PR and content marketing are two especially important processes that a business can undertake to boost sales, improve brand awareness, and increase profit. A mistake we see time and time again, however, is companies failing to see the link between these two things.
Although they serve a different purpose and require a slightly different skillset, PR and content marketing have amazing synergy and this should be tapped into to take your business to the next level. In the below article, I explore the link between PR and content marketing and how you combine their efforts for superb end results.
Understanding the Difference
Let’s first make sure we are clear on the definitions and understand what each process is and aims to achieve.
What is PR?
Cambridge Dictionary defines PR as:
“The activity of providing the public with information about your organization so that people have a positive idea of the organization’s work”
It’s the process of boosting your brand image and building a bond of trust with your customers. PR aims to spread your business messages and show that you can have a positive impact and that you are a brand that has the right answers.
PR specialists can utilize a range of methods such as press releases, blogs, white papers, social media content, web content, and guest posts to help increase brand mentions and get the public talking about your business in a positive way.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing can be defined as:
“The process of producing and sharing online content such as blogs, social media posts, and video content with the aim of stimulating interest in a company’s products and/or services”
We can see already that there is an underlying theme for both processes involving raising awareness however where PR seeks to improve your brand image and trust, content marketing is more geared towards sales and profit.
Content marketing can inadvertently improve your brand image and reputation but it is not the main aim. Instead, you are trying to increase the visibility and awareness of your business offerings and ultimately want this to lead to more conversions.
How Can PR and Content Marketing Work Together
You’ve got a clear definition of each process now and should already be able to see how they can work together but let’s explore the specifics.
Instead of taking a fragmented and compartmentalized approach to business, you will see below how content marketing and PR can work together. This includes the sharing of goals, improved efficiency, and better SEO.
1. They can share similar goals
Oftentimes you will find that the goals of content marketing and PR overlap. This is fantastic news for your business as it means you can hopefully achieve your goals with much less effort and in a quicker timeframe.
Examples of potential goals that may overlap with content marketing and PR include:
- Increase brand awareness.
- Increase social media following and shares.
- Improve conversion rates.
- Improve website traffic.
These could apply to PR or content marketing and it means your teams can work together to get things done quicker.
2. Positive PR helps legitimize your content marketing
Sometimes content marketing can fall flat or have a limited reach due to a lack of trust and a poor brand image and this is where positive PR helps greatly.
By creating a watertight PR campaign or using the help of a full-service digital PR agency, you can use your PR to boost the effectiveness of your content marketing. PR naturally helps build trust, improve your brand awareness, and generally raise your public opinion.
This has the knock-on effect of making your content marketing more effective. Customers are far more likely to pay attention, listen to what’s being said, and engage with your content.
3. Both teams can share ideas for improved workflow
Similar to how the goals for content marketing and PR overlap, so can the work and ideas. Instead of brainstorming and formulating new content marketing and PR strategies separately, you can hold joint meetings.
With these joint sessions, you have more brainpower contributing to idea generation and each team may have ideas that the other may not have thought of. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one and this is true for PR and content marketing.
4. They both help improve SEO
The amazing thing about all this content that you generate via content marketing and PR is that it all contributes to your SEO. Think of the different items you may produce:
- Blog articles.
- Website content.
- Video marketing.
- Social media content.
- Press releases.
- Guest posts.
These are just some of the main examples and there are many more. The point is, is that all this content looks fantastic to Google and it should only help improve your SEO. Because both processes require content too, you should have an inexhaustible supply for the foreseeable future which helps with consistency.
Content Marketing and PR are Not Mutually Exclusive - Use This to Your Benefit
Businesses often make the mistake of treating different departments or processes separately and keeping them apart. While this can help compartmentalize the company, in the case of content marketing vs pr, it can be counterproductive.
As you can see from the above, these two important business processes can synergize, bounce off of each other, and be mutually beneficial. You can combine them to achieve common goals and improve efficiency.
