What PR Does Better Than Any Marketing Tactic

You want to take your business to the next level by improving your brand awareness and reaching more potential customers. To successfully promote your business you need to understand the differences between public relations and marketing and when PR shines above all other marketing tactics. 

How PR Stands Out From Other Marketing Strategies

While there are some similarities among PR and marketing, the main difference is that PR focuses on maintaining a positive brand reputation, while marketing focuses on the promotional methods for selling a product. For a PR campaign to be successful, you should clearly identify and understand your target audience. To do this, you will need to determine everything from the basic demographics to what they like to do, where they go, what they dislike, and what it will ultimately take to make them your customer.

While there are similar processes to follow in both marketing and PR campaigns, the end goals differ. The main difference comes down to what part of the sales funnel is directly engaged with your campaign and what areas of your business are supported. With regard to marketing, the end goal is to usually generate leads. You should not think of a PR campaign as driving conversions in the same manner as a marketing campaign. Instead, PR campaigns are a longer-term process that help to boost the third-party credibility of your company through earned media coverage, thereby boosting your overall brand awareness and visibility among company leaders.

PR can help improve your marketing efforts, but it is a completely different process. Marketing campaigns are often brief and to the point, while PR campaigns can be more complex and intensive to create a long-term response with lasting results. While a single, fast-moving marketing campaign would not get your salespeople working overtime, a longer, more-detailed PR campaign can provide powerful results that do not happen overnight. 

Furthermore, unlike a marketing campaign, the brand equity acquired from a well-executed PR campaign can impact all aspects of your business—from the visibility of executives, to recruiting new team members to retaining customers. A successful PR campaign can funnel into the different areas of your business and carefully address everything from top to bottom. A well drawn-out PR campaign can also provide strategic brand messaging with more depth and meaning for various target audiences than simply throwing out the message “buy our product.”

The Purpose Of PR Campaigns Compared To Marketing Campaigns

While PR and marketing can often seem similar—and some professionals may say there is a fine line between the two—there is a clear division despite similar goals, objectives and tactics. Marketing focuses on promoting services and products to drive sales, while PR focuses on ensuring there is a positive reputation for the brand, company or spokesperson.

• The goal of a PR campaign is to promote a brand, service, or product by using different communication channels to manage a positive reputation with the general public, as well as investors or stakeholders.
• The goal of a marketing campaign is to reach out to potential customers and encourage them to respond by making a purchase.
• Both have the goal of improving the company’s revenue. One provides long-term results, while the other provides more rapid results. PR campaigns are more like a marathon, because they take much longer in comparison to a marketing campaign, which is like a sprint—not taking as long and getting much more rapid results. You can effectively combine efforts of a PR campaign and a marketing campaign in some situations, working toward attaining your goal.

What PR Does Better Than Marketing

PR creates a lasting response. It builds your company’s identity and garners the brand recognition that your business needs to thrive and succeed. A successful PR campaign is a predecessor for any successful marketing campaign to promote a specific product or service. 

To ensure your business’s success, you need to enlist the help of a knowledgeable PR expert who will look out for your company’s best interests. A PR campaign can take your business to the next level, helping you stand out from the competition and be front and center for potential new customers. 

If you’re ready to take that step, contact us here.