How Can Your Digital PR Team Support Your Content Marketing Strategy?.

Digital PR agencies and content marketing teams share a common goal; to create a brand message that speaks to your audience and prompts consumers to take positive action.

Whilst public relations involves relaying and amplifying the core message of a brand, the key role of the content marketing team is to communicate authority and drive engagement.

Using PR and content marketing in synergy, therefore, has the power to publish content that speaks volumes and distribute it across a broader range of platforms with a view to influencing a wider audience.

Traditionally, a public relations team only had a press release to work with. The key goal was to construct a headline and an angle that would capture the attention of prominent journalists and give your brand traditional media exposure.

The transformation to digital platforms over the past decade, and the emergence of content marketing has given PR teams significantly more options. Subsequently, when content marketing teams work with PR agencies, a brand can amplify their message and achieve superior results.

We will discuss how digital PR teams can boost a content marketing campaign in this article. Before diving in however, it’s pertinent to distinguish the difference between the two roles and goals.

Content Marketing v Digital PR: The Differences

Content marketing is arguably the most effective, but often the most misunderstood marketing discipline. The strategic approach involves creating a multi-faceted range of content which can include:

• Blogs/articles
• Videos
• Images
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Case Studies
• Checklists
• Interviews
• EBooks
• Whitepapers
• Downloadable pdf guides
• SMS/MMS

The list of high-performance content is far from exhaustive. What is most important, however, is that whatever you publish is high-quality content that engages the reader and is visible on various platforms (search engines, social media, mobile etc).

No matter what format you choose to publish content, it must provide customers with valuable engaging information that is relevant to them. It should also be consistent with your brand message and the core values of your company.

Great content is only effective if it links back to your brand values. This is where a creative PR team can work wonders.

Digital PR agencies are connected with a network of journalists, celebrity influencers and high-authority bloggers. It is this network of off site stakeholders which will help to take your on-site content strategy, and start to distribute it on external sites. Having the ability to distribute your messaging onto high-authority sites that can provide you with premium back links.

A digital PR team on top of their game can elevate your brand across multiple platforms and position your brand in front of your target audience. Ideally, they can also encourage word-of-mouth advertising through influencers and genuine reviews.

A key role of a digital PR team is to secure high-quality connections that will raise brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate leads, place authority links and, ultimately, increase sales.

Reach A Wider Audience

The ultimate goal of any digital marketing strategy is to capture the attention of readers and reach a wider audience. For many brands, this strategy can be a slow process. It takes time to build a dedicated following.

Digital PR agencies have a ready-made network of journalists, influencers and bloggers that are ready to give you immediate exposure to a wider audience.

Publishers with a huge following on social media networks and publications with a worldwide audience of millions or billions provide brands with unlimited potential to reach a wider audience.

Build Trust and Authority

With such fierce competition across virtually every industry, the brands that survive position themselves as an authority in their field and earn the trust of customers.

The network of contacts a PR agency works with leverages the ability of brands to achieve trust and authority goals. In turn, content marketing campaigns have a higher impact and cultivate a better ROI.

However, editors of online magazines and influencers with an army of social followers want to be assured the companies they work with are reliable and offer premium goods and services.

Let’s not forget that journalists and influencers have a reputation to uphold as well.

Publishing high-quality content carries a lot of weight in convincing third-parties to promote a brand.

First of all, content gives you the opportunity to demonstrate you are a leader in your field. Individuals that are experienced in the same field will be able to tell if you’re the real deal or not.

Secondly, brands that can publish ready-made premium-quality content create less work for publishers. Needless to say, the less work a third-party has to do, the more willing they are to work with your content marketing team.

Improve SEO

One of the key objectives of a PR team is to position your brand in front of a relevant audience. By targeting prime customers, brands can expect more traffic to be directed to your website.

In addition, digital PR can help to secure high-quality back links. This is a strong indicator to search engines that the content you are publishing is top quality. Subsequently, search engines award pages with high quality inbound links with a higher rank in search engine results.

Capitalise on Trends

With the influx of content published across digital platforms on a daily basis, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for brands to stand out. The secret is to publish trending topics that people want to consume.

Capitalising on trends is where PR agencies are worth their weight in gold. By combining PR insights with your content marketing strategy, you are best placed to publish content on a reputable website or social media platform.

Reinforce Your Online Profile

Consumer psychologists say the average consumer has to interact with a brand between 6-8 times before they recall your ads or products to memory. Interactions are counted as any touchpoint ranging from consumers seeing your logo, to reading an article or browsing your website.

Integrating content marketing with public relations gives you more potential to reinforce your online profile. Content can be positioned, repurposed, carved into a series, splashed across multiple platforms and primed to stand out.

PR agencies take your content and your brand to the next level. Distributing content through high-profile channels gives you more exposure, whereas interviews, positive reviews and word-of-mouth strengthen your trust and authority. Done correctly this should support potential customer touch points at each stage of the purchase funnel.

The more your target audience see and hear good reports and has positive interactions with your brand, the more likely they are to follow, interact and purchase your products.

Reach Key Industry Figures

In today’s age of digital marketing, brands rely on influencers and relevant publications to be seen and heard. PR agencies enable you to reach relevant third parties that can influence the decision making of your target audience.

By combining the expertise of your content marketing team with the influential connections of a digital PR team give brands more power to survive. If you’ve already committed to investing in content marketing, it makes sense to publish on high-profile platforms and boost your ROI.