Businesses will spend more on public relations as they recognize its value. Most marketers plan to increase internal staffing and overall spending on public relations over the next five years, according to a report released last year from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). More than half of the respondents (62 percent) said they plan to increase internal staffing to support PR over the next five years, and 75 percent said they plan to increase overall spending on PR.
PR continues to become an increasingly important part of the marketing mix. “Public relations as a discipline is clearly evolving and becoming more important to marketers,” said ANA Group EVP Bill Duggan. “And PR is being fueled by the rise and omnipresence of digital communications. Digital has put PR front and center, as it allows immediate outbound communication and inbound feedback.”
Three major trends are driving the future of PR, according to the ANA: social media listening, digital storytelling, and real-time marketing. An overwhelming 89 percent of respondents said public relations can demonstrate its value most effectively by proving how its programs achieve measureable business outcomes and by improving measurement of results.
B2B Marketers Invest More in Earned Media
B2B marketers are increasing investments into earned media, the core of PR activities, reveals research from Demand Gen Report, an online publication. The research finds that:
- 61% of marketers said they have expanded their use of earned media,
- 90% rank their earned media programs as somewhat or very effective,
- 32% plan to continue expanding their use of earned media tactics.
PR Adds Credibility
Research shows that earned media mentions carry more credibility than advertising. According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2017 report, businesses rely most on word of mouth, customer references, and media articles in that order when making purchase decisions. Sales people rank last.
Marketers rave about inbound marketing and content marketing strategies: blog posts, whitepapers, email newsletters, case studies, how-to content and testimonials. Those are the same strategies B2B PR has employed for decades. But PR trumps inbound marketing and content marketing, argues tech PR expert David Rusk.
“PR – and especially focused PR like tech PR – goes the critical steps further: working with the client to identify the audience- often on an individual by individual basis – shaping the strategy accordingly, writing and producing the material, and making the approach,” Rusk writes.
Digital advertising is plagued with fraud, questionable metrics and reputational risks. Programmatic advertising, which uses software to place ads across the internet, sometimes inadvertently places ads on fake news sites or other sites that can damage the brand’s reputation. PR that results in earned media placements adds the credibility that effective marketing needs.
Bottom Line: A variety of research reports indicate that businesses, especially B2B firms, plan to invest more in public relations. More executives appreciate that earned media brings greater credibility than other marketing activities. As more PR teams use measurement to prove how their activities contribute to business goals and reputation, PR will earn larger budgets and gain greater influence.
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.
