The communications, digital marketing, PR and social media landscape constantly evolves, with new products and services appearing daily. Traditionally, these disciplines were separate, but today, they intertwine in a way that makes them more effective when used in tandem.
In a world of ever-changing technology, C-suite executives struggle to stay on top of the latest trends impacting the industries in which they operate, particularly when broader responsibilities occupy much of their time. But knowing how your company stacks up against its competition is crucial.
- Are you up against competitors that take advantage of the latest trends and technologies?
- Do you know what your outside partners do to help drive the business forward?
- Can you see potential or business opportunities but don’t know how to bring them to life?
Social media, website design, SEO and public relations are a lot like the great outdoors — they don’t look all that hard to conquer from afar, but once you get into the thick of things, it’s a different story. For a business leader with a strong grasp of the fundamentals, these tools can drive awareness and traffic to your company’s website and generate new sales and media opportunities. On the other hand, someone just starting out can’t learn these skills overnight, so diving in headfirst without the proper experience could lead to more harm than good.
The reason is simple — social media, media relations and SEO are always changing. New updates are announced every day, which means there will always be something you have to learn — and retrain yourself on — to stay ahead of the game. Companies need support to stay on top of the latest media trends and keep their messaging fresh and uniform across all platforms.
Streamlined Accountability
With the constant cycle of news, blogs, social media content, advertising programs and marketing campaigns, agencies are increasingly emerging to help businesses plan and implement their communications efforts. Agencies can effectively provide these services to companies at a more digestible price than a complete in-house comms team (and their $70,000-plus salaries). Hiring an agency allows a company to focus on what they are best at while having “arms and legs” that can focus on the many facets of communicating your story to different audiences. The problem today, though, is that there are so many specialty agencies that businesses work with a number of them to complete their full communications picture.
Outsourcing PR, marketing and social media work across several agencies can slow operations and create messaging and cohesion issues for a brand. This messaging segmentation can get messy if the agencies are on different pages or don’t use similar writing styles or tones. Social media pages need to match the keywords and language used on your website, and if an agency is pitching the press, they must know how the company presents itself online. In short, more agencies can cause more problems.
Comprise has solved this issue for businesses by integrating the different elements of modern communications into a comprehensive whole. A full-service communications agency can cover everything under one roof, meaning better timing and alignment on content, priorities, spending, messaging, campaigns and launches.
Let Me Look Them Up Online
Let’s face it, these days, having an online presence (including on several social media platforms) is crucial for a company to stay relevant and appear credible. If your public relations team successfully earns interest from reporters, you’d better be sure that your website is “journalist-ready.” Consequently, if a journalist goes to look you up on social media, you need to have a presence, at the very least.
For a PR or marketing campaign to be successful, remember that you can’t just build a strong brand — you have to look like one too. If you want the media to take a serious interest and people to trust your brand, ensure your messaging looks professional from top to bottom and aligns across all platforms.
If your company has been around for a while and has an established website or social media presence, you’re probably in good shape. But if you’re just starting and have never posted anything on LinkedIn or Twitter or have a website that looks like something from the ‘90s, that’s not going to fly with the media. Journalists will do their due diligence when considering using you as a source, so if your website is outdated and hard to navigate, they won’t take you seriously. A full-service communications agency will see this off the bat and say, “We’re not pitching until you fix this!”
Bridging Gaps with Full-Service Solutions
Comprise completed a rebrand in early 2022 to ensure our company name better fits the depth and breadth of our communications offerings. Today, we are the composition of what PR should be. When working with our clients, we don’t just focus on what’s happening today or next week — we think about the long-term vision for their company. We know how much time and energy goes into building a brand, so we take that responsibility seriously when crafting a strategy for our clients. We won’t just give them a few posts or articles — we help them build their website and social media presence to establish a well-defined identity.
Stay tuned for part two of this blog series to learn more about the benefits of using a full-service communications agency like Comprise to create a robust, personalized plan to help you stand out. Interested in collaborating with us? Contact info@comprise.agency, and we would be happy to discuss how you can achieve less stress and more success with your communications.
