Marketing and public relations increasingly overlap due to the new dominance of digital communication and the new higher degree of transparency between businesses and their audiences. By working together, public relations and marketing teams better deliver the organization’s message, support the brand’s image and create measureable results.
Integrating the two is more critical than ever, says Peter Krainik, founder of the CMO Club. “Unfortunately many companies are missing the mark,” he writes in Forbes.
PR experts recommend these steps to improve cooperation between the departments to enhance results for both. Better results earn more accolades from senior management.
Share goals. Being aware of marketing goals helps PR develop a plan that targets the appropriate audience and supports the organization’s larger goals. Without results-focused objectives that match corporate goals, PR often produces content without real purpose.
PR goals may change in response to evolving company objectives. “For example, PR outreach might need to focus on specific verticals one quarter to support lead generation, while pivoting in later quarters to drive awareness of new products or support sales teams regionally,” blogs Shift Communications Account Director Kristin Amico.
Develop integrated campaigns. PR can support lead generation and paid campaigns. For example, PR can use data from an industry or consumer survey to secure media coverage, and later repurpose the data for content marketing such as blog posts and e-books, social programs, email campaigns and paid lead generation and advertising efforts.
Seek common ground. PR can gain additional media coverage by obtaining marketing materials, advises Lee Odden, CEO of Top Rank Marketing. In addition, determine how PR can help amplify content marketing and boost reach and performance. Volunteers may test cooperative efforts between digital marketing and PR.
Some common ground opportunities for marketing and PR that Odden suggests include:
- Messaging and story,
- Content planning,
- Coordinated social and media relations with amplification,
- Social listening for buying signals,
- Content placement,
- Optimizing messaging based on marketing performance data.
Build a business case. Measuring results can demonstrate the value of PR and marketing collaboration and build a business case to present to management. “Find a low hanging fruit opportunity with motivated collaborators to show how digital marketing and PR integration can improve achievement of business goals,” Odden recommends. “Then sell the results with performance metrics that execs can appreciate.”
“The answers are right in front of us if the analytics are strong,” says Bob Pearson, president of W20 Group. Take control of how you measure and ensure that you are getting insights, not data, on who has influence, which words drive behavior, what content your customers want, where they hang out by channel, what time of day they are most active and much more.
Communicate regularly. Joint meetings can improve collaboration. PR pros can attend marketing department meetings to learn about marketing activities, share information about upcoming PR campaigns, and ask for content ideas and recommendations
Have fun. Organize lunches, outings and celebrations. Having fun together helps build trust among team members and ensures that people feel comfortable leaning on each other for support.
Bottom Line: PR and marketing can improve their performance and deliver results through collaboration. Ongoing communication, aligning goals and measuring results build the foundation for producing quantifiable results upper management expects and appreciates.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
