What is the Role of Public Relations in Digital Marketing?

Highlighting how PR fits with digital marketing necessitates discussing the differences between the two.

Articles from Forbes and Power Digital Marketing point out that public relations, in a classic agency, has been charged with the following responsibilities:

• Getting your clients names mentioned on TV, print, and radio

• Organizing TV and radio appearances to highlight their personality and identity

• Generating brand awareness

• Honing public perception

• Handling a crisis

Whereas digital marketers have focused on connecting the products with the customers. The primary mission is to identify the most lucrative target audience and convert into customers with a clear message.

However, these two roles are most effective when combined together, and all silos are removed. Meaning, the two teams within an organization should be aligned and aware of the others’ deliverables. This way, they can work in harmony and collaborate to generate the best possible result.

SEO and PR Are an Ideal Marriage

Of course, search engine optimization (SEO) is integral to digital marketing efforts, as it generates unpaid, organic traffic. With the proper usage of PR, SEO efforts can be drastically strengthened. Namely, because online public relations efforts can be responsible for helping secure high-quality links. 

It’s now an accepted notion throughout the search engine industry that PR is a crucial element to successful SEO campaigns.  

When focusing directly on online placements, PR teams secure links to desirable pages on a client’s website. They can then apply SEO practices to land upon the best link positioning to ensure the most valuable result.

SEO teams and PR teams alike, benefit tremendously when coverage and links on authoritative sites are secured.

Also, it’s worth noting that SEO leads have a 14.6% conversion rate compared to the 1.7% conversion rate of outbound leads, such as direct mail or print advertising. As such, when working alongside a PR firm to form a digital marketing strategy, this avenue is one of the wisest ways to budget time, effort, and money.

Pay Per Click and PR Make for a Potent Combination

When you put together a PR message, pay-per-click advertisement campaigns ensure that the content appears at the top of search engines through targeted keywords.

With these keywords, someone will see the PR placement or message first, which is massive in helping grow brand awareness.

One way (out of several) these targeted keywords can boost PR is via proactively managing paid search accounts and re-evaluating ad messages during a company’s crisis:

Keywords such as “review” or “complaints” combined with the brand name can be targeted. New links from the ads can direct interested people to the organization’s landing page, explaining the crisis and impending solution.

PR and Content Marketing Blend Seamlessly

According to Digital Marketing guru, Neil Patel, PR professionals shape the content that’s created online.

To further illustrate, top-notch PR firms formulate and decide upon the stories worth telling about brands, meaning it’s now amalgamated with content marketing.

Patel goes onto say that there’s a seemingly endless stream of content being created online, making it downright impossible to stand out from the crowd. It’s through this obstacle that PR comes into play because those involved in the profession understand the finer points of making digital content visible.

Content marketers hold up their end of the bargain in this relationship by finding the right words for the stories formulated by PR firms.

PR and Social Media 

There’s no doubting the kind of impact social media has had on marketing and advertising altogether. In fact, on average, most companies spend $4000 to $7000 per month on social media management.

As a company, the way to ensure that this money is well spent and generates the necessary return is through the services of a savvy PR firm.

For instance, the rise of social media influencers has made such individuals highly desirable digital marketing assets. To illustrate this point, 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations. 

PR professionals possess distinct know-how and connections to craft and hone profitable relationships with social media influencers.

Once connections between your PR firm and social media influencers have been forged, there are a plethora of ways to capitalize as a brand.

Considering that 70% of teens trust influencers more than traditional celebrities, this is one trend worth looking into as a business with this target audience. And you can only ensure success in this avenue with the trusted experts at your PR firm.

It’s evident that as time keeps going by, digital marketing and public relations are going to cross over because both entities make the other one more beneficial to a company.