Putting the horse before the cart in marketing
Ultimately, PR, marketing and design all have similar end goals, so combining the skill sets from each makes sense, and allows a company one point of contact for their marketing and PR requirements.
With these same goals in mind, it’s important that PR is involved in marketing and design efforts. Whether it’s a landing page, brochure or social post, the message needs to complement the design and the design needs to reflect and compound the message. If the link between the two is broken, the material becomes disjointed and confusing, inevitably driving customers away.
When you begin to look at merging your PR and marketing, the first thing to tackle is messaging. We run discovery workshops where we work with your team to tailor messaging that will engage with your customers and speak to their pain points. This exercise also helps to define the main goals and objectives that will be feed into both PR and marketing materials.
Once you’ve established the messaging and goals, content can be created that speaks directly to your audiences. Whether it’s blog posts, social media content, press releases or landing pages, the content can be crafted into visually led assets that tie your brand messaging, image and ethos into a consistent and purposeful marketing asset. These can then be placed directly under your audience’s nose, helping to build trust between your company and customers, and establishing you as the industry specialist.
One of the biggest opportunities for engagement is within social media. With access to social media at the fingertips of nearly every market, it’s a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness quickly. Whether it’s an Instagram story or a LinkedIn carousel, there’s the potential to drive huge engagement, especially where the content and design marry up. Further, entire social campaigns can become viral juggernauts when they really push a consumer’s buttons.
Just remember that any campaign should support your overall brand strategy. A campaign for fun might get high engagement but ask yourself; does it deliver on your brand promise?
