31 Jul Why PR and digital marketing make the perfect marriage
in Digital Marketing, Latest News, Public Relations
If as a business owner you’ve ever wondered whether your money’s better spent on PR or digital marketing, then perhaps you’re missing a trick. Because the winning formula is surely when you marry both together.
It’s a common misconception that PR is just about press coverage (when in fact “Media Relations” is only one aspect of Public Relations). That print is a dying medium. But with more and more print titles publishing content online, the role of PR has become that of telling stories across multiple mediums. So how best to rise to this?
A happy marriage of two skill sets – combining the two complimentary disciplines of PR and digital marketing – can enable a brand to deliver a more rounded service. Here’s how and why this works…
What is
PR, what is digital marketing
First things first, what do we mean by “PR” and “digital marketing”?
How to
combine PR and digital marketing for a winning formula
If the role of PR is to earn understanding and influence opinion, then content creation is a great example of this in practice. By working with journalists – or influencers – to get positive stories and reviews published, a PR can communicate a business’ key messages in a way that carries far more weight than a paid advert. Putting that business and its messaging in front of a whole new audience.
And if a review appears online, then the impact doesn’t have to end with the published article and the site’s readership alone. This is where digital marketing has a crucial part to play.
The next natural step is to include a link to the review in an email newsletter to your customer base, reinforcing brand messaging.
Better yet, share the link via your Facebook business page and put some spend behind getting more eyes on the content. Not only can you ensure your own fans see it (not a given with Facebook’s ever-changing algorithm). But you can get your brand and messaging in front of new prospects thanks to the incredibly powerful demographics available to Facebook advertisers.
The
results
A press trip for a journalist from the digital team at WomanandHome.com, organised on behalf of the Marrakech Riad portfolio, resulted in a lengthy destination guide including a review of Riad Star. This was in turn shared to the Woman and Home Facebook page.
As part of our Facebook campaign for Marrakech Riad, the article was also shared to the Marrakech Riad Facebook page with advertising budget behind it. A proportion of the budget was spent on delivering the ad to people already familiar with the brand. As well as lending social proof, this gives Facebook hugely valuable data on who is consuming the content. The remaining budget was then allocated to a wider audience of people interested in travel and Marrakech. Facebook’s hugely powerful ad system learns from the engagement and delivers to people within this audience who are most likely to open the link.
A click through rate of over 8 per cent of people who saw this ad is a great result, with an industry standard for Travel & Hospitality of 0.9 per cent (WordStream).
Get in touch to ask us how we’re combining our PR and digital marketing skills to generate great results for Talland Bay Hotel too.