PR trends to keep your eye on in 2020
In our society today, there is fine line between public relations and marketing. With the rapid growth of technology into our everyday lives, dependence on online data, focus on creating content and the trend of influencer marketing, PR tactics have had to evolve in order to remain effective for a modern audience. Here are a few trends PR professions should keep their eye on this year:
Because of the overlap in PR and digital marketing sectors today, professionals in these fields working together is undoubtedly a trend to watch out for. Audiences are becoming more conscious of the kind of content presented to them, therefore, it needs to be new, high-quality, transparent and totally authentic. Agencies should be hiring PR pros in content-writing roles and digital marketing strategists who can focus on strategically creating writing that connects with audiences.
There is also a need to build strong relationships with clients in order to establish transparency and trust. This will encourage your audience to share more with your brand in order to better the product or service you are offering.
In the past couple years, organic PR has been replaced by the strategy of influencer marketing. While this creates conversation on a social level for your brand, it is paid, not earned. Here, there is an opportunity to serve a public interest, engaging the emotional side of marketing with your audience. Brainstorm ideas that can perhaps resolve tension or harness an issue that needs to be addressed in society to create conversation.
Rather than just focusing on the results of public relations, there is also value to this within a larger marketing campaign. Remember that earned media or press is only as good as your campaign, so it’s important to keep PR in mind from the time you are planning your marketing strategy for maximum effectiveness.
Securing meaningful earned press also requires a focus on content creation. Helping your audience understand the value of quality content is a good way to know where your reach is. It’s also highly beneficial to share your content on the correct social media for a wider reach. This will also allow you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign or connect it to your sales to prove it is working.
Today, it’s no longer enough to simply pitch your content and secure coverage. You need to consider your brand’s entire social and digital footprint for maximum effectiveness. This might include creating short videos on your social platforms or getting influencers to do an Instagram takeover for day.
The number of pitches journalists receive everyday has not reduced, meaning you need to offer a new, different approach to pitching if you want to secure quality coverage. By offering first-hand media experiences, writers are able to create in-depth articles about your product or service and convey it to their trusted audience. Another way to increase your chances of coverage is to offer video content in a variety of formats and lengths. For example, you could include a short preview in your press release and link to the full video below.
Your PR strategy must be driven by emotion in order to make it relatable to your audience’s humanity. This makes it more meaningful and appealing to micro-influencers rather than macro. Additionally, consumers need to be able to trust you with content that is relevant to them and not to waste their time with an overload of unnecessary information.
On the topic of influencer marketing, take note that audiences are now smaller and more concentrator. For example, an influencer with 50,000 followers on Instagram might have a greater impact on your brand than a publication of 500,000 readers. This is because the influencer’s followers have honed into to specific industry they speak to. As a brand, you need to understand the direction of your audience’s attention and zone into that.
