Should You Leave Your Content Up to Your PR Agency?

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There has been a lot of discussion in recent forums on whether PR is dead, evolving, being reinvented etc. I think the general consensus is that a good modern PR agency looks dramatically different from the agency of the past that tended to operate in a sort of “black box.” In the old days, you worked with them on a press release and then they worked their magic to get in the hands of the media and analysts. The end result was a “clip book” of your stories and mentions but little else.

In the modern era of PR the lines between PR and traditional marketing are blurring a bit. No doubt, a modern agency today uses social media tools such as blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and facebook to reach out to the audience. And, although the agency is focused on reaching out to the media, influential bloggers in your space, and your key analysts, they are also reaching out to your target customer as well. The content they create is easily accessible to a potential prospect doing a search on your keywords and can drive visitors to your website.

But, the area where I tend to draw the line between traditional marketing and PR is content creation. If, by “content creation”, you mean press releases and the types of content that go into your online media room, that works for me. But, I don’t think you should abdicate your entire content creation strategy to your PR agency. Unless they are truly content creation specialists and deeply understand the role of content in nurturing prospects, I don’t think you should be relinquishing the responsibility for the materials you use for your nurturing programs to your PR agency. Telling the story for the customer through a solid content strategy is different than telling the story to attract the media and analysts.

So do you agree? Disagree? Especially those of you who work within the PR agencies, has your product offering changed enough that you feel you can own the entire content creation responsibility?

All the best!

Melissa