There's a sea of content all over the internet.
According to Worldometer, over 4.75 million blog posts are being published in a single day, every day.
As a content marketer, you're not alone in your struggle to generate optimum content visibility. But using the right content format coupled with well-directed platform and distribution strategies can make a world of difference to your content's reach.
Smart content marketers think big and understand the importance of combining their content efforts with robust PR strategies. Backing your content marketing with PR means you need to create some excellent, value-driven content that gets you the desired level of media attention. At the same time, you have to work on building harmonious, strong, and targeted media relations.
The right combination of content marketing and PR is a potent mix - promises you quick, organic brand growth along with long-term and recurring sales.
Let's take a look at some exciting PR strategies and examples to help your branded content stand out and shine like a star.
1. Focus On Creating Value
The goal behind content marketing is to get you the results, but the ideal way to strategize each piece of content is to think about value. Make your content as insightful as possible, and it will automatically attract links and mentions from niche blogs and publications.
Most influencers are looking for share-worthy content - give them something unique.
There are various types of informative content pieces that can attract relevant media coverage - ebooks, white papers, infographics, online courses, original research, and surveys.
Delve deep into solving burning industry challenges, and your content will find a large audience.
For example, take a look at this report published by SuperMoney:
The study shows how the incomes of Millennials compare to other demographics. It offers a deep dive into Millennial incomes by gender and age groups. It goes further to put the incomes into context by providing inflation-adjusted data and comparing incomes to generational trends in housing ownership levels, education costs, and healthcare expenses.
The study was quoted by multiple large media outlets, including Business Insider and Reader's Digest.
It doesn't matter what niche you're operating in as long as you can create content that adds real value. If you make it relevant to the current trends and events, then it becomes newsworthy as well.
Here's an interesting example of a survey done by Real Estate Bees:
The study reveals the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on different types of businesses in the real estate sector, such as real estate agents, brokers, investors, appraisers, coaches, etc.
The idea of creating value is to empathise with your audience and educate them, so they want your content as much as you want them to consume it. At the same time, it’s a boon to publish a content piece that’s also newsworthy.
2. Create Viral Content
Another cool way to get publicity for your business is to create something out-of-the-box and entertaining. Going viral is the shortest way to earn publicity and reach. Viral content attracts social shares as well as media attention. The following video explains how e.l.f. Cosmetics created a viral TikTok challenge using a simple song "Eyes, Lips, Face" that soon became a pop culture and converted into over 4 billion video views and earned itself a whole lot of media mentions. The brand recently launched another similar campaign with a song called "Vanishing Act".
Social virality is about thinking out-of-the-box and getting the audience to participate. If you can create a thought-provoking campaign, it may spread like wild-fire and fetch social media impressions as well as media coverage.
3. Work on Your Brand Story and Voice
Every business has a story behind it: How the promoters got started with an initial idea? What was the purpose behind starting the business? What is the organizational culture and values?
People want to know your brand story, and that's how they connect with your business. The media is interested in understanding how your business stands out. Telling your story through your website, blogs, and videos is an excellent way to become newsworthy.
Here are some content ideas that attract media attention:
- Business timelines and milestones.
- Case studies and stories of business achievements.
- The number and type of clients your business has served.
- Getting positive customer reviews on your Google and directory listings is a vital element of your online reputation.
The story of your struggles could one day make headlines and fetch you enormous amounts of press coverage. The success story of Airbnb, of rising to become a global modern travel brand, is a classic example.
When you're good at what you're doing, and you're creating an impact, then content allows you to share that experience and earn yourself more impressions.
4. Use Creative Omni Channel Content Campaigns
There are multiple social media and other online platforms where you can publish content and display your expertise. Distributing educational and entertaining content on various platforms is a foolproof way to get the desired level of brand impressions. Plus, it adds to your online reputation, which furthers your chances of getting coverage in niche media outlets.
- For example, as a B2B business, you can publish content on platforms like LinkedIn, Quora, Medium, and YouTube. When you decide to do that, you need to repurpose your content pieces so they can fit each platform.
- Similarly, if you're a B2C business, you can pick social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to create fun-filled and informative content. Create interactive contests, hashtag campaigns, and live videos to get the audience to engage with your brand. For instance, Nebsly Media created an integrated campaign for Waldorf Hilton, London.
The campaign that was conceptualised around the winter ballet classic, The Nutcracker, landed coverage in Stylist, Good Housekeeping, Metro, Country & Town House, The Sunday Times Travel, Wedding ideas and was even named The Number 1 Afternoon Tea in London by Vogue UK.
Work on making an impact on each online channel that suits your business. Once you're up there, it's easy to get featured in the media as well.
5. Build Strong Media Relations
Before you can start the process of building relationships with journalists, you need to create a solid media list. Journalists are on the lookout for exciting new data, stories, and expert sources.
- If you do a bit of research, you can find out about the type of stories a media outlet or journalist covers. The best way is to understand what a journalist is looking for to offer help.
- It's good to stay in touch with journalists and editors to ask about their upcoming stories.
- If you have a relevant study or research or infographic, you can reach out and share it.
- Respect a journalist's time and understand their requirements thoroughly before pitching them your ideas or tips. If you make their job more comfortable, they'll be happy to work with you.
- Evaluate possibilities of a potential collaboration where your content can be a part of an outlet's newsletter and events.
If you build reliable and relevant media relations, you end up improving your chances of getting links and mentions for your business.
6. Measure, Analyse, and Repeat
Measuring the results of your PR strategies will help you to understand their effectiveness and see how you can modify them. As a content marketer, you can use Google Analytics to measure the outcomes of your PR campaigns.
You can check for Traffic Sources in your Google Analytics account to do a comparative campaign analysis.
Analyze which sites, content pieces, and social campaigns are delivering the highest traffic. Next, you can determine the amount of time users are spending on your website and the actions they’re taking. By tracking user activity, you can measure achieved campaign goals-against planned content marketing KPIs.
Thus, content marketers have the opportunity to create their list of high-performers by studying each content piece, campaign, and media outlet.
Over to You
Content Marketing and PR are the two critical pillars of organic business growth. They have a common goal, and that is, to share your brand story with your target audience and build strong relationships with them. Having a PR mindset while building a content strategy helps you to create content that attracts not just audience attention but the interest of the media that serves that audience. Therefore, great content, coupled with robust media relations is an awesome way for content marketers to get exponential returns from their content efforts.
Cover photo by Brema Elamkovan on Unsplash
