Let’s face it; the online marketing world has become inexhaustibly robust.
To be a professional in one field is to falter in another. Yet, the entire economy of the Internet is geared towards a single purpose: to make sales.
Irrespective of terminology — whether you choose to call yourself a blogger, or a content marketer, or an online reputation manager — you promise the same thing to those who would hire you: “I can do something that will get people to buy from you.”
And yes, as an Internet marketer, you are right, only that you can’t do it alone.
The emergence of and steady surge in the use of search engines as an essential source of information have a significant effect on how we make purchases.
In 2017, the United States Ecommerce Country Report found that 88 percent of consumers pre-research their buys online before making a purchase either online or in-store.
They are not alone. Adweek published a similar report which stated that 81 percent of shoppers conduct online research before buying.
Whichever number is more accurate, information at our fingertips — as the Internet has made it — means pressing a few buttons on our smartphones to learn more before we make purchasing decisions.
As a result of this, the branches in Internet marketing became immeasurably diverse and broad, even taking along with it some staples of traditional marketing.
These days, content marketers do a series of marketing works, but they are not the best SEOs, or the best web builders, or the best PR professionals. You see, the best guys in these things are the guys whose forte is these things.
If you must deliver on the promise of sales you make to your client with that title you bear, several aspects of marketing must be brought together to do that.
When content marketers work in collaboration with PR practitioners, their voices go a long way. But let’s put some of those benefits into perspective.
A Haphazard Way of Building Site Authority
Content marketers might think it is their sole prerogative to build backlinks that increase their client’s site authority, and they are right.
But while content marketers actively build Pagerank by targeting sites with a Dofollow link and ones that allow for strategic positioning of backlinks, PRs passively build site authority by passing Nofollow (and sometimes, Dofollow) link juice to the site of their client.
But do Nofollow links matter in
Let’s find out from Google what she has to say about Nofollow links.
Google says: “In general, we don’t follow them.”
Brian Dean of Backlinko has explained this position time and again.
And to put it in plain text, it means, “In general, we don’t follow them. But there are times when we do.”
Brian further made a solid case for how the Nofollow link builds up domain authority in many instances in this piece and gave verifiable examples.
Now, it has become clear that Google either generally uses Nofollow links to rank a website but chooses to keep it a secret, or uses it on special occasions best known to her.
But let’s get back to why you, a content marketer, should collaborate with a PR practitioner to gain more domain authority.
PRs are more likely to focus on well-known and trusted media outlets, as well as local ones.
Whenever your website is mentioned on their websites, you get a link juice, which we have now confirmed that Google sometimes uses. Not to mention, Google invented Nofollow, and they are wise enough to know someone wants to de-rank you.
We may not be sure of when Google uses a Nofollow link to rank a website, but getting them anyway makes perfect business sense. For one thing, you lose nothing.
Furthermore, while most prominent media outlets, i.e., Huffpost and Tweak Your Biz, are Nofollow links, it should be noted that not all these reputable websites are Nofollow. Some do pass valuable Dofollow link juices and also bring referral traffic to your site.
Better Online Reputation Management
The work of a content marketer is difficult.
From keyword research to creating a content calendar to executing it, to competition analysis, to link building, and all that’s in-between, the struggle to deliver efficiently is nearly endless.
As a content marketer boils the night candle to get the right content on her client’s site, works on the visuals, the data, and whatnot, it would be too much trouble to simultaneously put the work of external reputation management on the upbeat.
Passing the baton to a PR then necessarily is the most professional thing to do.
Business managers of all types, including marketers, understand the danger of micromanagement. When too much burden is placed on a single individual, originality quickly falls by the wayside.
Content marketers and PR guys, of course, are of different prerogatives. And this isn’t just a theory to be acknowledged, but a piece of knowledge to be deployed if you must deliver a successful content marketing campaign.
This does not, in any way, take the work of online reputation management away entirely from content marketers, but placing it in the hand of those whose only forte is reputation management, and thereby allowing everyone to focus on what they do best.
The Fastest Way to Visibility and Trust
If everyone has become a content creator, what’s the benefit of PR?
Of course, you should ask that. Truth, however, remains that the staples of marketing in the olden days are the staples of marketing in the modern days. Times might have changed and channels, too, but human and his insatiable and perpetual desires remain static as ever.
Just like landing a feature in the National Dailies in the olden days earns your brand the ohs and ahs of your prospects, these days, you bump into the website of top influencers in any industry and see “As Seen In” hanging on the wall of their site.
The reason is not far-fetched. Well-known media outlets still inspire trust. In 2018, a finding by Digital News Report said that 51% of the people trust the mass media. That may not look like a big deal until you find that only 23% trust the information they found on social media.
Mint, a personal finance app that became the number one financial app online by consistently producing great content, owed a considerable part of its visibility to PR. In Nicholas McGill’s word, “I believe Mint owes much of its fame to Gawker Media, the owners of world-famous blogs such as LifeHacker and Gizmodo.”
Do you care about early visibility? Think of media coverage. Whether you are using social media or a personal blog, media outlets have a pool of ready-made audience waiting for you to tap into.
When you think of all the good things your content will end up doing, think of how far proper media coverage will take you in the days you are in the oblivion.
Other Marketing Platforms to Pay Attention To
At the end of it all, nothing matters more than leaving favorable information about your client where his prospects will find them.
Unless you have established a name for yourself like Amazon or Tesla, chances are, prospects will have more interest in what a Forbes post says about you before what you say about yourself on your site.
Hence, the theme is one: getting found at the right place at the right time.
To further boost your chances at visibility, below are some other channels you should be paying attention to and why you should.
Podcast platforms
By 2024, 164 million people will listen to podcasts monthly, according to Statista. Over 76 million people already do that.
But those stats have little relevance here if they had nothing to do with the following proven fact: no other platform has a more engaged audience today than podcasts.
If you can secure a mention on any podcast show or some of those podcast platforms, then you have an additional advantage at spreading the word about your brand.
Education platforms
These days when trust in ads and information is getting thinner and thinner, the smartest online marketers are turning to online courses and learning platforms to capture customers’ attention.
In the past few months, Neil Patel has launched no less than two online courses in digital marketing (for free), each one of them drives learners to Ubersuggest as well as his marketing firm.
This is not unconnected to the fact that educational interactions like that are where real engagement happens, and products’ value can be easily demonstrated.
As you move forward as an online marketer, one thing you should never forget is the fact the most popular ways of doing things no longer pack as many punches as they used to.
Conclusion
No doubt, content marketing rules the sales world of marketing today, and the ways to get found on search engines are quite specific. Not necessarily easy, but specific.
But given the circumstances of things, prospects are looking for more than just the pieces of a blog post you make available on your website.
They are looking for honest reviews, professional advice, and recommendations that were made by the people they trust.
But above all, they are looking for a connection.
Many things could get you this. User-generated content (UGC) and reviews on product review platforms are among them.
But of all these, none brings as much comprehensive benefit as a collaboration between content marketers and PRs.
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