While one of the main objectives of the America’s Least Wasteful Cities Campaign on behalf of Nalgene was to garner maximum visibility on the Internet, Len Cercone of PR agency Cercone Brown says that digital PR can’t enable that visibility alone. “Direct response PR, which is what we utilized in this campaign, combines traditional media relations, social media marketing and e-commerce tactics,” says Cercone. Here are specific steps from Cercone that will drive people online, and toward a sale:
1. “You must have content that people want to share,” he says. “That could be a journalist sharing with readers, or consumers wanting to share information with their friends.”
2. “Have a call to action. We drew people to the campaign microsite by inviting them to take the Least Wasteful test themselves,” says Cercone.
3. “There has to be natural tie-in to e-commerce,” he says. “For instance, we offered a special commemorative bottle from Nalgene, that hopefully piqued interest in buying other products.”