Successful companies share at least one common characteristic: Every day their story is being told. Strategically drafted and expertly placed content via public relations (PR)-generated press releases or ghostwritten bylined articles and blogs position company executives as thought leaders in their business sector. Meanwhile, marketing-generated case studies establish a company’s business credentials through success stories.
Nearly 25 years ago in an online essay, Microsoft founder Bill Gates coined the phrase “content is king” when he forecast the future of the Internet – in its infancy in 1996 – as a marketplace for content. In today’s marketplace, original and informative content is the fulcrum of PR and marketing messaging.
Content Marketing Bridges the Gap Between PR & Marketing
One of the most significant developments in recent years has been the strong emergence of content marketing as a key part of both PR and marketing. Content marketing is the practice of creating content for a targeted online audience to build an interactive relationship. This content usually takes the form of tip sheets, infographics, e-books, blogs and whitepapers, which are written to attract a specific group of “personas,” or a composite profile, that represent a key segment of a company’s audience.
Content marketing and its associated marketing campaigns have broad appeal to business-to-business (B2B) companies because they provide an active vehicle for attracting, engaging and delighting people in order to build trust. By creating content designed to address the problems and needs of prospects and customers, the right content can act as a magnet to attract qualified prospects.
These days one of the best content campaign tools to attract prospects and build trust is the blog. The blog – a standalone website or section of an existing online domain – is among the oldest forms of online content but it’s also the most potent and versatile vehicle to tell a company’s story. To stay relevant, a large and ever-growing segment of businesses have established and reliably maintain an online presence through blogging.
Like social media, direct mail and email marketing, business blogging is a marketing tactic that uses relevant content to achieve online visibility. Blogs help support business growth by engaging more customers and building up topical authority for search engine optimization (SEO). Always evolving media innovations mean that blog content need not only be limited to the written word. Videos, images, infographics and links can be embedded into a blog to keep content fresh, unusual and relevant.
Experienced but forward-thinking PR and marketing practitioners recognize that knowing how to write content in the right tone and in the right voice is the key to success. As a result, we have seen content marketing gain universal importance in today’s public relations and the newer data-driven marketing campaigns.
The Business of Creating Content … Consistently
In content marketing, solid, strong writing is important, of course, but the real missing link in content creation is consistency. It’s not hard to imagine that there are many talented and gifted business professionals who could be given a proverbial content baseball, step onto the proverbial pitcher’s mound and throw a fastball straight down the center of home plate. Once.
How many could do it again? And again? And then again after that? Quality writers who can tell a company’s story – convey their message, in short order and on demand, every time – are at a premium. Not all agencies have a roster of talented content creators in the bullpen who are able to find the strike zone with each pitch. We do.
At DPR Group, we don’t see PR and marketing as separate and distinct entities. Instead, PR and marketing are two halves of the same holistic campaign approach that’s tied together by high-value content.
We believe that the best way to grow a business is to offer the best of public relations to raise brand awareness about a company and its products with the newest data-driven marketing campaigns to bring more warm leads into the marketing and sales funnel. The result is a company with a higher profile in the marketplace, which has a better chance of closing lucrative new business in its target marketplace.
If you want to see how an integrated approach to PR and marketing will help you set the table and build a positive reputation for your company, please reach out for a time to talk.
Charles Wisniowski, marketing writer, DPR Group