How earned media drives consumer behavior: Relevance and headlines

Last week, I wrote about some unexpected insights into the relationship between publication authority (reputation and reach) and consumer behavior.

This week, there are more surprises in store for you as we continue our conversation about connecting earned media content to desired consumer actions.

What are those consumer actions?

They include website visits and activity at the top of the marketing funnel, as well new customers, sales and brand loyalists at the bottom of the marketing funnel.

And thanks to modern PR technology, it is now possible to make this connection.

During a recent quantitative analysis of global PR measurement data here at Onclusive, we sought to understand the relationship between certain characteristics of media articles –- such as publication authority, brand relevance, brand engagement and sentiment -– and PR-driven website traffic and actions.

Brand relevance would seem to be a strong predictor of consumer behavior. Or is it? Well, let’s look at the data.

Article brand relevance and consumer behavior

Brand relevance measures how much the article is “about” a particular company or brand, from a single mention to a dedicated feature.