In a world where the content consumption pattern is Omni-channel, it is imperative to master strategies that integrate marketing with PR. In fact as a communications professional today, it’s not just difficult but close to impossible to keep your PR strategies out of your marketing mix. The two need to co-exist. 5 reasons why one should always look at integrating these two brand building strategies are:

Uniform messaging
In today’s highly cluttered market space, it’s important to ensure all channels of promotion are communicating the same message in the same language and tone. A consumer today is hit by 4000 native ads everyday (ref enclosed below) through various channels of outdoor, digital and print. With such a cluttered environment, what really stands out is the third party
validation through PR that compliments the marketing promotion. This is always rewarded by audiences through brand recognition and a magnified sense of familiarity.

Content amplification
While PR builds relationships with newer audience through third party validation, marketing does a good job of giving that relationship a boost by hammering a focused message to that audience. It’s necessary to understand your audience profile that a lot of research methodologies throw up. There is no point of selling your brand in one pool of audience
while you are building reputation in another!

In addition, monetary value in terms of reduced cost and maximizing outcome is of utmost importance and integrating your PR and media buying channels in a content cluttered
environment is the best way to ensure effective visibility, recall and engagement.

Storytelling
Let’s face it we all prefer authenticity over promotion. With over 0.45% of the Indian GDP being invested in ad spends, we are all fed with more than necessary brand content. While the reach might be there through advertising, it’s the third party validation through PR that really helps you evaluate and take you to the purchase stage. Hence its essential to have a
PR value associated with all kinds of communication strategies. Integrating the two will help in arriving at a more creative story that helps you break the clutter and stay authentic through your marketing as well as PR channels.

A lot of times these creative stories come out of factual data that is produced by street surveys or research studies commissioned by marketing teams. Capitalizing on these lead to a very effective foundation for credible story-telling.

Building relationships with your influencers
PR inherently is a function that thrives on nurturing relationships. Hence its but natural for both PR and influencer marketing to co-exist. While a marketing strategy might involve partnering with a pool of influencers on a commercial basis, long term relationships that lead to authentic advocacy will only be fostered through PR.
Having said this, it’s important to recognize that digital influencers today are bringing brands closer to the consumers. Hence all the more one should build a sustainable and long term relationship with this group of stakeholders. Integrating social and PR strategies through digital PR is a communication channel that’s growing dynamically. Creating pieces of content that have great PR value and seeding them organically and inorganically through the right influencers is a component of your marketing and PR strategy that virtually impacts every other channel

Capitalizing on media relations
It’s essential to have a strategic media approach to maximize on your communications. This is at various levels. It’s important to identify the media channel that reaches out to your focus audience in the most effective manner and then foster relationships with the same through your PR strategy. Remember, your consumers prefer authenticity over promotion and hence getting a third party validation in the same media channel that your marketing message is going out will only amplify the reach and stickiness of the content.
It’s also wise to capitalize on this relationship to maximize the reach across platforms that the media channel might be present across- moving from traditional to social.

In conclusion, connecting with your consumers as a brand, despite the clutter, is what helps marketers stay a notch above; and in such a space, integrating marketing strategies with integrating marketing strategies with the PR approach definitely helps one champion effective business communications.

– Smita                                                                

Smita is a senior member of the corporate communications team at Godrej. She leads the digital PR vertical for the group and manages the communication for multiple consumer durable brands. She has been a communications professional for over 12 years. During this time she has worked across the communication spectrum and across industry verticals viz. FMCG, manufacturing, aerospace, consumer durables, real estate, chemicals, etc. She’s a fitness enthusiast, plays badminton and loves to travel and explore new geographies and cuisines.