Not too long ago, working in the PR department primarily meant shaping the way clients are covered by the press. Developing relationships with members of the media, promoting client messages through press coverage, and ultimately building brand identity for clients—all through the media. Sure, my work somewhat overlapped with that of the marketing department, but for the most part, my experiences were so that the activities of the PR department were pretty distinct from those of the marketing team.

1. The Convergence of PR and Marketing
How the role of the PR pro continues to change.
Not too long ago, working in the PR department
primarily meant shaping the way clients are
covered by the press. Developing relationships
with members of the media, promoting client
messages through press coverage, and ultimately
building brand identity for clients—all through the
media. Sure, my work somewhat overlapped with
that of the marketing department, but for the
most part, my experiences were so that the
activities of the PR department were pretty
distinct from those of the marketing team.
Fast forward to today, and now I work alongside marketing folks all day long. My
strategies and tactics are no longer restricted to solely focusing on what funnels out of
the mouths, pens and keyboards of the press.
So what happened?
Well, everyone became a journalist. Or, at least everyone thinks they became a
journalist. We hear it every day ad nauseam—content is king. But it’s true. The Web is
an open book, and everybody in the world became an author. Today, news isn’t
powered alone by the credentialed members of the press. For good and bad, anybody
can get his or her story out there. The key, though, is to be heard, and that’s where
the PR and marketing gurus come in.
So not only am I still focused on garnering the attention of the media, but now I’m
charged with capturing the eyes and ears of all the other voices out there. Bloggers,
consumers, industry influencers…
There are fewer credentialed reporters out there today, which means less manpower
to cover stories. Reporters are covering multiple beats and they need to churn out
more stories in less time. For the PR professional, that means less opportunity to pitch
and win coverage in the press. With it being even harder to engage reporters now,
traditional media placements are an even sweeter win. However, with so many more
authors of content outside of the traditional press, additional opportunities open up
for us.
So how did you get your news this morning? In the form of a 140 character tweet or a
Facebook post? Our incredibly short attention spans have led us to keep content short
and sweet, and share and recycle it. Social media programs are an effective way to
integrate the work of marketing and PR teams to maximize the reach of client
messages and influence different audiences.

2. But with it feeling like everyone is saying something about everything, what’s really
meaningful? What makes for quality content and stories? It’s here that PR and
marketing folks together provide clients with real value. Industry surveys,
infographics, social media activity, blogging, video, white papers and eBooks are all
tactics that I’ve found best executed and garner the greatest ROI when both PR and
marketing have a hand in them together. Having PR folks working right alongside the
marketing department is critical. To that point, the PR pro is now a marketer herself:
the PRarketer.
For example, marketing may build the questions for a client’s industry survey, but
then those questions are run past PR to gauge their media-worthiness. Marketing may
execute the survey, but then both teams promote it—via social media, pushing it out
to the client’s customers and prospects, and pitching it to the media for coverage.
And someone on the team will write a blog about the survey.
So do these strategies and tactics belong to marketing or PR? In most cases, the
answer is both. I’ve learned to lean on the expertise of my marketing colleagues to
maximize my PR results. And the marketing folks at my company know they can call on
me to write content or place it in the media.
The lines between PR and marketing have been blurring for some time. “PRarketing” is
the new way of doing PR. It doesn’t change what we as PR pros do at the heart of it; it
just opens up a lot more opportunities and underscores our value to clients. We cut
through the clutter of content out there and shine the spotlight on our clients—
whether it’s in a reporter’s newspaper article, a blog post, social media shares or the
like. And the smart PRaketing will score wins for her clients every time.