How PR boosts your lead generation results

PR or public relations (securing editorial coverage in 'earned media') will give your lead generation efforts a helping in hand.

Lead generation is the process of gaining then maintaining the attention of potential customers, and nurturing them until they're ready to start a meaningful conversation.

It involves running ads online and on social media, SEO, content marketing, automated email sequences and the use of compelling offers to nudge people over-the-line into submitting enquiries, requesting quotes, or agreeing to discovery meetings.

So, what role does PR or public relations play in lead generation?

In this context it has three main functions:

1. To help raise awareness
2. To help establish credibility
3. To help build trust

If, while they're being subjected to your awareness ads on social media, your potential customers happen to read about you in a local newspaper or relevant industry journal, it makes your brand stand-out even more and cements overall awareness.

The mere fact that you're featuring in the news helps to establish your bona fides. And because people trust the media to do some basic journalistic due diligence before printing your stories and opinions, by extension, they trust you more too when they encounter you in news articles.

Raising awareness is obviously crucial; if people don't know about you, they can't do business with you. But in lead generation terms, the credibility and trust building matters a lot too. That's because, even when they're fully aware of you, you'll still be an unknown quantity to potential customers.

In the middle of your marketing funnel, your focus will be on sharing content aimed at convincing this audience you're the right fit for them. If you can ensure that potential customers in this audience find relevant media articles about you while they're doing their inevitable research, it can help to reinforce the messages you're transmitting in your ads and on your web pages and acts as a form of 'social proof'.

PR, then, augments your lead generation activities by helping to boost your visibility and amplify your marketing messages in a way that showcases your credentials and tells potential customers you can be trusted.