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Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My dad played keyboard professionally, so it was inevitable that I was around the music scene from an early age. By the time I graduated high school, I was playing tuba, two saxophones, guitar and singing – just not at once.
Music has always fascinated me because it takes a tandem of successful parts for it to work. This applies across genres and settings: If the tuba section isn’t on the same page as the rest of the orchestra, the sound will be affected. If the drummer gets off rhythm, the entire rock band will suffer. Even if every section is together and every note is in tune while two bands are playing near each another, if the bands aren’t playing the same songs, the music will clash.
The same concept applies to marketing and public relations. Regardless of their individual success, if your PR and marketing programs are not working in harmony, they will duplicate tasks, or even hurt one another. When you align marketing with PR, you reinforce your messaging so that all public-facing content matches. By combining both efforts, you change your conversations about your company or clients, to positively influence how they’re perceived. In addition, you extend industry conversations while positioning your clients or internal executives as respected Thought Leaders on key issues, as published at high-profile media outlets and online platforms.
So how do you do this? By initiating the following best practices:
Launch a universal content calendar for PR and marketing. This is a simple way to loop the PR team into the content that the marketing team is driving. When the PR team is generating campaigns, the themes should match and/or complement the company’s marketing campaigns.
Schedule Bi-Monthly meetings. A bi-monthly “touch-base” meeting between the two teams lends insights about content currently in the works, open media opportunities, internal plans, etc.
Integrate PR into social media channels. The PR team dials in daily to relevant industry news for press pitching and social media engagement. The marketing team leverages these efforts to drive brand content, so client/internal Thought Leaders steers critical, industry conversations. Also, the marketing team promotes any coverage generated by the public relations team to illustrate the company or client’s ability to share its expertise in media outlets.
At our high-tech PR firm, we help our clients ensure PR is in harmony with their internal marketing efforts as we drive industry conversations. If you’d like to find out more about these and additional services we offer, then please contact us.
Mike Atkinson is an Account Executive for W2 Communications.
