You've likely heard or used the terms "marketing" and "public relations" tossed around interchangeably. But, let's clear the air—they're not one and the same. In fact, they can steer your business in completely different directions.
Each has its own unique goals and strategies, but more often than not, their similarities blur the lines and leave business owners confused and relying on ineffective tactics.
However, by understanding the unique roles of marketing and PR, you can develop more effective communication strategies that resonate with your target audience and enhance your business’s overall brand reputation.
That’s why we are diving into these fields and discussing the differences between marketing and PR and how each can influence your business’s success and growth.
What is marketing?
As the name suggests, marketing focuses on the market’s product and demand—and how to influence that demand. The overall goal of marketing is to get a company’s product or service in front of their target market and convince them to make a purchase.
In general, marketers utilize tools such as content, email, and social media to show potential customers how they can solve a problem by investing in a specific product or service.
Regardless of what tools and tactics marketers use, the ultimate goal is always the same: nudging prospects toward making a purchase. It's all about turning curious browsers into happy customers.
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What is PR?
Public relations, on the other hand, is centered around managing the reputation and public perception of a brand or organization. PR professionals work to build positive relationships with various stakeholders, including customers, media outlets, investors, and the community at large.
Unlike marketing, PR is more about creating a strategic image for a brand. Think about some of your favorite brands. What is your initial reaction to them? Do you trust them? What would you tell a friend about them? These are the questions PR tries to influence instead of trying to sell a specific product or service.
Overall, PR professionals aim to shape perceptions of the brand, establish credibility, and cultivate trust. With this in mind, this field includes various components that lay outside of marketing including event management, community engagement, publicity, media relations, and reputation and crisis management.
What are the differences between marketing & PR?
Again, these two fields can seem rather similar. After all, they’re both communicating to your audience in a positive way to try and influence them in your favor. However, they each approach this communication from a different angle with varying other elements in mind.
Goals
One of the most telling differences between marketing and PR is the goal behind each. As we’ve already discussed, marketing focuses on driving sales and generating revenue by positioning your product or service as the go-to solution to your audience’s problem.
Meanwhile, PR aims to enhance brand reputation and perception to create a positive overall image. It’s less about pushing sales and more about making sure people see your brand in a positive light.
While these goals occasionally align (as we’ll discuss in a minute), they are the essential element that separates marketing from PR. This is because they influence every aspect of your campaigns from the target audience to how you measure success.
Audiences
Keeping these different goals in mind, it’s clear that marketing and PR professionals focus their attention on different audiences.
Marketing targets consumers or potential buyers within their specific target market. Oftentimes, marketing strategies will also segment audiences based on their demographics, psychographics, and behavioral traits to tailor messages and offers. Understanding these audience characteristics allows marketers to create very specific and direct messaging.
PR, on the other hand, addresses a much broader audience. They're not just talking to potential buyers—they're trying to win over almost everyone. This means that their messaging, while still strategic, is less specific and targeted than marketers’.
Plus, because PR practitioners also juggle media relations and crisis communications, they need to effectively connect with other professionals and entities including media representatives, investors, employees, and, of course, the general public.
Strategies & Tactics
Just as they have different goals, marketing and PR have different ways of reaching those goals.
Marketing, again, focuses on campaigns that can directly promote the company or what they offer with the end goal of a purchase being made. They're trying to grab the attention of their consumer crowd and get them to take action—whether that's hitting "buy now" or just keeping their brand in mind for future shopping.
Some marketing tactics and tasks include:
- Email marketing campaigns
- Content marketing (blogs, social media, etc.)
- Social media, print, and digital advertisements
- Organic social media
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Cohesive campaigns across platforms and formats
Meanwhile, strategies in PR focus on building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders, shaping public perception, and managing communication in times of crisis. They aren’t necessarily wanting their audience to take action, other than to maybe look more into the brand. Instead, they are more focused on how the brand is viewed.
Some public relations tactics include:
- Media relations (communicating with journalists and other communications professionals who may share a company’s story)
- Press releases
- Thought leadership articles
- Corporate storytelling
- Event sponsorships
- Community engagement
- Reputation management
Metrics
With different end goals comes different ways of measuring the outcomes—which is why marketing and PR use different metrics to see how successful their campaigns are.
With its focus on product or service promotion, metrics in marketing often revolve around more number or data-based outcomes such as sales revenue, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and ROI from advertising spend. Plus, they keep an eye on website traffic and how people are engaging with their content online.
PR’s goal of impacting perception, however, means they don’t just look at the numbers. Instead, they focus on metrics that help them better see how people are talking about the brand rather than who has purchased something.
These metrics include media mentions, press coverage, sentiment analysis, brand sentiment scores, share of voice in the media landscape, and perception surveys to gauge brand reputation and credibility.
What are the similarities between PR & marketing?
Now, there’s a reason most people confuse marketing and public relations. While they are different, they do overlap in some capacity.
For starters, at their core, they both communicate with their audiences about a brand and its offerings, hoping to present them in a positive light. And, while their end goals may be different, they oftentimes use similar tools to get their messages across. Social media and other content, for example, are often leveraged by both marketing and PR professionals, albeit from different angles.
However, neither marketing nor PR work in a void. More often than not, these two fields have to work together in order to generate growth in either area. For example, you may struggle to maintain sales or conversions if the general public has a negative view of your business. Likewise, you can’t build a positive reputation if no one has heard of you or your products.
With this in mind, it’s easy to see how, though different in the angle they use, both marketing and PR are similar in that they aim to enhance brand visibility, communicate key messages, and engage with target audiences—and often work together to accomplish their different goals.
Which is right for you?
While you need both marketing and public relations to an extent, which area you rely on most depends on what your overall goals are. If you’re looking to increase sales and conversions and grow your business, a marketing professional or agency is likely the best choice. But if you’re looking to get your name out there and noticed, you may want to look into public relations professionals and agencies.
Again, it all comes down to what angle you are looking to go with, what your end goal is, and what is needed to effectively reach it for your specific situation.
For example, we’ve discussed numerous times that, in marketing, you need to place your business as a trusted guide that can help your consumers solve their problem. While marketing can effectively place you as an expert in your field, some professionals—such as authors or performers—may require more community and media outreach to cement their public reputation and get the recognition they need to be successful.
Regardless of what your unique needs are, understanding the differences between marketing and PR is essential for businesses—big and small—to develop tailored strategies that effectively meet their specific objectives and engage with their target audiences in meaningful ways.
Small businesses deserve to have a marketing strategy and partner that works as hard as they do.
Treefrog Marketing is a marketing agency for small businesses located in Lafayette, Indiana that builds effective marketing strategies and systems that help small business leaders take their companies to the next level. We specialize in marketing leadership, strategic marketing and advertising, digital marketing, graphic design, web design, social media, SEO, and more. For more information, please visit our website. You can also connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
