Drip Marketing as a Public Relations Tool
Public relations campaigns are created to generate good will for your company, along with name recognition and a perception of expertise or industry leadership. 
Most of the time, public relations campaigns center around press releases and the preparation of “media kits.” These media kits are several pages of information about your company’s background, products, services, accomplishments, etc. Their purpose is to give a reporter the information necessary to write a story – which you hope they will do!
But think about those words: “Public relations.” Everything you send out is to raise awareness of your firm, while creating a positive impression.
Drip marketing, done correctly, can do an even better job with the individuals in “the public” who count most.
When you send a press release it goes to news media. So unless your message is being shown in a trade magazine or an online site dedicated to one profession, press releases are a way of taking the “shotgun approach” – scattering your message out to the masses in hopes that people who need your products or services will see them and remember.
Conversely, drip campaigns are sent to those individuals who have shown an interest in what you have to offer. And, aren’t those people more important to your success than the vast majority who neither want nor need your offering?
By using your drip campaign to provide helpful, useful information to people who have inquired, you can position yourself as the expert. But not only that, you show yourself to be a generous expert – someone who gives freely of advice even without promise of reward.
Because drip campaigns offer answers to questions and solutions to problems that your target audience has, the messages have value to them.
Thus, your audience will begin to look forward to hearing from you – and of course your name recognition will be established.
Where do you get the names? One source is from your website. Offer some kind of special report in exchange for the right to mail them you. Another source is a targeted list purchased from a reputable list broker.
Notice I said “reputable.” Please don’t fall for any of those cheap spam lists that are so widely offered on the Internet. Those are names that have been “harvested” from websites, blogs, forums, and even phony e-mail petitions. You really don’t want to have anything to do with them. Honest. At best you’ll get no results and at worst you’ll gain a reputation as a spammer.
Posted: June 19th, 2010 under drip marketing, e-mail marketing, marketing, web marketing.
Tags: advertising, drip marketing, internet marketing, marketing, public relations, web marketing