Why the Future of Digital
Marketing Is Pure PR
Gerald Heneghan
Industry commentators have been keen to sound the death
knell for traditional SEO in the wake of recent updates (and
full-on algorithm switch-outs) from Google.
It’s arguable that they have good grounds to make such
dramatic claims. In its never-ending battle to have its search
spiders behave more like humans, the big G has increasingly
moved away from rewarding those who tick the boxes on
technical elements and has instead placed a growing
emphasis on social signals and quality content.
However, I’m of the opinion that although SEO is here to stay,
its evolution will lean toward the more traditional practice of
public relations (PR) in the coming years. In this article I’ll try
to…
• Back up this claim by looking at industry statistics
• Put forward a case as to why PR can be highly
complementary to SEO
• And, above all, offer some suggestions about how
marketers can capitalize on this trend
Facts and Figures
As I noted, Google wants its robots to behave more like
a human when displaying search results. Accordingly, the
general consensus among the experts is that more weight is
being placed on factors such as inbound links and Google
+1s. The way that personalized results are being rolled out
to more and more users, and the introduction of Authorship,
are further indications of that trend.
Similarly, the changes are aptly summed up in the search
giant’s recently revised guidance on how webmasters can
improve the ranking of their websites: “In general, webmasters
can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality
sites that users will want to use and share.”
And that’s exactly where PR excels. Once you have the
technical elements down, the focus switches to consistently
producing valuable, shareable content that appeals to your
key audiences—a task that traditional PR agencies have
reams of experience in.
But don’t just take my word for it. In the UK at least, marketers
are plunging more and more resources into bolstering the
online profile of their brands via PR. For instance:
The Public Relations Consultants Association recently found
that 72% of PR agencies are now offering SEO services.
The most in-demand services were content creation,
outreaching/engaging with influencers, and social networking
strategy.
More than 60% of agencies have increased their digital
marketing budgets, with a particular focus on monitoring,
SEO, content creation, and PPC/online advertising.
Compared with 12 months earlier, agency revenues from
digital sources have increased significantly.
Businesses in Britain are increasingly devoting resources to
social media; though most of them are keeping this activity
in-house, a significant portion are splitting responsibility for
social with an agency or completely outsourcing altogether.
In the vast majority of cases, responsibility for content
crea tion and social media is handled in-house by the PR and
communications team.
There’s also growing confidence in the ROI gained from
social media, with levels nearly matching those of traditional
PR activities.
Why PR?
One oft-quoted anecdote about the difference between
marketing and PR goes something like this:
“You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and
say: ‘I am very rich. Marry me!’ That’s direct marketing.
“You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous
girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you
says: ‘He’s very rich. Marry him.’ That’s advertising.
“You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up and
straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink,
you open the door (of the car) for her, pick up her bag after
she drops it, offer her ride, and then say: ‘By the way, I’m
rich. Will you Marry Me?’ That’s public relations.”