While content marketing remains arguably the most effective strategy for building relationships with leads on their journey to becoming customers, it’s not the only marketing game in town. Enterprise technology PR, for one, still packs a wallop.

Talented public relations writers can take high-tech solutions and translate them into stories that engage an audience while profiling the expertise of the company. A well-written press release sent to the right media outlets is a powerful tactic to get attention on your enterprise technology solution.

And with all eyes on your cutting-edge solution …

…

Then what?

There’s often a gulf between the press release and the next step a lead needs to take on their journey. 

Most press releases point back to the company’s homepage. Some point back to a specific solution page. Few, however, help the reader take the next step.

Instead of dumping the reader into your ocean of a website, what if you put them on a boat to learn the next thing they need to know? 

The problem isn’t that tech companies are lacking the resources to create these “boats” — dedicated landing pages, informational webinars, related case studies, resource libraries for specific target audiences — it’s that the team responsible for writing and sending out the press release is siloed from the marketing team that can help with this.

The gulf is internal. And the result is you’re marketing blind.

The power of content marketing is putting effective, helpful, valuable content in the hands of the right people at the right time. To do this, you need to know what your audience needs and wants at each stage in their buying journey. The gulf between enterprise tech PR and the content marketing team leaves this insight unavailable to the PR people — and marketing teams unable to effectively tap the press release as a marketing channel.

I’m not going to pretend that I have an easy solution to break down your longstanding departmental silos — but I can tell you that a single 15-minute call or two-part email between your PR team and a content marketing team can probably close this gulf.

In this quick alignment exercise, each team will share their piece of the puzzle with the goal of creating a seamless journey for the press release reader.

What the content marketing team needs to learn from the PR team:

• The media outlet that is being pitched
• The target audience for that media outlet
• What the PR team is pitching (the brand, a product, an event, an award, etc.)
• The story angle

What the PR team needs to learn from the content marketing team:

• The next step the target audience needs to take after seeing this press release. (I.e., If the press release is about brand awareness, what does the reader need to know next about the company? If the press release is about a specific product, what does the reader need to learn or do next?)
• What content does this specific audience need to see next, and how will that content be delivered? (E.g., This audience is highly aware of the solution, and a case study is the next thing they need to see. Or this audience is low on the problem-aware scale, and the next thing they need to see is more information about their problem.)

Once these two teams are aligned in this way, it’s easier for each to create their asset as part of a whole experience. The PR team can craft their press release to guide the reader to the marketing content, and the marketing content can be crafted as a natural continuation of the journey the reader began with the press release.

This isn’t pie-in-the-sky thinking. This is the promise of teaming up for a better customer experience.