What is content marketing?

Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable content designed to build brand awareness, improve SEO, and increase traffic to your site. This includes blog posts, infographics, videos, whitepapers, social media posts, case studies, and podcasts. 

The content is usually designed around questions your target audience is asking or topics related to your industry. For example, a business that sells mattresses might write a blog post titled ‘The ultimate guide to choosing the perfect mattress’.

For more information on exactly what content marketing is, check out our blog, ‘What is a content marketing strategy and why should you implement one?’.

Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing is a crucial part of marketing for many businesses. ​​According to the Content Marketing Institute, 73% of B2B and 70% of B2C marketers use content marketing. 

Producing relevant, high-quality content can help improve your site’s position in the search results, increase website traffic and boost conversions. It’s an effective tool that can be used to target customers across the marketing funnel. For example, you can write content designed to target users who are fully unaware of your brand, products or services and content designed for users who need a final push before making a purchase. 

What is PR?

Public Relations (PR) refers to strategic communication between a business or organisation and the public. It’s often used to maintain, change or reiterate brand image and communicate important company events or news. This might include press releases, interviews, news conferences and social media posts.

Sometimes, PR is used to manage negative events to ensure the company is seen positively and minimise damage to the company’s reputation. Unlike content marketing, the company does not have complete control over published content. 

Types of PR

There are two main types of PR: traditional and digital. Traditional PR is what most people imagine when they hear PR and is designed to increase brand awareness. This includes television, radio, newspapers and magazines. 

Digital PR has evolved to encompass online news articles, social media, websites and blogs in recent years. Most companies use a mixture of traditional and digital PR to achieve their aims. 

Why is PR important in marketing?

PR is an incredibly important part of marketing. An effective PR strategy helps to build relationships, increase trust and credibility with your target audience, protect your company's reputation, and share important news with the world. Without PR, you have no control over how your brand is presented, and you’ll miss out on many opportunities to share positive news with your target audience.

Content marketing vs. PR

Although there’s some overlap between content marketing and PR, there are some key differences between the two strategies. PR focuses more on promoting your brand name. In contrast, content marketing focuses on driving traffic to your site, increasing conversions, boosting brand awareness, and establishing your brand as an authority in your industry. PR uses traditional and digital media outlets, while content marketing often focuses on publishing content on your own website (which can then be shared through other channels).

PR and marketing have different success metrics. PR success might be measured by press mentions, media placements or impressions. Because PR is mostly focused on brand reputation and image, it can be tricky to accurately measure your PR efforts' success. However, content marketing is measured using metrics such as page views, conversions or leads driven, actions taken, and SEO rankings.

How does PR support content marketing?

Although there are differences between these two strategies, they are both powerful ways to build brand awareness. When used together, these two strategies can amplify each other and work together to reach and resonate with your target audience. 

PR can help validate your content marketing efforts. Users will generally be more likely to trust a press release from a major news outlet about a new product launch than a blog post on your own website. You can write content or produce videos for your website that offer more detailed information, compare product features, explain how it works and feature testimonials to convince users to make their purchase. 

Key takeaways

It can often seem like there’s a bit of a blurred line between PR and content marketing. It can be difficult to know which to focus on if you’re new to digital marketing or trying to market a new business. 

Content marketing is a strategy that works alongside SEO to improve your site’s position in the search results, drive traffic, and generate leads or conversions. Starting with content marketing is the best approach to ensure you reach and engage your target audience, even if they are unfamiliar with your company, products or services. 

At Logica Digital, we have over 15 years of experience in content marketing and SEO. We’re experts at writing quality content that resonates with your target audience and drives results. Whatever your business, we can create a comprehensive content plan based on what users are searching for. 

Why not request a free marketing audit from our experienced team? We’ll look at your current marketing efforts and content strategy and recommend what you can do to improve and see better results.

Get in touch with us to learn more about our range of services and how we can work together to perfect your content strategy!

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