Insight

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Top free tools that should be helping drive your PR strategy

The best things in life are free, so sang Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson, but what you didn’t realise is that they were actually singing about the different free tools that can help develop your PR strategy. 

Well, perhaps they weren’t, but it is true that there are a variety of assets you can access for no cost that can provide insight and data that could be crucial in your future public relations activity. 

As well as these, just a little research can also uncover a goldmine of free information that can be used in addition to help build your brand and connect with your audience. 

Below are just a few examples. 

Google Analytics 

The benefits of using Google Analytics should not be underestimated.  

In a nutshell it shows you how your website is performing, good or bad, and from this you can decide your future direction, whether that’s to continue what you are doing or change course. 

Within the key data it provides is (but there is much, much more besides this): 

  • How visitors found your website 
  • How many people visited your website 
  • The location they came from 
  • How long they stayed and what they looked at 
  • Which links they clicked on 
Keywords are key 

With SEO as king, using keywords is another way to help push your website up Google rankings and build a higher profile. 

Therefore, creating pages and content with the right words can pay dividends. 

In essence, keywords are the words that people would type in when searching for your type of business. 

Therefore, if you are a plumber you would probably include plumber, plumbing, plumbing services, emergency plumber, 24-hour plumbing service, etc, etc, while also remembering some of the more specific services you offer such as toiler repair, boiler servicing, boiler repairs. 

However, the skill is to build useful and informative content around these keywords instead of simply ramming them in without thought. Write for people and the algorithm will reward it. 

Meanwhile, long-tail keywords are also a great way to increase SEO, some argue they are even more important than short-tail keywords, and are typically longer, possibly five words or more, so contain more detail and can be even more specific in detailing the product or service you offer. 

Editorial calendars 

Whilst the above two examples deal primarily with online opportunities, this final example is more traditional in its approach, although still involves some online research. 

Many publications and websites provide an editorial calendar highlighting their forward features for the coming year. 

Providing editorial for these features is almost always free of charge and should your submission be interesting and topical, provided with good quality imagery, then you stand a decent chance of being included. 

Call in the experts 

The above are free of cost, but they are not free of time spent in research and implementation, which is where the PR experts, such as Red Marlin, come into their own. Our expertise and proven track record, offering services including strategy development, can also benefit your business.

 

To see how we can help, please email hello@redmarlin.co.uk and we’ll be in touch.  

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