Building brand awareness and credibility is the bread and butter of PR. Your brand needs to be consistently mentioned in the media so your prospects and customers know that you have expertise in your field.
To build awareness and credibility, you need to maintain a healthy relationship with the media so your brand is always portrayed in a positive light. One way to do that is by sharing content that is relevant to the media’s audience.
Journalists are always on the lookout for a good story and when they publish your story, you will get media endorsement which is going to increase your brand’s awareness and credibility with the public. Getting earned media coverage is like striking gold for your brand.
In today’s digitalised world, it is more important than ever to consistently generate useful content that caters to your target audience. This is where content marketing comes in to boost your PR efforts and take your brand to the next level.
Content marketing’s synergy with PR
By definition, content marketing is the creation of relevant and valuable content for your target audience. Ideally, your content should grab their attention and keep them interested. It is a key tool in the awareness-building process of your brand.
Content comes in multiple forms: blog posts, social media posts, videos, infographics, among others. Regardless of the form, good content informs, educates, and even entertains your audience as they learn about your brand.
Today, people are more likely to trust a brand that produces useful content that helps them solve a problem. Good content attracts prospective customers and maintains relationships with existing ones.
In essence, content marketing has amazing synergy with PR. Content marketing creates exciting content for your audience while PR builds and nurtures relationships with the media. Together, they form an effective digital marketing strategy to grow your brand awareness and establish credibility.
PR builds brand awareness and visibility
Publishing your content on your platforms like blogs and social media is a great way to start building brand awareness and engage with your current audience. But to truly build your brand awareness, you need your brand to appear in the media.
Using PR, you can leverage connections with editors and journalists to share your content with. If your content, like a press release, is interesting and relevant to their readers/followers, you will get your story published and placed in front of many potential customers.
Having your content published by the media is a sure-fire way to get organic exposure and encourages conversations surrounding your brand. This is what earned media can do for your brand and good content is the first step.
Good content establishes credibility and trust
The media is a gateway to new audiences. Your content should be informative and inspire your audience to take action. It cannot be a platform to overly promote your brand or products. It needs to be genuine with an audience-first approach.
Most importantly, good content showcases expertise in your own field. It develops trust with your audience and they are more likely to stay engaged with your brand. In a recent survey, 61% of consumers will advocate for a trusted brand and 57% will purchase something from them.
The media prioritises trustworthy content because it benefits their readers/followers the most. This is the main reason why you need to develop content that garners their interest so it increases your chance of getting earned media coverage.
Content marketing improves your overall SEO
Content marketing brings SEO tactics to the table, optimizing content with the right keywords and backlinks to rank higher on search engine result pages. Given the sheer competition on Google, your content might get drowned and not reach your target audience without SEO.
This is the reason why SEO plays a huge role in growing your online presence. It increases organic traffic to your website and domain authority through backlinks and brand mentions. All are key indicators of successful brand awareness and credibility.
PR and content marketing work together seamlessly
Although content marketing and PR have separate goals, they are complementary to each other in a strategic plan to increase your brand awareness and credibility. While content marketing creates relevant and SEO-optimized content, PR delivers the content directly to the media and ensures it gets covered.
A holistic approach similar to this will yield great results when done well. It amplifies your brand, ensures consistency in your brand message, and allows your brand to adapt to the changing PR and digital marketing landscape.