Lack of skills and budgets hamper online PR
- Added:
- Nov 27, 2008
More than half of marketing professionals devote less than 5% of PR budgets to digital activity, according to a new study.
New research from Citigate Dewe Rogerson indicates that almost two thirds (65.1%) of marketing professionals in the UK and Ireland recognise the importance of online/digital PR.
Two thirds of respondents also believe that online PR will be completely integrated with other corporate communications channels by 2012,
However, almost half (48.6%) say that lack of available budgets is holding back progress, while 40.4% say that they don’t have the skills in-house to adopt new digital PR techniques.
The third barrier to adoption is a lack of understanding of business benefits, cited by 31.2% of respondents.
The positive news is that 51.4% of marketing professionals have adopted at least some elements of online PR, including activities such as search engine optimisation (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), online content and e-newsletters. And 42.2% said they would increase the proportion of budget spent on online in the next financial year, with 11.9% starting activities for the first time.
But fewer respondents fully understand the reach that digital PR increasingly has with younger audiences. Many brands don’t yet use new channels such as blogs, Twitter and social networking to reach key audiences, promote their capabilities or protect their brand.
Those companies that are further along the online PR adoption curve are far more likely to embrace activities that take them closer to their audiences, such as blogger relations, social networking engagement and writing a company blog.
They are also much more likely to measure the impact of online PR activities (only 3.8% say they do not measure impact, compared to 26.6% overall), and tend to involve more disciplines in online PR, including PR, marketing, IT and corporate communications.
Phil Szomszor, head of digital at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, said: “It’s encouraging that online PR is firmly on the radar of marketing departments, with many committed to spending more as a proportion of their PR budget in 2009. But we urge companies to consider areas that will deliver greater reputation management value than SEO and e-newsletters, such as buzz monitoring, blogger relations and, where appropriate, social network engagement and producing company blogs.
“Companies can learn a great deal from those brands that are already blazing a trail with online PR, including the need to measure results, involve a wider range of disciplines, secure senior management buy-in and use a wider range of tools and channels.”
Source: www.citigatedewerogerson.com