In 2022, the lines between PR and marketing are more blurred than ever. The two share many similarities, and public relations and marketing can work together as part of the marketing mix to build your brand, increase traffic, and make more sales.
That being said, PR and marketing are not the same. In this post, we are going to explain the core differences between public relations and marketing, including goals, audiences, and results. Read on to learn more about the two – how they can work together, and their differences.
Is PR The Same as Marketing?
Before we delve into the differences between PR and marketing, it’s important to understand the similarities. What makes PR similar to marketing? Do the two work together?
Well, both PR and marketing aim to deliver a consistent (and positive) brand message to clients / buyers and potential customers. PR often uses marketing to deliver this message – for example, through content marketing. This can include blog posts, podcasts, testimonials, and web copy.
Although PR and marketing aren’t the same things, they both work together and influence each other strongly.
What is PR?
PR (public relations) is essentially the relationship between a business and the public. The public can refer to both customers and prospects – and can include a researched or tailored audience, or the general public. PR professionals may target a certain audience such as a particular age demographic, employees, charities, etc.
PR doesn’t just involve influencing the public but also involves understanding them – what they want, their behaviours, and their buying patterns. PR shares characteristics with other specialities such as media relations, and of course, marketing, however, it is its own entity with its own goals, audience, and results.
If you’re looking for a quality PR team to not only identify your brand story but share it with the public and a variety of media outlets, look no further than Tuesday Media. We can spend time with you and your team to get to the bottom of your brand story and figure out what the public should know about your business.
We’ll use our expert copywriting skills and share the information with the public, using a combination of digital PR and traditional PR to secure coverage across multiple media channels.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is a broad concept that focuses on the product that a business sells or provides, the demand, and the market in general. The goal of marketing is to promote the business, the products and services – and ultimately to increase traffic, leads, and sales. In essence, marketing is a combination of strategies designed to optimise and influence the market. The key aspects of marketing involve price, place, product, and promotion.
At Tuesday Media, we can implement the right marketing strategy for your business – whether it be content marketing or inbound marketing. We can not only attract leads to your website but ensure that the right kind of leads are visiting your site, increasing the conversion rates.
We know exactly what works and what doesn’t – and one size certainly does not fit all in the world of marketing. We can create the ultimate digital ecosystem where SEO, marketing and PR work together in perfect harmony.
PR vs Marketing
Now you have an understanding of what exactly PR and marketing entail and what they have in common, it’s time to gain an understanding of the differences between the two – including the goals, the audience, and the results (and how they’re measured!).
The Goals
The goal of marketing is to meet the requirements of the customer. Any good marketing campaign will aim to increase revenue and profits by generating more sales – however, PR generally aims at improving and building the brand image. PR doesn’t directly impact sales, whereas marketing does. Instead, PR will shape the public’s perception of the brand. This may result in more sales in the long term, but it isn’t always the end goal of a PR campaign.
The Audience
Many people think that marketing and PR professionals target the same audience, but this isn’t always the case. PR strategies and marketing strategies focus on slightly different audiences for an effective and tailored campaign.
In marketing, the target audience is the customer – the person who will be buying the product or service. It can involve plenty of research to establish the right target group – whether it be a certain age demographic or industry.
Public relations, on the other hand, often focuses on a much broader audience – involving existing and potential customers as well as influencers, a variety of media outlets, and potential stakeholders. The target audience of a PR campaign can vary depending on the needs of the business – but combining both PR and marketing is almost always effective.
The Results
In any PR and marketing campaign, measuring the results is essential. However, the methods used to measure the results differ in PR and marketing.
In public relations, a variety of metrics and KPIs are used to measure the results – for example, brand mentions, media coverage, social media campaign reach, user engagement, and brand impact. Brand mentions are used as a measurement of success as they can spread brand awareness. However, it may be difficult to measure this without digital tools.
In tmarketing, different metrics tend to be used. Marketing should consider the same methods that PR uses as well as metrics specific to the marketing industry. For example, web metrics (e.g traffic), email marketing metrics, sales metrics, revenue metrics, social media reach, as well as standard digital marketing KPIs such as CPA and CTR. Marketing success may be easier to measure as there is a lot more to analyse – and marketing tends to focus on more quantitative data than qualitative data.