Sep 25, 20204 min read

PR + Blogging = Visibility

Updated: Sep 29, 2020

It’s safe to say that maths was never particularly my strong point, but this is definitely one equation I can get my head around! Here at GuidedPR we strongly believe that PR combined with blogging is a recipe for success. 👩‍🍳 As business owners we strive to be: profitable, sustainable, and have an integral brand identity. The one ingredient we need to ensure that we achieve these goals is today's key word: visibility. ✨✨

This post is your ultimate guide to visibility, so grab a cuppa, and let’s get cracking... ☕️

Why PR?

Credibility:

Public Relations focuses on achieving third-party endorsement, therefore it is the perfect marketing discipline to establish and protect your business’s credibility. As stated in Forbes, "advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for”. According to Wildfire, PR is 90% more effective than advertising at commencing, growing and securing credibility.

How so? In simple terms, PR:

🔸 Manages your reputation and public opinion:

Customers know that businesses pay to place ads in commercial spots, therefore it's vital to emphasise earned media. If you're featured in articles, events, radio shows, and interviews, then your brand image will automatically gain credibility. PR professionals help your brand to develop a relationship with your target audience, influence public opinion, and as noted by INC, they ‘filter out the nonsense’.

🔸 Leads to B2B and B2C ties:

This quote from ‘entrepreneur’ resonated with me, “effective PR helps a B2B firm…replace difficult jargon and boring self-promotional messages that the boardroom loves, but the audience loathes, with relevant messages for the target audience”. Their tips discuss how B2B PR aids success stories, by leading to the establishment of:

✨ A positive brand image.

✨ Improved relationships with customers and other industry experts.

✨ Increased revenue, as increased trust leads to higher customer lifetime value.

PR also aids B2C ties, as it creates a more personal journey for your consumer. One way this is achieved is by working within the community. If you immerse yourself into local community activities, whether it's promoting local charities or aiding other local businesses, you will increase your credibility.

Have a read of our post discussing the further benefits to your credibility here.

Brand awareness and trust:

PR creates brand awareness and trust by promoting your authentic brand image. Your customer relies on honesty, and in an explanation of HOW your business is the right service/product for them. Your PR team will ensure that the content you share is valuable, engaging and consistent. Have a read of my article discussing ‘how to build brand trust through PR’ for more detail.

SEO ranking:

As we know, SEO stands for ‘search engine optimisation’ and as noted by Google, it's ‘often about making small modifications to parts of your website…which have a noticeable impact on your site’s user experience and performance in organic search results’. PR will enhance your SEO ranking by focusing on the right content. The key things to remember is that your content must be ‘organic’ and ‘evergreen’, check out our definitions of these terms.

PR teams work closely with journalists and industry experts to find you opportunities to promote your business, as well as keeping up to date with what topics are on trend. The other benefit of PR with SEO, is link building. Links are one of the most important ranking factors in Google, so getting good links is essential. Your PR professionals can help you get featured in renowned publications, which will not only aid your reputation as a business, but also your visibility online and in the media.

Website traffic:

Oh yes, another thing PR can help with❗️ A successful PR campaign will incorporate a strategic digital campaign. This often includes:

🔸 Social media tactics: it’s not only important to find the right social media channel for you, but also to ensure that the content your sharing is clear, concise, and intriguing.

🔸Repurposing your content: the more your content is shared, the greater your brand visibility. Increased visibility leads to an increased traffic flow for your website. Easy peasy 🍋 squeezy.

🔸 Press coverage: as stated by content marketing agency, Fractl, “press coverage is always good for increasing brand recognition”. By finding you opportunities in the media, your PR team will be enhancing your online profile, and consequently driving traffic to your website.

🔸 Podcast: Podcasts are an absolute gem. 💎 They give a voice to your brand, introduce interesting topics of conversation, and are a perfect opportunity to drop in the name of your website. Sneaky 👀 Did you know that 37% of the U.S. population listened to a podcast in the last month? Quite a big chunk that.

Why blogging?

The joys of content marketing:

Blogs are an indispensable marketing tool. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways for a business to reach out to its audience. Our audiences value expertise and knowledge over promotional advertising. By creating compelling blog posts, you can connect your business to your audience in ways that you never could do through mass marketing. To gain a clear picture about the reasons behind why blogging is a brilliant marketing tool, have a read of my colleagues post.

Industry expertise:

Blogs are a perfect way to demonstrate your industry expertise and establish yourself as an expert. By writing to answer your customer and linking to other influential businesses in your industry, you will not only increase traffic to your website, yet also improve your reputation. Guest blogging is also a perfect way to reach a targeted audience, and add links to your website and social media handles.

Perfect to share on social media:

So, how do blogs create visibility? According to Forbes, companies that publish blog posts get almost 3.5x the traffic than companies who don’t. They’re the perfect content marketing tool, are easy to share on social media, and ensure that your content is unique.