The Public Relations BlogDigital PRContent & InboundInbound Shift PR Strategy: Beauty From Within

Inbound Shift PR Strategy: Beauty From Within

Prioritise those who care about your business.

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

tl:dr;
In digital PR, it's possible to shift resources from activities targeting publics unaware of your value proposition (outbound) to targeting publics who already have some established relationship with your organisation (inbound). This shift works as a PR strategy because increased engagement and ambassadorship from already aware online audiences will have far greater algorithmic impacts.
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The Inbound Shift PR Strategy is immensely power­ful for PR.

As optim­ising web con­tent becomes increas­ingly essen­tial, inbound com­mu­nic­a­tions is becom­ing an intriguing oppor­tun­ity for PR and marketing.

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 for PR

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

The inbound mind­set is a fun­da­ment­al shift in the PR- and mar­ket­ing industry.

Historically, many PR- and mar­ket­ing depart­ments have argued:

Why should we spend our PR- and mar­ket­ing budgets on ‘already acquired’ audiences?”

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

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/

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

  • Pull mar­ket­ing vs push mar­ket­ing
  • Hot leads vs cold leads
  • Permission mar­ket­ing vs tra­di­tion­al marketing
  • Internal com­mu­nic­a­tions vs extern­al communications

This inbound shift is the online equi­val­ent of draw­ing the line between those who know you and those who don’t know you:

  • Inbound com­mu­nic­a­tions vs out­bound communications

If your Inbound Shift PR Strategy is good, you might not need to pri­or­it­ise out­bound PR strategies — because your inbound audi­ence will attract out­bound publics.

Learn more: The Inbound Shift PR Strategy: Beauty From Within

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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 real PR power of inbound communications.

Signature - Jerry Silfwer - Doctor Spin

Thanks for read­ing. Please sup­port my blog by shar­ing art­icles with oth­er com­mu­nic­a­tions and mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sion­als. You might also con­sider my PR ser­vices or speak­ing engage­ments.

PR Resource: More PR Strategies

PR Resource: Types of Landing Pages

Landing pages serves a single purpose.
Landing pages serve a single purpose.
Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

Types of Landing Pages

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.

Here are a few examples of 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.

The above examples are to name a few examples of land­ing pages. Only your ima­gin­a­tion will determ­ine what types of effi­cient land­ing pages you can develop!

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

Read also: Types of Landing Pages

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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/
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 Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.
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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

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