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5 lessons content marketers can learn from traditional PR

by | May 6, 2017 | Public Relations

For many small business owners, mastering the art of great PR can seem like a talent reserved only for the wizards and dabblers in the black arts. At best, it seems like something that requires a whole department packed with experts. But the truth is that it’s actually just a matter of strategy. And applying that strategy to content marketing can make a world of difference. Learn how below:

#1 Your Company’s Image is an Ongoing Process

Traditional PR is all about maintaining a positive company image and doing that has meant constant, steady work and diligent attention to detail. PR experts know that you can’t just simply create an image and then let it go. You have to constantly work to maintain it.

Content marketers are a huge part of that process because your content is the meat on the bones of a great company image. Without a steady stream of well-managed and expertly created content, your image begins to fade away from the public eye.

#2 You Need to Actively Find and Solve Problems

Any PR expert worth their salt will know that you don’t just simply sit back and wait for a problem to arise. You actively analyze and investigate. Look at every point along your sales funnel. Find the leaks and develop strategies for patching them up.

A great content marketing campaign, just like a great PR campaign, will prevent disasters before they happen and create strategies that work seamlessly together from the moment your audience first hears your company’s name to the moment they make their purchase.

#3 There Really Is a Value to Hiring Experts

We aren’t all naturals at dealing with the media or carefully conveying an effective company image and message. That’s why PR experts have been able to find and keep jobs for decades.

Likewise, creating great content that effectively engages the audience you want to engage really is a skill that takes training, practice, and some degree of natural talent. Working with internet marketing experts who know the work inside and out is one of the best uses of your marketing budget.

You will get the most effective content marketing campaign and you will avoid the major blunders that many beginning content marketers make.

#4 Relationships are Key

For a PR expert, the idea that a company needs to build strong relationships in the community is indispensable. As a content marketer, it can be easy to fall into the trap of just focusing on marketing, not engaging and fostering relationships.

But that is where content marketing takes your strategy to the next level. It’s not just about creating a persuasive message. It’s about building strong relationships with your audience the way that PR builds relationships with media and the public more broadly.

#5 Tell Stories that Matter

A great PR campaign tells a story that the audience finds relevant and interesting. At the very least, it’s a story that provides information they can use. If your content doesn’t offer any of these qualities, nobody will bother to engage with it. And if they don’t want to engage with your content, it’s not likely they’ll want to become your customer.

PR has been about fostering relationships and humanizing companies from the beginning. These are two tasks that content marketing is especially suited to do in a way that other types of marketing can’t. So it’s important to make sure that your content marketing campaign is using as much of the relevant PR strategies that it can to help make your business the success you know it can be!

Guest author Charles Dearing is a website development business consultant. He contributes regularly on some of the top internet marketing and SEO blogs.

Bulldog Reporter
Bulldog Reporter is a leader in media intelligence supplying news, analysis and high-level training content to public relations and corporate communications professionals with the mission of helping these practitioners achieve superior competitive performance.

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