I Already Do Content Marketing, Why Do I Need PR?

While many marketers have already jumped on the content marketing bandwagon, it’s important not to abandon your PR strategy just yet. A unified approach will make a much bigger impact.

Content marketing is a no brainer – it’s what consumers want, it’s what Google wants and it gets results, generating 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing. While 90% of marketers have adopted content marketing, 66% of those using it are struggling to engage with audiences via the content they produce.

This is where PR comes in – if no-one is engaging with your content, there’s absolutely no benefit for your company.

The engine of content marketing

Just as a sports car looks gorgeous on the outside turning heads on the roads, without the extra horsepower under the bonnet it’s not so special.

“Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.” Jonathan Perelman, GM of Video & VP Agency Strategy, BuzzFeed

PR is the engine for your content. Think of it as a tactic in your content marketing strategy –once you align PR with your content marketing plan, you’ll reap the rewards.

It produces a unified message

Ensuring your content marketing and PR are aligned means that all media, whether it’s a blog post, tweet or press release, will have the same tone of voice.

Regardless of where customers discovered you, that same tone makes them feel comfortable as they know what to expect from you.

This is even more important in today’s era of social sharing. As consumers share a brand’s message, there is less control over how the content appears.  It’s essential then that the original message is right from the very beginning.

This approach also applies if you employ an outside agency to do content and PR. It’s useful to hire the same company to do both to ensure a coherent tone of voice – plus it will enable communication and ensure goals are aligned.

It creates a bigger impact

A good PR strategy will raise the awareness of the content you are producing. This is known as earned media and has great value.

However, the value is nothing if the owned media – your website, a white paper, a blog post – fails to live up to expectations. This is where good content marketing comes in – the right content builds loyalty and converts visitors into customers.

As well as making a bigger impact, an integrated approach of content marketing and PR also means you’ll:

• See gaps in the market for your chosen audience.
• Understand how to target that audience more effectively.
• Recognise what has and hasn’t worked previously.

It’s cost effective

There’s a lot of content out there – 42% of content marketers produce one or more content assets per week – but creating content costs money. Integrated campaigns can help reduce these costs.

Repurpose content: The tactics you use for PR – such as an article in a trade publication or a press release – can easily be converted into owned media, while a survey commissioned by the content marketing team for a white paper makes for great PR. And as you’ll both be using the same tone of voice, it will appear seamless.

Improve distribution: Producing less content, but distributing more effectively, can also save money. Working on a unified content marketing and PR strategy means you can see when to pull back on creating new content and when to step up on distribution.

While content will never die, understanding how to promote the content you already produce will make your marketing campaigns much more efficient.

• Having a unified voice saves time, money and resources.
• Being aligned means a stronger and more cohesive brand identity.
• Working together ensures better brand awareness among consumers, increased web traffic and more revenue.