By Lyndi Lawson on 2010/03/24
The fact that Marketing and Public Relations are natural bedfellows is nothing new. The advent of the Internet has only served to emphasise this fact, making the lines and divisions between the two more blurry than they were before. Often, eMarketing agencies and PR agencies see one another as competition and at most they form tentative alliances. This is a fundamentally shortsighted approach. While they may offer similar services, these are often complimentary and in reality, each industry has a great deal to learn from the other. This article explores the construction of content, tools for distribution, online reputation management and goal setting and measurement as areas in which PR professionals and eMarketers can share their skills for the good of their clients and ultimately their businesses.
Content Creation for the Web
PR specialists are traditionally the content gurus. Practiced and professional, most create relevant appropriate content for their clients and secure publication or coverage of it. They tread the line between content that serves their media, client and strategic needs with skill and are usually exceptionally well versed in putting together speeches, press releases, articles, abstracts and reports. Marketers can benefit from these relationship management skills and do well to watch and learn and apply these learnings to their own relationships with clients and other stakeholders. In order to do this for a specific client, PR agencies need to have an in depth understanding of marketing strategy and how best to apply it to content – something that is critical both on or offline.
When it comes to the Web though, writing content that gets read is a skill in itself and being a good writer offline does not necessarily equip you with the tools and skills to be a good writer online. In an industry like PR where content is such a critical component, professionals need to ensure that they are fully equipped to shift between these different writing techniques as necessary. Much of this can be learnt from eMarketers, particularly those who employ copywriters trained in writing for the Web. eMarketers write website copy, online press releases, blog posts and articles daily for distribution online. The good ones know what works and what doesn’t. Many writers who work with the Web also have an excellent working knowledge of search engine optimisation and its relationship with online copywriting. These skills in partnership with the existing skills possessed by PR experts are a powerful combination and provide a significant competitive advantage to the clients and critically, to the PR agencies who are looking to attract and retain new clients.
Distribution
The Web has also changed the distribution landscape. While information is disseminated faster, more widely and more efficiently, there is also more of it, meaning that competition for the attention of journalists and customers is also more. Getting your content right is half the battle, but success or failure in getting it our there is the real test. Without the online tools to reach the people that need to be reached, PR practitioners and their great content are dead in the water. PR professionals are highly skilled at building relationships and networks of media liaisons, journalists and influencers and while many are familiar with online tools for distribution, many aren't. eMarketers on the other hand, have an excellent working knowledge of these tools and their application in specific industries. Often, eMarketers were early adopters of much of this technology and have experience implementing it, both for clients and in their personal capacity. Social Media is old hat and it’s henchmen Facebook and Twitter have often been harnessed to successfully serve the needs of one particular client or another.
Tracking the Conversation
Many PR practitioners struggle with the issue of tracking the distribution of content online and managing the dialogue between brands and consumers because they are not happening statically in a specific location. This is potentially disastrous, particularly since the opportunity offered to us by social media, is a double edged sword. Consumers now have a voice that is publicly heard like never before. For those of us trying to manage brands and communication, it is impossible to monitor conversations that you don’t know are happening and it is impossible to manage relationships and engage with consumers if you have no idea what they are saying. Online Reputation Management is not a new concept but for many people, particularly those starting out in online, it is a daunting one and understandably so. Most eMarketers are well versed in managing reputation online but we realise that PR skills are critical to the proper execution of this. Again, both industries have lessons to learn form one another and can benefit from the integration of their skills.
Goal Setting and Measurement
Inevitably, with a conversation of online PR and eMarketing has to come a mention of measurement. As controversial as it is confusing, it is a problem to which everyone is trying to find a solution and create a model that provides a reliable method of quantification. Neither industry is at a distinct advantage here. Although PR professionals are skilled at offline measurement, these methods do not translate accurately to an online context. eMarketers, on the other hand, do measure and report numerically on other tactics and this may provide a basis for moving forward and applying their methods more broadly to quantifying conversations and relationships online. Key though is goal setting and in this area, marketers, both online and off are ahead of their game. It is something drilled into them from early on in their careers – without goals and objectives, there is nothing against which to measure success. In this, PR professionals have a lesson to learn – set goals and determine a method to measure them. Even if it is not perfect. These goals should be integrated with the clients’ strategic marketing objectives and determined as a collaboration between their PR and marketing agencies. With everyone on the same page, success is a lot more likely, whether you can put a numerical value to it or not.
A Final Word
The bottom line is that the overlap between the role of eMarketers and PR professionals should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a threat. In a market that is increasingly demanding digital strategy and implementation and few agencies able to meet that demand, the pie is still large enough for everyone to have a slice. This state of affairs won’t last though and despite fear to the contrary, the competition is unlikely to lie ultimately between eMarketing and PR agencies but rather between the latter themselves – those who have upskilled themselves sufficiently to take on the Web will be pitted against those who haven’t. The winners will get the clients. Needless to say, it will be a short and bloody battle.
