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The Inbound Shift PR Strategy

The subtle art of "caring back."

Jerry Silfwer
by Jerry Silfwer

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

tl:dr;
As optimising web content becomes increasingly essential, the inbound shift is becoming an intriguing strategy (and new mindset) for public relations.

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The inbound shift PR strategy requires a new mindset.

As optim­ising web con­tent becomes increas­ingly essen­tial, the inbound shift is becom­ing an intriguing oppor­tun­ity for pub­lic relations.

But when it comes to inbound com­mu­nic­a­tions, most PR pro­fes­sion­als today think about land­ing pages and con­ver­sion rates.

However — inbound com­mu­nic­a­tions is also a PR strategy.

Here we go:

The Inbound Shift

As pub­lic rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als, we must rethink how we think about pub­lics. Traditionally, many PR depart­ments have argued:

“Why should we waste budgets on ‘already acquired’ audiences?”

The truth is — it’s the oth­er way around.

The inbound shift is a fun­da­ment­al mind­set change in the pub­lic rela­tions industry.

Jerry Silfwer speaking about inbound marketing
Jerry Silfwer (Doctor Spin) speaks about inbound marketing.

Instead of “spam­ming” non-exist­ing audi­ences, pub­lic rela­tions and mar­ket­ing can do much more with exist­ing online pub­lics. 1Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Inbound vs Outbound: The Difference

Inbound vs out­bound is the online equi­val­ent of draw­ing the line between those who know you and those who don’t.

Drawing a line between those who know you and those who don’t know you is noth­ing new:

  • Pull vs push (mar­ket­ing).
  • Hot vs cold (sales).
  • Internal vs extern­al (com­mu­nic­a­tions).

If your inbound shift PR strategy is strong, you might no longer need to pri­or­it­ise your out­bound PR strategies since your inbound audi­ence will attract out­bound publics!

Learn more: The Inbound Shift PR Strategy

Iceberg Publishing

You could think of your web­site as an iceberg. 

A char­ac­ter­ist­ic of an ice­berg is that whatever you see of the ice­berg float­ing above the sur­face, you can be sure that the ice­berg is many times lar­ger under­neath the surface.

“Typically about one-tenth of the volume of an ice­berg is above water, which fol­lows from Archimedes’s Principle of buoy­ancy; the dens­ity of pure ice is about 920 kg/​m3 (57 lb/​cu ft), and that of sea­wa­ter about 1,025 kg/​m3 (64 lb/​cu ft). The con­tour of the under­wa­ter por­tion can be dif­fi­cult to judge by look­ing at the por­tion above the sur­face.”
Source: Wikipedia

So, “above the sur­face” is where some of your pages are eas­ily access­ible from your site nav­ig­a­tion (menu links, foot­er links, side­bar links, etc.). And then, “beneath the sur­face”, you place a vast array of web pages not dir­ectly linked to your nav­ig­a­tion — land­ing pages.

Iceberg pub­lish­ing has five key components:

  • Landing pages.
  • Evergreen con­tent.
  • Content themes.
  • Deep con­tent.
  • Inbound shift.

The way to think about ice­berg pub­lish­ing is to ima­gine build­ing a web­site where intent-driv­en and highly con­vert­ing land­ing pages vastly out­num­ber basic and con­ven­tion­al web pages.

Learn more: Iceberg Publishing

What is a Landing Page?

What is a land­ing page?

Landing page (LP) = a single-pur­pose web page stripped of stand­ard menus and side­bars with a single CTA (call-to-action) chosen to match the visitor’s demon­strated intent.

Why do land­ing pages work well?

  • The para­dox of choice. Too many call-to-actions on any page will typ­ic­ally nev­er lead to more con­ver­sions (it’s the para­dox of choice). This is due to con­ver­sion can­ni­bal­ism, where dif­fer­ent call-to-actions pun­ish each oth­er. 2Silfwer, J. (2015, October 4). Beware of Conversion Cannibalism. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​-​c​a​n​n​i​b​a​l​i​sm/
  • Harvesting known user intent. With each click, a user demon­strates intent. Once intent has been demon­strated, it’s recom­men­ded to present the user with rel­ev­ant inform­a­tion—and noth­ing else.

A land­ing page is typ­ic­ally a web page with one sin­gu­lar call-to-action — or the same call-to-action repeated ver­tic­ally. To max­im­ise con­ver­sions, these pages are often stripped of side­bars, nav­ig­a­tion­al menus, foot­ers, etc.

For intent-driv­en and clear call-to-action inspir­a­tion, please study how Google uses their front page as a clean, high-con­vert­ing land­ing page.

Learn more: What is a Landing Page?

Types of Landing Pages

Here are a few examples of dif­fer­ent land­ing page types:

  • Lead cap­ture pages. These are designed to gath­er con­tact inform­a­tion from vis­it­ors, usu­ally in exchange for some­thing valu­able like an ebook, a webin­ar, or a free tri­al. They typ­ic­ally include a form and a brief descrip­tion of what the vis­it­or will get in return for their information.
  • Click-through pages. These pages are used primar­ily in e‑commerce and SaaS (Software as a Service) indus­tries. They provide detailed inform­a­tion about a product or offer and lead vis­it­ors to a shop­ping cart or checkout.
  • Sales pages. Focused on dir­ectly selling a product or ser­vice. They often include detailed descrip­tions, bene­fits, testi­mo­ni­als, and a strong call to action (CTA) to make a purchase.
  • Squeeze pages. A type of lead cap­ture page, squeeze pages are designed to extract inform­a­tion from vis­it­ors, usu­ally through a form. They often have min­im­al con­tent except for a pitch and a form.
  • Registration pages. These pages provide inform­a­tion about the event and include a regis­tra­tion form. They are designed to sign up vis­it­ors for an event or a webinar.
  • Thank you pages. After a vis­it­or takes action (like sign­ing up or mak­ing a pur­chase), these pages thank them and can also guide them towards the next steps, like down­load­ing a resource or check­ing related products.
  • Launch pages. These pages are used for new products or ser­vices and aim to build excite­ment and anti­cip­a­tion. They might include a count­down timer, teas­er inform­a­tion, and an option to sign up for updates.
  • Unsubscribe pages. Used when someone unsub­scribes from a ser­vice or email list. They often include options to recon­sider the decision or provide feedback.
  • Coming soon pages. Like launch pages, they are used before a web­site or product launch to build anti­cip­a­tion and gath­er early interest or email sign-ups.
  • 404 error pages. While not a typ­ic­al land­ing page, a well-designed 404 page can turn an error into an oppor­tun­ity, guid­ing lost vis­it­ors back to the main site or to spe­cif­ic actions.

Each land­ing page type serves a spe­cif­ic pur­pose in the cus­tom­er jour­ney, focus­ing on a single object­ive: increas­ing con­ver­sions by har­vest­ing demon­strated user intent.

Only your ima­gin­a­tion will determ­ine what types of effi­cient land­ing pages you can develop!

Read also: Types of Landing Pages

Inbound Communications is Good PR

Inbound com­mu­nic­a­tions is more than deploy­ing vari­ous tac­tics to cap­ture online leads.

If your site isn’t grow­ing, what hap­pens if you com­pensate for that lack of engage­ment by pay­ing to 10x your traffic? Now you have 10x the num­ber of people who are not engaged — and your budget is spent. Doesn’t make much sense, right?

Many brands focus on land­ing pages for list build­ing, con­tent themes, call-to-actions, vir­al loops, con­ver­sion rates, lead mag­nets, con­tent upgrades, land­ing pages, a/​b‑testing, mar­ket­ing auto­ma­tion, email mar­ket­ing, etc.

Most com­pan­ies want more traffic, fans, emails, and sales. But in most cases, reach­ing new out­bound audi­ences isn’t the real problem: 

If you suc­cess­fully engage your exist­ing yet small online audi­ence, it won’t stay small for much longer. In a wired world, people influ­ence each oth­er, and people influ­ence social media algorithms.

And that’s the raw PR power of inbound communications.

Jerry Silfwer - Doctor Spin - Spin Factory - Public Relations

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Annotations
Annotations
1 Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/
2 Silfwer, J. (2015, October 4). Beware of Conversion Cannibalism. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​-​c​a​n​n​i​b​a​l​i​sm/
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Whispr Group NYC, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Cover Photo

The cover photo isn't related to public relations obviously; it's just a photo of mine. Think of it as a 'decorative diversion', a subtle reminder that it's good to have hobbies outside work.

The cover photo has

News anchor Lisah Silfwer taking photos on the beach - Inbound Marketing Paradigm

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