Today, everyone can be a content creator. Businesses take advantage of this by regularly publishing blog posts, videos, and other informative content in a bid to position themselves as reliable sources of valuable information.
But as online content continues to grow, making your content and brand stand out from other businesses requires an effective public relations or PR strategy.
Let’s take a closer look at public relations and content marketing and discover how public relations support marketing efforts today.
We’ll take a look at good PR content examples and determine why there needs to be a content strategy to foster relationships with the media, influencers, and creators to establish effective outreach efforts.
Public Relations vs. Content Marketing
Public relations focuses on engaging with and influencing your company’s stakeholders to shape how they perceive your organization. It uses different platforms, including social media, press releases, brochures, blogs, speaking engagements, and more to communicate your business’ message.
As a result, PR teams need to regularly create relevant content and make sure it reaches the right people.
Content marketing, by contrast, focuses on creating valuable and relevant content that will attract the desired audience.
This content may include blog posts, online articles, informative videos, case studies, ebooks, and infographics. Of course, this content needs to be promoted, so content marketers also use PR methods like email campaigns to distribute and advertise their content.
Combine PR and content marketing for the best results
Both content marketing and PR are highly valued in business. According to HubSpot, 82 percent of marketers actively use content marketing. Meanwhile, Statista reported that the global PR market was worth $88 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 and is expected to grow to $129 billion in 2025.
Ultimately, PR teams and content marketers share the goal of attracting customers and establishing a trustworthy brand but use different marketing strategies. Thus, combining their approaches gives your business a major advantage.
By using content marketing tactics, you’ll be able to produce a wealth of content showcasing your expertise.
And by using PR, you’ll know the best ways to reach out to your audience, increase brand awareness, improve consumer demand, and even establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
Best PR Practices for Content Creators
PR professionals help content creators learn how to shape their content to appeal to a wider audience. Likewise, the content ideas generated by content marketers inform the PR team about the type of content audiences want to consume.
Here are some of the best ways PR methods mesh with content marketing to enhance a company’s brand:
Identify new content platforms
Regularly producing new content for your company blog might attract some readers, but if you’re looking to really increase your brand exposure, you need to distribute your content across multiple media platforms.
A PR team can help with this. PR professionals need to keep on top of the latest market trends and can inform content creators how different types of content can attract desired audiences.
For instance, a blog article could be repurposed into an online video for audiences more comfortable with consuming content by listening to spoken words or watching infographics on a screen.
Build relationships with influencers
PR teams are excellent at reaching out and building relationships with journalists, editors, bloggers, and social media influencers. This makes it easier for the articles, posts, press releases, and videos produced by your content creators to be shared with the right people.
As your content marketing team produces more insightful, relevant, and valuable material, this content will gain wider media coverage and social shares, greatly improving your online visibility.
Journalists may find stories to report on after seeing the infographics and content you post on social media, further enhancing your outreach efforts. Likewise, establishing relationships with influencers can lead to social media mentions and product/service reviews, increasing your online visibility.
Establish thought leadership
Thought leadership involves sharing ideas and expertise about a field, area, or topic that establishes you as a valuable source of unique insights and experience. People recognized as thought leaders are seen as the leading authorities in their field or industry.
Becoming a thought leader makes you a powerful influencer in your business. It also helps position your business or personal brand as a trustworthy source of knowledge, earning you more clients.
Producing authentic and informative content highlighting your useful perspective is an excellent way to share your expertise. However, unless this content is shared among a wide audience, your authority on the subject will not be recognized.
Public relations help you share your insightful content by connecting you with speaking engagements, interviews, social media influencers, and more.
As your content marketing team produces regular material that showcases your expertise, your PR team helps you share your message with your industry and other thought leaders, building a powerful brand.
Examples of Good PR Content
Some of the most successful companies and agencies merge PR tactics with their content marketing strategies. These include:
Fractl
Fractl is a data-driven content marketing agency that focuses on researching industry-related topics. Their clients include DirecTV, Consumer Affairs, and others.
In addition to publishing research on its website, Fractl also shares its insights with leading publications like the New York Times. These PR tactics help establish Fractl’s expertise with a wider audience and enhance its brand as a data-driven company.
Orbit Media
Web design and development agency Orbit Media produces plenty of original content for its blog on analytics, web design, and content marketing. This content marketing strategy has resulted in plenty of backlinks and visitors.
However, Orbit Media also uses PR tactics. Every year, they build a comprehensive content piece based on current statistics and answers to a Blogging Survey sent out to 1,000 bloggers.
This article is then shared with and linked to other authority websites like Hubspot and Oberlo, enhancing Orbit Media’s reach.
Likewise, Orbit Media co-founder and CMO Andy Crestodina speaks at marketing conferences and webinars as a thought leader. He also hosts a podcast, publishes books, and writes many guest blog posts, revealing an effective PR marketing strategy for establishing Orbit Media’s expertise.
Harness the Power of PR and Content Marketing
While some may look at the issue of content marketing versus PR as a way to decide whether they should invest in PR or content marketing, the truth is that the two teams should work together to establish stronger and more consistent brands for a business.
Good PR professionals open up new audiences for content marketers beyond the audience content creators build for themselves.
This helps establish stronger relationships between content creators and media influencers, which enhances your company’s outreach efforts and connects you with more customers.
Having a clearer perspective on the type of content being produced also enables PR to determine who and how to share this content with.
Insightful, authentic content helps build thought leadership as PR teams make sure the right influencers and media outlets connect with the content, revealing how PR and content marketing serves to make each other whole.
By combining the power of PR and content marketing, you can supercharge your results and achieve greater brand awareness, increased traffic to your website, and ultimately, more conversions. Talk to a content specialist today about getting content created for your brand, from press releases to blog posts.
