Three Reasons Why Content Marketing Needs PR - and Vice Versa

Content marketing is not new, but many marketers are still trying to figure how to make it effective. In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute's annual study, just 30 percent of B2B marketers said they were effective at content marketing. Clearly there's still a good deal of growth and opportunity for content marketing. You can read more of the CMI's 2016 takeaways here but one thing struck me: 72 percent of B2B marketers are heavily focused on creating engaging content, citing it as a top priority for 2016.

Of course, PR also relies heavily on engaging stories so it seems to me there's a natural symbiosis that is underutilized across organizations. In short, content marketing and public relations should not be mutually exclusive - and here are three reasons why they need to co-exist: 

1. Credibility: It's very easy to drink the Kool-Aid and proclaim via your blog that your latest product or service will transform your industry. But, if that content is pitched by PR as a contributed post from one of your experts in a key publication, not only will you get more eyeballs on your message and point of view, but you'll also achieve more authority. Plus, you can then post it on your blog boasting, "As published in XYZ publication." 

2. A fresh set of eyes: Involving the PR team in your content plans will help ensure that your content maps to upcoming news and trends. The PR team will encourage content producers to think beyond Kool-Aid flavored content and, instead, encourage you to weigh in on the popular opinion of the day with a stance or advice that is uniquely yours. This kind of content provokes more engagement. What's more, your PR team can then pitch it out to reporters and insert your point of view into the news du jour (and drive traffic back to your blog).

3. Extending your reach: You published your blog content - congrats. But the job's not done yet - there's so much more you can do with that content. We are now living in the age of "distributed content" where you cannot sit back and wait for the traffic to come to you. Now, to ensure your owned content is in the stream, you need to work to take it to the masses. Fortunately, there are a growing number of platforms that content marketers and their PR teams can use for republishing their content, extending its reach and in the process, creating more engagement. Have you tried out LinkedIn's Publishing Platform, Medium and now Facebook Notes yet? What about Wattpad?

These reasons merely scratch the surface of the many ways content marketing and PR can complement each other - like peanut butter and jelly. According to the CMI report, 67 percent of content marketers define their practice as adolescent, young or novice. Applying a PR mindset to content marketing - or better, creating close collaboration between PR and content teams will ensure a 1 + 1 = 3 result for all.