Lack of skills and budgets hold companies back from exploring increasingly vital online PR

Almost two thirds (65.1%) of marketing professionals in the UK and Ireland recognise the importance of online PR*, and believe that it will be completely integrated with other corporate communications channels by 2012, finds new research from Citigate Dewe Rogerson**.

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 public relations, 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.

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 and technology PR blogger, 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.”

* Online/digital PR encompasses a range of activities, from monitoring the influence of blogs and forums, to generating blog copy, engaging with online media and social networking sites, and using search engine optimisation methods to boost news coverage.

** Citigate Dewe Rogerson surveyed more than 100 marketing professionals in the UK and Ireland in October 2008.

For more about Citigate, please visit www.citigatedewerogerson.com