This week, our very own Managing Director Clemence de Crecy gives her insights into the world of PR and how breaking down knowledge barriers through technology is the key to success.
The PR industry is worth $15 billion today and is expected to close in on $20 billion in the next three years but what is the future of PR? While almost every discipline in the marketing suite — from SEO to ads and inbound marketing to events — has become data-driven, PR still hasn’t. What’s the solution? The PR world needs innovative technologies that allow practitioners to more easily target reporters, understand impact, and streamline and automate parts of their workflow.
PR professionals get the word out about their client or brand by building relationships with reporters and influencers. A couple of decades ago, before the recent proliferation of media, maintaining an updated database of contacts and calling the right reporter with the right story made sense: it was a relationship-driven business in an analogue world.
Today, with the expansion and digitisation of the media landscape, all those journalists and influencers have increased by orders of magnitude. Yet media relations has stayed pretty much unchanged. As a result, PR practitioners aren’t able to reach — or even find — all the reporters relevant to their campaigns.
And with shrinking budgets for staff writers, publications are turning increasingly toward unpaid contributors, who may be harder to contact as they usually have full-time jobs. To make matters worse, those contributors are getting more pitches than ever in an era when fake news and social media noise have created huge demand for credible articles in third-party publications. A popular reporter may get hundreds of pitches in a single day — which means the majority of them are just plain ignored.
Progress in any industry depends on a breakdown of power structures that open up access to knowledge and resources. The influx of technology into PR allows clients to see the numbers behind the operation and understand what work is being done — along with its impact. This is a net positive for everyone, including firms that need to embrace technology and openness if they want to stay competitive in our data-driven marketing ecosystem. Ultimately, as consumers continue tuning out ads, and marketing pounds shift toward content, the PR industry finds itself on the threshold of a huge opportunity.
PR will always be a people-driven business. But by seizing technology that complements and advances PR professionals, the industry’s brightest days may be just ahead. So watch this space! Clementine Com is investing in these new technologies and if you are interested to know more, get in touch!
