mix and tracks its contribution to overall business success.

Kim Ryden: The important thing is that PR is involved. You want to make sure that the messages are consistent with the PR efforts. At ON24, the marketing and PR efforts aren't siloed like it would be in other large companies. When I'm working on a new lead generation campaign, I'll brainstorm with Cece and see how the messages resonate. Sometimes, marketing messages aren't going to work in PR and vice versa.

Cece Lee: That's true. I think that's one of the most difficult things from a PR perspective, how to get transparency into what marketing does. Yeah, it's not a set "process" per se. I think it's important to stay in constant communication. The weekly marcom meeting with our CEO helps us to review and reevaluate the priorities we have. I think it's good for Kim to know what media opportunities I'm working on for possible media buys or other lead gen activities.

CL: The question is then how do we measure the impact that PR has on business. As a high-growth company, I graph a very specific set of numbers, such as mentions vs. features, circulation numbers (the easiest way to get a sense of "eyeballs") and now blogs vs. online/print publications.

KR: And if there's a specific call to action, such as requesting a white paper or webcast, we can give certain outlets a proprietary tracking code. That way, we can determine if a person came from magazine A or B.

CL: But not all of our news can be tracked in that way. The tracking code is great for things like a webcast or white paper when you can request registration information.

KR: Another stat that we occasionally look at is the number of clicks that an article drives to our website.

CL: That's really important because when I can sync up traffic spikes to when media coverage appears, then I am fairly certain that the two are related.

KR: Another way we measure is how new sales leads learn about ON24. This one is difficult because a prospect may have touched your company through a press release, media coverage, banner ad, tradeshow, etc. So one of the things I do is pre-qualify each sales prospect and ask how they heard about ON24.

CL: This helps us to start narrowing the funnel of what PR directly contributes to our company - magazine A drives X amount of traffic and X number of sales prospects mention magazine A.

KR: But we have to be careful about assigning too much value to this. Numbers are great, but we have to remember that PR also helps with building intangible value such as brand awareness and thought leadership.

CL: That's true. In the end, PR is one component of a larger marketing strategy that drives the business forward.


Kim Ryden is director of lead generation for ON24, Inc., and manages marketing and corporate initiatives to drive ON24's sales lead generation. Cece Salomon-Lee has more than 10 years of public relations experience. She manages marketing communications and public relations for ON24, Inc.

Comments

[Public Records]

Very nice information on these topic, very useful it gaves me ideas and insight on how to connect PR and Business together.

Thank you and have a nice day