Company: Pacific Security Capital
Agencies: Miksukanis & Odden Public Relations and TopRank Online Marketing
Timeframe: March 2005 to March 2006
(This week's Case Study is authored by Lee Odden, president of the Minneapolis-based TopRank Online Marketing and co-founder of Misukanis & Odden Public Relations. In
this article, Odden describes the benefits of integrating public relations and online marketing via a client project).
With the growth of the online community, marketers
are realizing that public relations and online marketing are inextricably linked and are adapting their marketing tactics and budget appropriately to accommodate this shift in the
consumer mindset. Companies that deploy public relations can take their marketing programs to the next level by integrating search engine optimization (SEO), online PR and other
interactive marketing tactics.
Consider this situation: Pacific Security Capital is a leading commercial real estate services company with offices in Oregon, Washington and California. Pacific
Security Capital was spending a substantial amount per month on paid search advertising and was looking for more effective and efficient ways of increasing sales as well as
building thought leadership.
Misukanis & Odden Public Relations and TopRank Online Marketing were engaged to implement an integrated marketing program that included tactics such as
natural SEO, blog marketing and public relations.
The current Pacific Security Capital Web site had very poor organic search engine rankings and the company had a modest footprint in the commercial real estate investment
marketplace. The objective was to improve sales and industry credibility while lowering online marketing costs.
Oomphing It Up
In order to improve relevancy and search engine rankings, Pacific Security Capital's Web site needed to be optimized for keyword phrases that the target audience would most
associate with a commercial real estate services company. A strategy to produce fresh, themed content on a regular basis as well as an ongoing link building program was
determined to facilitate rankings on relevant keyword phrases. The idea being, increased rankings attract more qualified visitors and result in more end sales.
Starting with keyword research and analysis, we developed a keyword glossary which was used to optimize content on Pacific Security Capital's Web site and was also used in the
public relations initiative. Keywords were used to identify planned editorial opportunities from target publication media calendars as well as within corporate communications.
Consistent keyword messaging across corporate communications built a consistent association of Pacific Security Capital with commercial real estate lending. As part of the
optimization strategy, a blog was established to serve as a resource for news and editorial on topics important to the target audience.
The PR Touch
The public relations program incorporated keyword strategy in the form of optimized press releases, pitching, media training of key Pacific Security Capital executives and
contributed articles. Press releases experienced an average of 60,000 page views for each release in the first 30 days and many releases achieved persistent rankings on
Google, Yahoo! and MSN for more specific keyword phrases.
Since many Web sites and blogs are syndicating press releases as content, a significant number of relevant, inbound links were acquired with each release.
Pacific Security Capital's Web site now has over 100 top ten rankings for targeted keyword phrases. Web site traffic has increased by 300% and inquiries have increased by 200%.
The Pacific Security Capital blog is the second highest source of traffic for the pacificsecuritycapital.com Web site, behind Google. The Web site now has over 3,000 inbound links
as a result of optimized press releases and an ongoing link building program.
The Misukanis & Odden Public Relations team achieved media coverage in over 50 target publications. Overall costs are approximately one fifth of the marketing expenditure
when the program started.
TopRank continues to provide ongoing site optimization refinement, Web site analysis, link building, blog marketing and press release optimization services. Misukanis &
Odden provides ongoing public relations consulting and media relations services. The program has been so successful that Pacific Security Capital has recently increased their
program by 50%.
Contact: Lee Odden, 952.400.0192 or [email protected].
Lessons Learned: SEO, PR and you
If you are planning to incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) into your PR endeavors, here are some tips you may want to click on:
- Learn it or learn to eat dust. Promotions involving SEO are not the future. They are very much here and now, and PR operations that do not incorporate SEO
functions into their offerings have already fallen behind the competition.
- Blog it. One of the distinctively clever aspects of the Pacific Security Capital case study was the creation and maintenance of a corporate blog as part of the
SEO effort. A bit of corporate social responsibility always makes for a great press release. Many companies are still hemming and hawing about setting up blogs, but the Pacific
Security Capital example should be cited as evidence that this new media strategy can work.
- And then? If you follow the Pacific Security Capital story and you see significant Web traffic increases, what is your next step? The Net is not a stagnant
environment, so always keep an eye out for new promotional ideas, partnerships and possibilities.