The continued integration of Public Relations and Marketing is a major trend that has important ramifications for your business and your brand.
The PR/Marketing Union
The old days of reading the newspaper with your breakfast, only using your mobile to make phone calls and watching the 6pm news are no longer the norm for many, particularly younger generations. Nor is seeing ads from you most-loved brands while being entertained by your favourite TV shows.
As technology and social trends advance, the way we interact with media and communications is changing. So too is the way businesses present themselves and where they reach their audiences to ensure they’re most effective.
It’s also meant an evolution for the professionals we use to engage our audiences.
At its essence, PR is strategy, storytelling, influence, reputation management and relationship building. Its job is to engage stakeholders with meaningful messages or experiences that resonate with them.
In the past it’s been executed via media outreach and, traditionally, isn’t very good at measuring effectiveness.
Today PR execution includes engagement via many other channels ― paid media, content creation, influencers and advocates.
Until recently these channels have been the domain of marketing communications, which is also much better at gathering data and measuring results.
Enter the PR/Marketing union. It’s a marriage that enables businesses to streamline their engagement and marketing efforts into a seamless, consistent brand narrative across multiple channels.
It’s a blurring of the lines that most PR and marketing practitioners expect to see continuing to overlap in coming years.
For businesses and organisations, the most effective PR and engagement strategies should now contain an integrated mix of traditional stakeholder engagement and earned media coverage (media relations) alongside paid media strategies (advertising), owned and shared media initiatives (websites, written and visual content, social media and working with influencers).
By integrating your marketing and public relations efforts, you can operate more efficiently and effectively. You can tell a more compelling story. You can enhance your reputation and relationships and engage your audiences. All while getting a much better idea of your return on investment.
Harvey Cameron is a fully-integrated marketing and public relations agency. Talk to us today about how we can help you grow your business.
