For many brands, public relations represents an opportunity to gain traction and enhance their name and reputation with existing customers and potential new ones. When a journalist or TV station uses the brand name in a positive news story, the brand gets noticed and gains more visibility, hopefully leading to growth in the business.
We recently saw firsthand the impact PR can have. For one MMG client, Smart Healthy Green Living, a primary PR goal is to increase brand exposure and traffic to their website in order to drive user acquisition. While other media hits have helped them get closer to that goal, they’ve recently had a hit for the ages. When NBC King 5 TV (the NBC affiliate station for the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington) produced a segment about Smart Healthy Green Living’s featured series, “Bring Your Own Tools,” the reporter discussed the show’s increased popularity during the pandemic, interviewed the series host, and mentioned the SHG Living streaming service by name.
Not only was this a great media placement, but it also showed in the website traffic data as well. In comparison to typical online articles, TV hits are much harder to measure results because it’s more difficult to track traffic from the exposure. However, SHG Living’s analytics team noticed something interesting and looked at the geographic spread of the user base when the segment aired, as well as after, it was evident that the story made a huge impact in site visitor traffic and user acquisition.
Overnight, there was a massive increase in streaming service signups in the viewing area of NBC King 5, directly correlated to the airing of the “Bring Your Own Tools” feature story. Users in Washington accounted for 45% of traffic on the streaming service in just the first 48 hours after the piece was aired. In the following week, 35% of all SHG Living’s streaming app’s new users were from Washington.
By tracking the traffic data for placements in this manner, it’s easy to quantify the importance of PR. It can mean constantly gaining traction to help build your brand over time, or having an overnight success story such as this one.
