General News

Are PR and marketing the same thing?

To put it frankly, no, they are not. I could end this piece here, but that wouldn’t be very helpful. The thing is, there are many similarities between PR and marketing, and for those who are not living and breathing these industries day to day, you can be forgiven for getting slightly confused about the differences between the two on occasion.

I haven’t got enough fingers to count the number of times I have explained that I am in PR, only to have to follow up with ‘… it’s like marketing.’ Because, I suppose, it is, for the main part.

However, despite the lines being blurred, their functions and goals differ slightly. Let me tell you why.

Focuses

PR: The idea of PR is to build your reputation and manage that according to what you want your target audience to ‘think’ of you. This will obviously differ per company, as everyone’s ethos and messages are unique. Essentially, the main goal here is to become the ‘voice of the industry’ – when people think of the products or services you provide, you want them to think of you. It’s all about brand awareness.

Marketing: Marketing is similar. However, it tends to look to work towards generating a specific action, such as increasing leads, which in turn results in an increase in sales or revenue. It’s more action driven, which brings me on to the next point.

Measurement

PR: Historically, a successful PR campaign has always been measured by media coverage. So if news about a new product has produced XX pieces of coverage in your top tier media publications, that campaign has been effective. Again, this number will differ according to the industry and target audience, as your product offering may be very niche, meaning your target audience is small but very precise. In this case, quantity over quality is key. It’s also worth noting that technology is evolving, and with it so are PR opportunities, so we may no longer measure success by coverage, but instead by social media engagement – it’s all still brand awareness.

Marketing: In a similar but different way, marketing is measured on actions made. I previously mentioned the goal to gain leads or increase revenue. If we’re looking at it this way, we can drill down on how much traffic was driven to a website, or how many purchases were made off the back of a campaign.

Goals

PR: We talk about PR opportunities as being ‘earned.’ This simply means that to build brand awareness, you need to create good quality content that sells itself. If you’re a business with a strong story to tell, people will listen, whether that’s via press coverage, on social media, or even by speaking at an event or giving your thoughts on an industry topic. It all goes back to showcasing your brand as the voice of the industry.

Marketing: Some may challenge me on this, but marketing, in a general view, is a paid-for medium. To explain, quite often, businesses see the most success generating leads through paid advertising via Google PPC, social media and other digital advertising.

I appreciate that as we move towards an even more digital future (and let’s face it, we’re already very much living in a digital present), the cross over between PR and marketing will become even more pronounced.

For example, is social media PR or marketing? The honest answer is it’s a bit of both, depending on what you’re looking to achieve.

What about working with ‘influencers’ or brand ambassadors? Again, the lines blur as companies look to different resources and platforms to reach their target audience and achieve the desired effect.

There’s no denying that both industries have to embrace new technologies to evolve and utilise the tools on offer. And both industries go hand in hand to support the other, as brand awareness feeds actions.

But if you look closely enough, there is definitely a distinction between the two and by having a strategy that maximises both to best effect, you’re sure to be on to a winner.