Content marketing campaigns and PR strategies remain out of sync at most modern organisations despite the incredible potential for positive returns when the two activities are carefully managed as a “single entity”, a new report published by Version 2.0 Communications has found.
The State of Content & PR – Optimized or Opportunity? study comes at the end of a year where content marketing has been hailed as a hot new trend for amplifying public relations and improving communications, but the main takeaway indicates brands have work to do to reduce silos, optimise strategies and make better use of PR skills for content promotion.
Over 50% of the PR professionals surveyed say they currently believe their organisation is not maximising content marketing endeavours, while a similar number claim they are never involved in the process following creative development, which suggests departments are working against each other in terms of promoting and enhancing content in the right way.
Four in ten want their organisation to bring content creation and amplification together. They believe a combined effort would benefit the company and a sizeable two-thirds of respondents are currently relying on an ad hoc, piece-by-piece strategy. This short-sighted outlook is hampering distribution, reach and awareness, making it more difficult to achieve objectives and success.
Communicators appear to be happy with the content they are creating. Insightful blog posts (94%) topped the list of popular format types ahead of videos (70%) and infographics (62%), but high-quality creative content could be performing much better if it was matched with a long-term strategy and tighter integration with PR.
“There’s been a lot of talk about how content will change the PR industry, and this survey shows that there’s been less action when it comes to maximizing that opportunity,” Version 2.0 Communications Senior Vice President Katelyn Holbrook said. “And it’s unfortunate, because the data demonstrates just how effective content can be at achieving results where PR shines, such as raising brand awareness.”
Larger organisations are doing better overall, as 78% of enterprises with a marketing team exceeding 25 people said they regularly see value from content campaigns. However, this dips to 47% for medium-sized teams and to just 35% for teams with fewer than five people. Despite the challenges, respondents believe content is crucial for awareness and thought leadership. Holbrook urged PR to demand involvement, as there is vast potential for contributing more heavily to these aims.
She concluded: “PR pros need to demand a seat at the content table if they don’t already have one (our research suggests many don’t) and have an active voice in determining the themes and messaging of content, as well as how it gets promoted and amplified. If PR and content teams are operating in silos, neither will do their best work. This can be as simple as holding weekly, cross-departmental meetings to ensure both sides can weigh in on key campaigns, or as robust as creating metrics that monitor and reward collaboration and shared results.”
