Content Marketing Meets Public Relations

PR & Content Marketing

With the year quickly winding down, many experts are chiming in on their predictions for the upcoming year. Marketing Mag is no exception. They recently published an article featuring prominent Public Relations (PR) agencies with their 2014 predictions. The over-arching theme of post was the importance of content marketing. While I can’t say this is ground-breaking news there is much truth to it.

For starters, let us define some of the keywords.

Owned vs. Earned vs. Paid

Owned Media: Owned media is, as the name suggests, content that an organization owns. In other words, those that the organization has complete control over. This includes blogs, social media accounts/pages, websites, etc.

Earned (also known as editorial) Media: Earned media, on the other hand, is content that you receive from pre-existing external outlets. This varies from guest blogs to Facebook likes to Pinterest Re-Pins.

Paid Media: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Paid media is what is considered to be traditional advertisements where you pay for a spot.

This chart by Forrester does a great job summarizing the 3 types of media.

Forrester 3 Medias Chart

Content Marketing vs. Public Relations

Content Marketing: According to Content Marketing Institute, Content Marketing is a form of non-interruption marketing by communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. The idea is to give audiences information they actually want while educating them rather than pitching your services or products.

Public Relations (PR): In its essence, PR firms work with media to manage perceptions and increase awareness. Traditionally, the PR model is to  “spray and pray” press releases – write out a generic press release and send it to as many relevant publishers in hopes of getting editorial coverage.

Similarities between Content Marketing & PR

As you can probably infer by now, there are some obvious similarities between the two seemingly exclusive industries.

1. Common Goals

At the end of the day, both PR and Content Marketing share the same goal: to help clients sell more of something. The way this will be accomplished is through driving more traffic and increasing awareness.

2. Telling a convincing story

PR professionals basically moonlight as storytellers. They must present a resounding story about their client to the general public through pitches in hopes that they will get picked up by media. On the flip side, content marketers also tell stories day in and day out. The difference is where it gets published. Usually, the choice of publication for content marketers is through blogs.

3. Phenomenal Communication Skills

Along the lines of the second point, how can you expect to be a great storyteller without having the skill set to back it up? While it is true that we are moving into an image/video heavy society, as of right now, written publications are still at the forefront.

4. Convergence of Distribution Channels

Traditionally, after a PR firm whips out a pitch, they release it through means such as press releases and conferences, events, etc. Nowadays, they are slowly integrating into the content marketing realm of sharing such releases on social media and blogs as well.

Types of PR Content

Now that we’ve come full circle from defining PR and content marketing respectively, to exploring some commonalities between the two, here is a list of content that both PR professionals and content marketers can, should, and probably do already, put into practice:

Blog posts

Case Studies

Newsletters

White Papers

Events

Experts Weigh In

I think that’s enough about the current landscape of where PR and content marketing is at now. It’s about time we hear from some experts. I asked a couple of Toronto PR agencies one question “Given the hefty weight on content marketing in PR for the upcoming year, what was the most creative piece of content you’ve come up with for a client?“. And this is what they had to say:

Tristan Roy, Edelman Digital for JELL-O Canada

Telling the story of one of Canada’s most iconic brands is a major responsibility.  In 2012, Edelman Digital was asked to help launch and manage the JELL-O Canada Facebook page. The goal was simple: reconnect with consumers by spotlighting the endless possibilities of JELL-O and engaging them with content that is spontaneous, fun and includes playful recipes.