Like most forms of marketing have changed over the last decade, so to as the way in which we work with public relations. In a digital age everything that we do from a marketing perspective has to evolve and adapt into this new arena. For those professionals in the industry the time has now come to also adapt to new changes and one of those happens to be integrating inbound marketing tactics into their PR strategies.
1. Use Your PR materials to generate killer content:
Marketing has many different channels to go down and you would be surprised at just what you can gain from your PR material. Think of it as recycling, because those PR materials you have in-front of you now can be used so create anything from infographics, podcasts, videos, news articles and even feature-length eBooks.
Remember, the key to most marketing platforms is creativity and to stand out from the crowd in what you are writing so the ability to be able to twist and turn materials into something completely new, with added value is fundamental to the industry we are in.
As an example the chances are that your PR material has plenty of data research included in it, you can take these stats to create a variety of different articles coming from different angles, as well as creating infographics.
2. Optimize all press releases for SEO (search):
SEO also known as Search Engine Optimization is a special skill that allows for pages to be optimized in order for search engines such as Google, to be able to pick them up and rank them high in their list of search results for chosen keywords.
There is no point in creating a press release that isn’t optimized as you will be missing out on the chances of attracting more readers to your press release without doing so. Think about long-tail search terms and make use of keyword finding tools such as Google AdWords or Market Samurai.
Once you have found the appropriate keywords you can then enter these into your PR, remember that you cannot compromise the quality of the piece, and should always be thinking about the reader first.
3. Post useful content to your by-line and place them on reputable sites and blogs:
Generating the best content there is, is fundamentally what makes you content succeed in a world and industry that is dominated by so many companies doing the same thing. To beat these to the punch you need to generate content that is of high quality by thinking about the layout for the reader, the addition of supportive media such as high quality images, video, podcasts and anything else that you feel will be beneficial.
Further to this, when you are submitted content to other websites and blogs you need to remember to write an awesome by-line to showcase your experience as a writer in this field of expertise.
4. Become a content generation machine, using your PR materials as fodder:
Content is king and it is everywhere you look these days, by creating a page of high quality content you are increasing the size of your website and with that you are increasing the chances of Google ranking more and more pages on your website.
The key here is don’t stop creating content but at the same time don’t slip into creating content just for the sake of it as that can give you a negative effect. Take all the PR collateral that you have and thin about what you can do with them and how you can put twists on news stories.
Articles don’t have to be 3,000 words long, some can be short and still drive you traffic (especially time sensitive pieces such as sales days and discounts). Also, don’t be scared to newsjack stories that are out there but to make them unique you will need to think about different angles you present the story in.
5. Syndicating out your content:
Our final way of integrating inbound marketing into your PR efforts comes in the form of utilizing platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which are two fundamental platforms for getting word out.
Social Media is undeniably one of the biggest Internet revolutions in the last decade and companies cannot afford to neglect the potential that is behind it. It is also a great way to share your high quality content with the masses, whether they are current customers, new customers or potential customers.
If the content is good enough, then it will be shared, liked, commented on, and in no time you will see fantastic results that come from just taking some time to slice through your PR materials and create great inbound marketing tactics from them.
This article is written by Sunny Popali. He is SEO Director at Tempo Creative, a Phoenix inbound marketing company that has served over 700 clients since 2001. Tempo's team specializes in digital and internet marketing services including web design, SEO, social media and strategy.
