- First off knowing what PR is and isn’t helps.
So your first question may be, how does Public Relations differ from Advertising? Advertising is all about purchasing an image or reputation, whereas PR is how you earn it. It’s about placing your brand in front of the right audience at the right time. Crafting messages that can connect with your audience and help illicit a response as oppose to sounding like another cookie cutter marketer. As far as contemporary PR, it focus is heavily placed on content creation and distribution.
Everyone wants compelling content, press, bloggers, analysts, journalists, everyone is looking for the next best story—PR is helping those professionals do their job while helping you build a positive reputation. Your best PR experts are spending there days creating drafts of articles, creating unique and quality content.
- Does Marketing compete with PR
With that being said does marketing tend to compete with PR? Marketing evolved within the professional market just as Public Relations was beginning to take off too. Marketers took to strategies which drew targeted audiences, as oppose to selling messages to everyone, PR began seeing a shrinking media landscape, leading to a new shift.
In today’s world of journalism there are far less reporters occupying the newsroom. The need for copy hasn’t diminished however. Thousands of web-based news services are excitedly trying to fill this void. Content Producers and Editors are looking for reliable and skilled content contributors. Now a days the question is, when an editor wants an article on a CEO, is that marketing request, or a job for PR? Why not both? Marketing may have already crafted these messages for proper dissemination, however in a hurried pace PR experts are likely to be more skilled and adapt at delivering exceptional quality tailored content geared to not only a targeted audience but your targeted journalist you’re hoping to reach out to.
- If PR and Content Marketing are so closely related why do you need both?
Just like the best organizations out there, the more hands on deck, the more likely you can steer in any direction you need at a moment’s notice; additionally the more successful you can be as the strain of workload is separated amongst the proper experts. If you’re fortunate enough to be in a position to have both a content marketing expert and a PR expert you’re in brilliant shape to influence your target audiences everywhere—from traditional print media to online sites, social media channel, and powerful search engines. This is all done in the hope that your PR expert is speaking and working with your content marketing experts, they’ll be the best support and hopeful inspiration for one another in reaching your strategic organizational goals.
- How Marketing and PR teams can strengthen one another.
It’s vital for your PR teams and your content marketing teams to communicate. For example if you’re promoting a new collection of work, (book, magazine, journal, etc.,) your PR teams may be able to break down the content to use as multiple assets for contributed content on social media channels, for media pitches to bloggers/journalists, or any audience influencers. Any effective media campaign should also inform you about what messages are working, what is resonating with your client base, and what prospects may want. All of this is vital to future content creation.
Together the two fields converge to help tell a story. The story of your business; its successes, its hiccups, and its aspirations—as mentioned before it’s the story that will sell your audience, and your brand by proxy.
- Is PR something that can be measured? How?
Public Relations is definitely something that can be measured, and if you’re told otherwise, make sure to start asking better sources. Every form of marketing and brand development has a tangible system of measurement. Some of the metrics PR experts use to measure awareness are content engagement, investor interest, sales percentage changes, and lead generation. Other measurements are similar if not identical to marketing analytics.
All of this is dependent on the infrastructure your organization has taken to allow for analytical tracking, visa vie tracking tools enabled on your websites and social media channels, or even through systems of promotional submissions from clients, (coupons returned for sales, survey’s responded to online or by phone, etc.) Tracking these numbers are imperative in learning how to turn leads into converted sales/followers.
There are several key questions to ask yourself in order to maximize the return on your tracking methods: Are you being talked about online? Are influencers interested in your brand or product? Are your posts online being clicked on, shared, or commented on? Is there engagement in your social media? If potential customers are engaging with you online, or through traditional means, how are they going about that? After a quarter, or after a pre-determined amount of months has your PR push increased any of your numbers?
- Are contributed articles your only source of PR Handles?
To put it bluntly…not even close. A thoughtful and strategic PR plan revolves all around solving a businesses problem, whether it’s a lack in leads, a desire to reach a new audience, or needing to reshape a brand’s image. The problem that your brand is looking to address first will guide your overall strategy; a full-service PR team may have a list of 100 tasks they believe are imperative to reaching success, while another may only have 10.
Whatever the recommendation of your PR team may be, it should explain the additional support, asset retrieval and content creation they are looking to develop. There should also be a relatively clear way of how success is going to be measured; if the respond is vague, it may be time to look for someone who can help deliver a clear answer.
- What are journalists, and local media distributors looking for from external content creators?
Every content channel is different, and as such their guidelines for acceptable content will vary, however there are some best practice techniques that can help guide you to success. Editors will want you to create content and articles with their target audience in mind, (it’s for this reason a template Press Release will have less success than a tailored one,) they want you to be able to offer information and guidance to its readers. It should be compelling and easy to read, (don’t dumb down your writing, but don’t try and make everyone know how many big words you know in a short format.) Your content needs to be fresh, or at least a new outlook on an important topic.