Why PR agencies can’t ignore email marketing

This story first appeared on PR Daily in June, 2015. This is not going to come as a shocker to most of you: PR is changing.

I don’t mean changing as in “going digital,” either I mean revolutionary, blurring-the-lines, redefining-the-industry change. As recently as 10 years ago, PR and marketing were two separate-but-equal efforts that competed for dollars and maintained an uneasy truce at the client’s table, but generally had minimal overlap. Today, PR agencies are learning that clients want to put their trust in a team who can look at their brand, recommend and implement solutions that go well beyond media relations.

Tomorrow? Odds are good that top PR professionals will be as adept in content marketing and customer relationship management strategy as they are in pitching editors and writing in AP style.

With that horizon in sight, more and more PR practitioners are looking for ways to meld modern marketing tactics into their plans. And many are discovering that email marketing is one of the best crossover tools in their evolving arsenal.

I could give you a hundred good arguments for email marketing (though I might be biased). But here are three of the best reasons why agencies should get on board – and fast: