There has been a lot written about content marketing recently, but it’s more than just a clever buzzword. Creating an integrated content PR strategy that is relevant, engaging and social can make a huge difference when it comes to marketing your brand. Here are some tips for building a successful content PR strategy.
Defining Content PR
Content PR is the development and distribution of interesting content across multiple channels as a means of increasing awareness, establishing influence, providing useful information and shaping your company’s story.
The objective of a content PR strategy is to draw interest in, rather than push messages out and hope someone reads them. It’s about creating content which speaks to the audience’s interests. It requires PR pros to know what is being said and where it is being said, and then developing content that engages across multiple channels.
The New Integrated PR Landscape: Pull vs. Push
The fact is PR has moved way beyond press releases and media events. It is no longer just pushing out news for our clients; it’s about telling your story and helping to shape conversations.
As newsrooms have shrunk, PR has become more relevant, rather than less. Understaffed media outlets mean more opportunity for non-journalists to provide meaningful and impactful content. Staying tapped into what your target audiences are interested in can make ordinary business-folks an invaluable resource for byline articles, guest columnists and blogs. They key is asking “What would my audience want to read?” rather than “What would the company want me to say?”
Below are several ways companies can leverage the current PR landscape to create successful content PR campaigns:
1) Publish Your Own Content: Traditional “media relations” is no longer the only game in town. Today, we have an arsenal of self-publishing platforms at their disposal, including blogs, video, and social sharing tools. Want to communicate a big company announcement? Don’t blast about a press release and wait for the New York Times to call. Work to create a 2-minute video on what that means to your business and post it on your company’s YouTube page. Have the CEO share it with their client base and host it on the company webpage. Tweet, Share, Email, Repeat.
2) Repurpose and Share: With every piece of content you create, ask yourself: how can we maximize its visibility among target audiences? Can the video update be repurposed as an email alert, blog entry or bylined article? Have we shared it with our social media followers by posting it to the company Facebook page and Twitter feed? Has it been posted to specific groups of interest on LinkedIn? Not every piece of content needs to be blasted across every channel, but there are far more targeted opportunities to share good content than ever before. Knowing where the message will resonate will give businesses a significant advantage.
3) Integrate, Don’t Isolate: As the lines blur between “traditional” and “social” media, it is more important than ever to incorporate PR content into the overall marketing mix. PR cannot live in a silo – it should be weaved into the overall marketing strategy to help tell a broader story. The opportunity with content PR is to really leverage “earned” and social media to fuel other parts of the marketing engine.
4) Stay focused: A successful content PR campaign takes time, buy-in, and of course, resources. To maximize your campaign, choose a select number of channels and focus on a limited number of keywords and/or topics. There are several factors to consider when adding social media or other marketing accounts, so take your time. Add new outlets thoughtfully and carefully, based on where your audience looks for information.
5) Make it Relevant: No one wants to read an infomercial about your company or a laundry list of resume accomplishments. The content should be relevant, educational and engaging. The goal is to listen to what your audience is interested, and offer them useful solutions or information.
In today’s fragmented media landscape, it is more challenging than ever to differentiate your brand. Having a good content strategy can help by plugging businesses directly into the conversation and providing information people want. Used effectively, it can help increase long term visibility and deliver real business results.
