Online PR: report shows PR agencies are losing out

Digital marketing research outfit Econsultancy has published a detailed report on online PR.

I'm not going to attempt to review it (check out PRBlogger Stephen Davies for that), I'm simply going to say this: if you work in PR, read it.

One of the report's authors, Michelle Goodall, said "The most interesting statistic is that clients are not necessarily outsourcing online PR to PR professionals and that search and web developers are benefitting."

I'm not going to say 'I told you so', but the Econsultancy report confirms the main prediction in my whitepaper published over 18 months ago entitled 'Public Relations vs Search Marketing'.

If there is any kind of conclusion, it is that PR professionals need to look more closely at measurement - in the online world that means analytics (Avinash Kaushik's Web Analytics is an excellent book on the subject). If you can prove the impact of online PR activity, then you can charge for it.

Comments

[Doug - Velocity, B2B Marketing Agency]

Feels right.

A PR firm is the last place I'd go for Online PR -- unless they have a dedicated practice that can show a track record.