Reviews

Product review: Vocus PR management software

IT | Mark Walker | 24 May 2010

Mark Walker and Julie Harris run the rule over Vocus PR management software.

Building good relationships with the press and social media contacts cannot be achieved by sending huge numbers of press releases to random contact lists. Tools such as Vocus can help you identify relevant contacts and keep track of progress. It is important to point out at the start that we felt the product would really only suit a certain type of organisation; partly because of its functionality and partly because of its pricing structure. Only those with a complex need for PR contacts, press campaigns and monitoring will be able to justify and fully recoup their investment in this system. This is likely to mean charities and other not-for-profits that deal with national and international campaigns, fundraising or other marketing activities.

Having said that, we were impressed with the functions on offer, which will clearly help any busy marketing or campaigns officer find and communicate with key press contacts, maintain a record of activity and monitor how stories are used. It also helps integrate press activity with social media presence, including monitoring blogs for mentions of an organisation or any other key word. And it produces reports to help identify which tactics are delivering the most bangs for your bucks.

There are many similar tools available but few offer this range of functionality. Its pricing structure means you can choose the functions most relevant to you and manage how many users have access to those tools. A single user license starts at £2,000 for basic press release distribution, with more for bells and whistles. Additional users cost more, although single user licenses can be shared within a team. Pricing is based on specific configuration – be prepared to haggle.

Database of contacts

No matter how good their existing networks, most organisations will benefit from access to the Vocus database of media contacts – 50,000 in the UK and over one million worldwide. These include contact lists and profiles of print and broadcast media as well as established bloggers, online publications, analysts and freelancers. Although Vocus is a US-based company, the UK contacts are comprehensive. There could be issues with the use of language and jargon for non-profits using the software in the UK, so make sure you give it a proper test run before committing to anything.

Contacts can be filtered by topic, location and media type to build mailing lists for press releases. These lists can be saved and used in any combination and the contacts in them are automatically updated if the contact details change. Any user can read up on individual journalists before calling them, use editorial calendars to spot a chance to pitch ideas or maintain a number of contact lists without the pain of calling round to see whether people have moved on.

Lists are used to distribute press releases and other documents by mail, broadcast fax and personalised email, and the software can record the history of mail, fax, email and other interactions with each contact, take notes of conversations and schedule follow-up activities. Adding this information to profiles on the core database helps target follow-up activity and nurture relationships over time.

Who can benefit?

Any small organisation [ie fewer than 20 staff] with paid marketing or campaign staff could consider using the basic media contacts functions and contacts management to manage press and PR campaigns. It will help make the most of the investment of salary and time as well as extend their horizons into the blogosphere and beyond.

Larger organisations may have established internal contact management systems but could consider Vocus for the sheer scale of its contacts database and the ease of use in creating a single system to manage and monitor its campaigns. It could also offer a single dashboard-style tool for planning, managing and monitoring campaigns across a range of media, rather than relying on a mix of tools that cannot easily produce consolidated reports.

Vocus is a lot more than an email management tool but not every organisation will need or have the capacity to use it to its fullest potential. Other products offer similar functions, so it is worth shopping around, and it is worth remembering that no matter how much the software offers, it is the human input that is the most critical.

Mark Walker and Julie Harris are government-funded third sector ICT champions

Images

Tweet

Directory: Vocus Europe
Who's Who: Mark Walker | Julie Harris