In our society today, there is fine line between public relations and marketing. There is no doubt that there has been a rapid growth of technology in our everyday lives. There has also been an increase in dependence on online data and focus on creating content. With the rise of influencer marketing, PR tactics have had to evolve in order to remain effective. Here are a few trends PR professionals should keep their eye on this year to appeal to a modern audience:
How to appeal to your audience
With an overlap in PR and digital marketing, these professionals working together is a trend to watch out for. Audiences are more conscious of the kind of content presented to them. Therefore, it needs to be new, high-quality, transparent and totally authentic. Agencies should hire PR pros in content-writing roles. Additionally, they should employ digital marketing strategists who can focus on strategically creating writing that connects with audiences.
How to build audience relationships
There is also a need to build strong relationships with clients in order to establish transparency and trust. This encourages your audience to share more with your brand, which will better the product or service you are offering.
Has influencer marketing replaced PR?
In the past couple years, the strategy of influencer marketing has replaced organic PR. This might create conversation on a social level for your brand, however it is paid, not earned. Here, there is an opportunity to serve a public interest, engaging the emotional side of marketing with your audience. You could brainstorm ideas that could resolve tension, or harness a societal issue that needs to be addressed.
Why is PR important?
Rather than just focusing on the results of public relations, there is value to this within a larger marketing campaign. Earned media or press is only as good as your campaign. Therefore, it’s important to keep PR in mind from the time you are planning your marketing strategy for maximum effectiveness.
Securing meaningful earned press also requires a focus on content creation. Helping your audience understand the value of quality content is a good way to know where your reach is. It’s also highly beneficial to share your content on the correct social media for a wider reach. This will also enable you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. You can connect it to your sales to prove it is working.
Improving your brand’s digital footprint
Today, it’s no longer enough to simply pitch your content and secure coverage. You need to consider your brand’s entire social and digital footprint for maximum effectiveness. This might include creating short videos on your social platforms or getting influencers to do an Instagram takeover for day.
How to maximise your pitches to journalists
The number of pitches journalists receive everyday has not declined. This means you need to offer a new, different approach to pitching if you want to secure quality coverage. By offering first-hand media experiences, writers can create in-depth articles about your product or service. They can then convey this to their trusted audience. Another way to increase your chances of coverage is to offer video content in a variety of formats and lengths. For example, you could include a short preview in your press release and link to the full video below.
Understanding the role of emotion in PR strategy
Your PR strategy must be driven by emotion in order to make it relatable to your audience’s humanity. This makes it more meaningful and appealing to micro-influencers rather than macro. Additionally, consumers need to be able to trust you with content that is relevant to them. As a brand, you should not be wasting their time with an overload of unnecessary information. Simply stick to the point.
On the topic of influencer marketing, take note that audiences are now smaller and more concentrator. An influencer with 50,000 Instagram followers might have a greater impact on your brand than a publication of 500,000 readers. This is because the influencer’s followers have honed into to specific industry they speak to. As a brand, you need to understand the direction of your audience’s attention and zone into that.
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