In today’s digital age, traditional public relations tactics and digital marketing efforts often remain as separate entities within an organization’s marketing mix. However, smart communicators now realize the growing need to break down silos and seamlessly integrate PR and digital for maximum impact.
An integrated approach that strategically combines targeted PR and digital marketing delivers far greater results than either could produce alone. When done right, PR and digital complement each other perfectly – PR lends credibility and authority to amplify digital campaigns, while digital adds scale and measurability to track PR success. Together, they pack a powerful one-two punch.
Evolving the PR Function
The role of public relations has evolved from primarily securing earned media placements to now also encompassing thought leadership, relationship building, brand messaging, online reputation management and crisis mitigation across both social and traditional channels.
Savvy PR teams have also added digital content creation and social media community management to their responsibilities. The lines distinguishing PR duties from digital marketing have blurred considerably.
For this integrated approach to work, mindsets need to shift. PR can no longer remain as a siloed function, but must collaborate closely with digital marketing teams. Experts stress this integration is vital for communication success today.
Integrated in Action
What does effective integration of PR and digital look like in reality? Following are key ways these functions can and should intersect for brands:
Coordinating Messaging
With many brands suffering from fragmented or disjointed communications, close collaboration between teams ensures messaging alignment across PR and digital content. This consistency strengthens brand identity in the marketplace.
Informing Strategy
Two-way communication allows insights from social analytics and media monitoring tools to inform strategic PR decisions. Meanwhile, PR results and content can shape future digital campaigns.
Amplifying Reach
Digital extends the reach and longevity of PR wins by showcasing news announcements, awards and media placements via owned channels. PR also lends third-party validation to boost digital content credibility.
Enhancing Engagement
Online brand advocates and community relationships cultivated by social media managers provide sought-after amplification for PR pitches and owned content.
Maximizing Assets
Repurposing content across channels and formats increases value. For example, sound bites and quotes within a press release can be integrated into blogs, social posts and videos.
Measuring Outcomes
Sophisticated measurement frameworks can now demonstrate PR’s concrete impact on digital metrics like website traffic, lead generation and sales. PR should also leverage digital tools for sentiment tracking and share of voice analysis.
Obstacles to Integration
Of course, while the ideal scenario is full integration between teams, the reality poses some challenges:
- Organizational silos and internal power struggles
- Misperceptions around roles
- Lack of budgets, staff or tech capabilities
- Absence of social media experience among PR staff
Brands seeking integration must surmount these barriers through executive buy-in, cross-team collaboration, upskilling employees and acquiring enabling technologies.
Integration In Action
Travel site Booking.com overcame its struggle to attribute specific value to its PR efforts by tying media coverage to digital conversion rates. After developing a proprietary modeling system, it revealed each dollar spent on PR drove a 20X return – with over 20% of Booking.com’s annual digital conversions influenced by PR.
Integration also powered the wildly successful 2014 “LikeAGirl” campaign for feminine care brand Always. The integrated initiative combined a powerfully resonant PR-led social video with blogger outreach and celebrity engagement. It achieved an unprecedented 85 million global views and sparked a viral global conversation about female empowerment.
Key Takeaways
An integrated approach is non-negotiable for branding success today. Organizations can no longer afford disjointed, disjointed communications streams.
To leverage PR and digital synergy, brands should:
- Break down internal silos between team functions
- Implement processes facilitating collaboration
- Upskill staff via cross-functional training
- Invest in analytics and monitoring tools
- Develop unified messaging frameworks
- Continually analyze performance data
Following these best practices will allow your brand to maximize outcomes from its combined PR and digital efforts. Discover the immense power that integration can unlock for your marketing success.
The future of marketing lies in removing boundaries and capitalizing on this kind powerful of partnership. Savvy communicators that closely align PR and digital efforts will gain an unbeatable edge.
Text Author: Kirill Yurovskiy.