“Advertising is saying you are good. PR is getting someone else to say you’re good.”
As former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassee explains PR and marketing are two very different things.
Although unfortunately they are often confused by businesses unaware of the subtle difference as they chose one or the other failing to get the right mix of sales and brand awareness activity.
In the latest series of Busting PR Myths, I look at how PR and marketing should work together rather than being seen as separate tools so that it helps to build a brand and sales strategy with maximum results.
So, what is PR, or public relations and how does it fit in with marketing?
PR and marketing should never be confused as the same thing. The two activities work hand in hand but they both have very different purposes making them equally as important in achieving your business goals.
PR is used to maintain a positive public image and raise awareness of a brand through targeted media coverage and activity. The goal is to shape how people think about a company, product or service. It is about telling a story that resonates with your target audience and engages them to showcase the company’s culture and values. In this respect it is a long-term strategy which tells your business story to build credibility and awareness.
Wider marketing activities, such as advertising, social media, email marketing and direct mailing, help to build on that brand awareness to promote a product or service.
Marketing is focused on generating leads and selling to your audience. The activity is paid for and generated internally so doesn’t offer a third-party endorsement as PR does. The aim is purely to sell.
A subtle difference it is crucial businesses understand how to use both skills effectively if they are to get maximum results from their efforts.
You can’t sell to an audience that doesn’t know or trust your brand
Where businesses often fall foul is in seeing marketing as the lead generation element of the two activities so believing it is the more beneficial of the two. This means PR is often seen as just a nice to have rather than a necessity.
What businesses fail to realise is that people buy from brands they trust and like so without that level of brand reputation your sales messaging will often just fall on deaf ears.
92% of consumers are more likely to trust non-paid for recommendations such as PR and reviews rather than advertising.
Where the marketing and PR benefit from each other is in nurturing and developing that relationship with a target audience to encourage action.
By building trust and credibility through targeted media and brand awareness campaigns which focus on providing third party endorsements and expert features in key target markets it helps to build that level of trust which inspires people to buy.
PR and marketing need to work together for optimum results
You must have a mixture of the two activities.
On average, it takes five to seven impressions for customers to remember your product, with 73% of consumers willing to pay more for a product or service from businesses they trust.
Without brand awareness no one would know how to find your products, so PR is a long-term strategy that helps to build a story around your products and services. It helps to explain who you are as a company, what people think of you and why you should engage. It continually manages that brand reputation to make sure that you are seen positively within your industry.
Your marketing then helps to draw in that already engaged audience by selling your products and services and flooding the market with calls to action to generate leads from that brand awareness.
The quicker we stop seeing marketing and PR as one or the other the better as without both working together you will struggle to get the result you are looking for.
In summary
PR and marketing shouldn’t be confused as the same thing. They have two different distinct goals and need to work together for maximum results. PR builds trust and awareness with marketing generating the leads that these opportunities create.
Working in unison this constant drip feed of messaging from various channels helps to build up the picture and tell your business story.
Getting the right mix of activity is about balancing out the perfect level of storytelling and lead generation content. One without the other is just doomed to fall short as you constantly sell your product with no substance and credibility built in or raise awareness of your brand without making it easy for your target market to engage.
Top tips for getting PR and marketing activity working together
- Include As Seen In logos on your website and marketing materials to show where you have been featured as well as links to the coverage where possible. Having coverage in industry publications and high profile media related to your business area shows that you are well thought of in the industry.
- Make media coverage part of your social media strategy. Share images of radio interviews or TV filming and talk about where you are getting featured. Share your press release and links to online coverage. Be aware you may need licenses to share physical copies of coverage rather than links so always check.
- Share coverage on social media, in your newsletter and on your website. When you get coverage share it as widely as you can. Some of my clients best social media posts have come from sharing coverage with their followers. It has produced the highest engagement and got people talking about the business.
- Display hard copies of positive coverage in your office or business for staff and customers to see. It is a great way of recognising successes and will certainly become a talking point while highlighting your positive news to anyone who visits the business.
- Use features in industry publications to showcase your expertise and knowledge. Saying you know what to do is never as good as showing. Being chosen as an industry expert or to comment on a wider issue within your trade shows that your opinion is respected.
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