If you don’t know the difference between content marketing and PR or which one you should choose to market your business, you’ve come to the right blog!
At TechWyse, we have decades of experience with both forms of marketing, so we can give you a clearer picture of what they are and how they differ.
Once you know the difference, we can move on to why you’re here. Which strategy will give you the biggest bang for your buck? And, where should you lay down most of your chips?
Whether you’re a business owner or manager, you’re going to want to market your company to increase leads, sales, and conversions. But, most importantly, you’re going to want to know which type of marketing will lead to success and give you the highest return on your investment.
In this blog, we’ll go over the difference between both, which one may be the better option for your business, and which one is the clear winner in 2020.
But before we can determine which one is more effective, knowing the basics of both is necessary. So, let’s dive in!
What is content marketing, and how does it work?
It’s evident that content marketing has become one of the most dominant types of marketing in 2020. In fact, about 53% of companies are currently using it as one of their online strategies.
That being said, you’re doing the right thing by considering investing in it. But, what exactly is it?
We know that giving you the standard definition of “content marketing” won’t help much. So, we’ll lay it down in simpler terms.
Content marketing is creating and providing valuable information through a number of different types of media to inform and define your target audience. Here are some examples:
- Blogs
- Magazine articles
- Videos
- E-books
- Infographics
- Webinars
- Podcasts
While the main purpose is to provide valuable content to your audience, the end goal is to drive them to become a customer or subscriber.
Therefore, not only do you want to provide valuable content, but you want this valuable content to drive sales for your business. However, your content should not be too promotional or salesy. Instead, you want to create high-quality content to inform online users about your product or service and have them contact you for more information.
To give you a better idea, imagine you’re looking for more information on the best types of hot tubs on the market because you may be interested in purchasing one, but you don’t know if it’s worth it. A guide that includes information on each type and their benefits is content marketing.
The Relationship Between SEO and Content Marketing
In addition, search engine optimization goes hand in hand with this type of marketing. No matter how valuable your content is, your target audience won’t be able to find it without having it rank on a search engine and vice versa. No matter how good your SEO is, you won’t rank very well without high-quality content.
That’s why content marketing is necessary if you’re interested in also using search engine optimization as a strategy for your business. Generally, high-quality content is the most important ranking factor.
Now that you have a better understanding of content marketing, let’s take a look at PR and how it differs.
What is public relations, and how does it work?
In brief, the purpose of PR is to create and maintain a positive brand reputation through different types of media to build strong relationships with your target audience. PR agencies promote companies by using editorial content for blogs, newspapers, magazines, websites, TV and more.
In addition, PR agencies often distribute press releases to promote a company’s new product, feature, service or any other newsworthy information. The benefits of public relations include increased brand exposure and credibility, stronger community relations and overall cost-effectiveness compared to sponsored advertisements.
The biggest disadvantage is that it’s almost impossible to measure the effectiveness of a PR campaign. In other words, it’s not easy to find out if your published content had an impact on your target audience.
Some more specific examples of public relations involve:
- Press releases & publicity
- Event planning
- Pitching
- Crisis management
- Award opportunities
- Speech writing
Content Marketing vs PR in 2020
You’ve probably heard it before. Some forms of marketing are “dead” today. So, does this impact your decision? Is one of these strategies on its way to the grave?
Before we answer these questions, it’s important to determine their similarities and differences first.
Content marketing is similar to PR in the sense that they’re both unpaid forms of media. Both forms inform the reader about your company, product, or service and are not sponsored in any way. They both also have content that appears naturally in blogs, magazines, webinars and more and are used to build trust for companies and brands.
But, how are they different?
Outlining the biggest difference between content marketing and PR will help you understand which strategy is more worthwhile and effective in 2020.
The main difference to keep in mind is that while both strategies are devoted to publishing and sharing information to promote and expose brands, content marketing does much more than this. You could even say that PR is a part of content marketing, but content marketing has many more opportunities to convert the public into customers.
Why Content Marketing is Better than PR in 2020
Now that you know that content marketing is broader than PR, we’ll take a look at why this makes it the winning strategy. Below are its main benefits.
1. It’s easier to track performance and success
As mentioned earlier, it’s very difficult to track the success of a PR campaign. In fact, about 72% of PR experts believe that it’s currently their biggest challenge in the industry. They track performance by looking at press mentions, impressions, placements in the media, and even sometimes social media posts. But the numbers aren’t very accurate. In contrast, you have organic traffic, conversions, backlinks, and many more metrics to track with content marketing.
2. It’s more targeted and frequent
While PR is intended for a larger, mass audience, content marketing can be used to focus on pre-defined audiences, including niche communities. In addition, content marketing has a much higher frequency compared to PR. While PR is mainly used in specific situations and on occasion, businesses use content marketing on a daily basis to reach potential customers.
3. It complements your SEO efforts
As described earlier, SEO and content marketing work to attract new online customers. That said, you will not only get all of the benefits from content marketing, but you’ll get everything SEO has to offer too. This includes increased traffic from higher rankings. Also, keep in mind that do-follow backlinks from press releases will hurt your rankings. This is another reason why SEO does not work well with PR.
Overall, while PR is a useful strategy that we still recommend pursuing, it may be a little outdated today compared to content marketing, as you can’t do as much with it. PR should only be used on occasion to spread information about things like company news and events. However, you should be using content marketing on a regular basis to increase your sales, traffic, rankings and much more.
Start Winning with Content Marketing
Now that it’s becoming one of the most effective strategies out there, there’s no reason not to incorporate it into your marketing efforts.
Luckily at TechWyse, we are experts in developing powerful content marketing plans for our clients. We can help you strengthen your website content so that you get all of the traffic, leads, and conversions you need to thrive and go above and beyond. Contact us now to start seeing all that content marketing has to offer for your business!
