Written by: Carolina Salinas, Professional Development Co-Chair, CPRS Toronto
What does a content marketing agency do? How can content marketing work within your PR strategy?
These were some of the questions addressed during the Fifth Story Content Marketing for Public Relations Workshop held on April 23. Many PR professionals work daily with integrated content marketing strategies to ensure that they are broadcasting a clear and consistent message across all marketing channels. It helps to build brand awareness, trust and put your brand top of mind.
The event was hosted and moderated by Michelle Dias, CPRS Toronto’s Vice President. Guest speakers included Fifth Story experts Victoria Procunier, SVP, Sales & Client Success, Jenny Cruxton, Director, Measurement and Analysis and Niharika Mohanty, Account Director, Marketing Strategy. Each Fifth Story member offered their expertise on how to use content strategically to provide insights and information to an intended audience. Highlighting that content marketing can be used by marketers and PR professionals. The event went in-depth on topics like how Canadians are getting their information today, including newspapers, print vs digital linked to Gen X, Y, Z and older generations, radio and methods for accessing news online.
The workshop kicked off with Victoria explaining that content can be an article, a video and/or a photo published on your website, social media property or a news publication. The purpose of the content is to establish trust and rapport with your audience to be familiar with your brand.
“As a content marketing agency, we help to determine the best course of action to reach your intended audience, we help you choose the right channels and create the right assets and measures results to evaluate success.” – Victoria Procunier, SVP, Sales & Client Success, Fifth Story
Victoria pointed out the evolution of Fifth Story by starting with News Canada, an earned media tool in 1981, followed by the development of the Media Relations Points (MRP), a media analysis measurement service through the CPRS partnership. Then in 2014, it extended through a content marketing agency as Fifth Story.
Jenny Cruxton talked about the Media Relations Points (MRP), an online, subscription-based service that helps communications professionals measure, evaluate and report on earned, paid, shared and owned media resulting from media relations campaigns.
“One of the most important things of MRP is that it is subscribed with Comscore and Vividata, whose numbers are updated regularly via these suppliers and is how Fifth Story reports results on their campaigns.” – Jenny Cruxton, Director, Measurement and Analysis, Fifth Story
How Canadians are getting their information today
Newspapers. Daily newspaper brands reach 3 out of 5 adults across Canada on a weekly basis.
Print vs digital. Gen X, Y and Z have greater digital reading than older generations.
Radio. Radio listeners are engaged consumers.
Online. The top methods for accessing news online, Google searches and Facebook.
Current trends
- Shop local. Two-thirds of Canadians prefer making online purchases from Canadian retailers when they have a choice.
Integrated content marketing
Niharika addressed that an integrated content marketing strategy works towards the well-coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other.
“A well-integrated content marketing strategy today requires well-defined messaging, adaptation to the context of each platform you use, and unified goals to measure the efficacy of your program as a whole.” – Niharika Mohanty, Account Director, Marketing Strategy, Fifth Story
How to launch a successful integrated campaign
- Define your goal and KPIs
- Build out consumer personas
- Map out the buyer journey
- Identify core promotion channels and create content
- Launch, measure and integrate your campaign
At the end of the presentation, there was a two-way dialogue between guest speakers and workshop attendees through the Q&A section. It was an excellent learning workshop that provided the audience insight into current content marketing trends.
Fifth Story speakers and the CPRS community invited the attendees to participate in a contest to win a 6-month subscription to MRP, with a value of $1,785.
CPRS Toronto will continue hosting professional development events; stay tuned for those.
For more information on Content Marketing for Public Relations, check out these Fifth Story resources below: