Both content marketing and public relations are involved in shaping the way that a brand is perceived through building credibility and awareness, as well as through creating thought leadership. In the past, public relations efforts used to include content marketing in mostly earned media, but these days, the efforts also incorporate paid, owned, and shared media, which allows companies to connect their content marketing to their public relations efforts to create different types of content and generate more success for the business. Additionally, through thought leadership, companies are able to position themselves as industry leaders and figures of authority, as well as a resource for others looking for more information on the field. This degree of credibility can only be achieved if a company consistently creates and distributes high-quality content for its audience, positions itself in the right way on social media platforms, and frequently participates in speaking engagements, as each one of these efforts can help companies improve their brand image. However, if a company truly wants to achieve success, it will need to combine its public relations efforts with content marketing a lot more intentionally.
Outreach
Given the fact that there are vast amounts of content being created on a daily basis these days, it’s quite difficult for most of that content to stand out from such a crowd. In fact, even the most attention-grabbing content can turn useless if a company isn’t able to reach its target audience in a timely manner, which is why companies need to pair their content marketing efforts with public relations efforts. By combining both fields, it’s much easier for companies to get their content published and promoted on credible blogs, websites, and other platforms. This also allows companies to reach a wider, and more diverse target audience, while helping businesses provide a consistent brand message across a variety of platforms, from social media to digital outlets.
Relationships and trust
Another reason why it’s important that companies combine their public relations and content marketing efforts is that they’ll have a much easier time building trusted relationships with the right people. Every relationship that a company develops needs to be mutually beneficial, whether it’s with a journalist, reporter, editor, thought leader, or an influencer. This isn’t an easy task to achieve for many businesses, even agencies that operate within the public relations industry itself. However, by integrating content marketing and public relations, companies will be able to consistently provide effective and high-quality content to the right people, and those people are going to be a lot more likely to share that content because the business is providing them with high-quality content, which benefits the receiving party, while generating more exposure, which benefits the business.
