Food for Thought: a One Act Play about Inbound Marketing versus PR

I know many marketers who are passionate about inbound marketing. They firmly believe that with enough fresh content splashed around YouTube, Twitter and blogs the leads will start pouring in. Who am I to argue with them?

I spoke with one marketer last week about starting a media campaign for her company. She said inbound marketing was working just fine, thanks. She didn’t see how a PR campaign could possibly generate leads. Her satisfaction was bullet proof.

I decided to probe deeper to discover why she was so convinced PR could not help her company generate leads, among other small things like brand awareness, .

[Lights go up on stage. There I am, sitting in front of my laptop, cell phone in the crook of my neck.]

“You’re obviously doing well with inbound marketing,” I said.

“Yes, I don’t even do pay-per-click anymore,” she said, confidence brimming in her voice.

“Wow, that’s very impressive,” I chimed. “It sounds like you don’t need any more leads than what you’re currently generating.”

“I didn’t say that,” she said, a little defensively, as if her boss was listening in on the call. “We could always use more leads.”

Well, I reasoned with her, PR is not intended to be a substitute for inbound marketing. In fact, it’s an effective complement to an overall go-to-market strategy. “Would you say that most people like apples and oranges,” I asked, stealing a page from Socrates’ playbook (keep asking questions until they see the light!).

“Of course,” came the reply. Sensing her impatience, I quickly added: “So you agree most people at the grocery store buy both apples and oranges, that neither one owns the American appetite for fruit, right?”

“Agreed. Still, most people prefer one over the other,” she parried.

“True,” I said. “But, if you add up all the apple lovers and all the orange lovers, do you have more or fewer sales opportunities compared to just one fruit?”

“Okay, you’ve made your point, but I still don’t think that PR will generate any leads,” she shot back. “I was a journalist, so I should know.”

Realizing it was time for a new tack, I asked her if she liked to go out to eat. If so, could she think of a restaurant she’s been intending to visit for one reason or another. Turns out, she has a thing for food served at that icon of American cooking establishments: diners.

I eventually teased out this response: “I like to visit cool diners and there’s one in Boston I really want to hit.”

“Why?”

“They serve this burger with chili and…” For a moment, excitement crept into her voice as she described the food served at this particular greasy spoon.

“But why go there,” I asked. “What made you want to go? Did you Google ‘ Boston burgers’ and find the website or see one of their videos on Vimeo?”

“No, I watch Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and since this diner is nearby, I added it to my list of must-eats,” she clarified.

“So you saw Guy what’s-his-name talk about it,” I asked.

“Guy Fieri,” she corrected with a hint of exasperation, almost like ‘how could I not know his name!’

“Have you gone to any other restaurants Guy featured on the show?”

“Sure.”

“How many would you say?”

“Four, maybe five.”

“In what, the last three years?”

“More like 12 months.”

“Let me see if I understand this,” I asked. “You went to all these restaurants over the last year based on what you saw on a TV show, right?”

“That’s right,” she said.

“So would you agree that you are a lead that converted to a sale and that Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives made that possible,” I probed still further.

“Yes, I see your point, but it’s different from what I do.”

“How so? The restaurant in Boston got on TV, and was covered by a famous food personality. It’s PR at its best: creating interest in a brand, gaining credibility because of what an expert has to say, driving leads, building buzz. ”

“Okay.” I sensed her mind preparing a defense. “That’s fine for B2C, but I’m in B2B and there’s no TV show for what I sell.”

“No, not in any specific way,” I conceded. I sensed she was ready to declare victory and hang up. Instead of capitulating, I decided to throw her a curve ball instead: “You use a social media management tool for your inbound marketing, right?”

“Yes, Hubspot, why?” Her voice registered as much puzzlement as impatience with my prying questions.

“How did you come to make your decision?”

“We heard about it from another company. Read some of their whitepapers and case studies. It was all due to inbound marketing strategies employed by Hubspot!” She was triumphant. And why not, she was totally right.

Still, I had to ask: “So you never once relied upon an outside resource to evaluate Hubspot versus other options. You took Hubspot at its word, watched its webinars, and weren’t left wanting more, like maybe an outsider’s perspective?”

“Well, there were referrals,” she reminded me.

“Yes, word-of-mouth, while different from inbound marketing, is very effective,” I admitted. “But did you refer to any 3^rd party reviews or other resources?”

“I read about Hubspot in a few ezines, and I think I stumbled across them in a newspaper article.”

“Was that newspaper online or in print,” I asked innocently.

“Print. We get several in the office every morning.”

“Did the articles and reviews help convince you that Hubspot was the right decision to take?”

“Sure.”

“They were a kind of validation that made you feel better about your decision?”

“Definitely.”

“And what if you’d never heard of Hubspot, do you think that what you saw in the media would have prompted you to learn more?”

A moment of silence on the phone followed. I was tempted to ask if she was still on the line – I use AT&T, after all – but took a deep breath instead. “Probably,” she said finally.

“I want you to be completely honest with me. I’m a PR guy and you won’t hurt my feelings with your answer.”

“Okay.”

“Did those 3^rd party validations sway your decision to invest your marketing dollars in a tool that has only been in existence for, what, a few years or so? In other words, were you a bit reluctant to ‘pull the trigger’ on the new service before you read the articles and reviews from the media?”

“I guess I was,” she said with an air of frankness. “Now that I look back, it really swayed my decision having 3^rd parties I trusted give Hubspot a glowing review.”

Not one to gloat, I pressed on with a question. “So even though you made a B2B investment, do you still think that having trusted 3^rd parties talk about your company won’t help you sell your products and services, even send you motivated prospects in the process?”

“Looking at it that way, you’re probably right,” she said, sounding a little bruised by the turn the conversation took at her expense. “Still, we have a limited marketing budget and PR is not something we can afford right now, especially since we’re seeing results from inbound marketing.”

It was clear her mind was made up, and my time on the phone was over. She promised to keep PR in mind, said I could reach out to her later in the year.

Maybe I should have been disappointed that she didn’t hire me for a PR campaign. I wasn’t.

I’ve been in business long enough to know that not every company I talk to is going to end up in a sale. I was encouraged, however, that a marketer who had so completely drunk the inbound marketing ‘Kool-Aid’ had recognized that PR is often very instrumental in driving leads and sales conversions for a brand.

That was a conversion I could live with.

[Scene ends, lights go dark.]