What’s the difference between Marketing & PR
This is a big question with many people thinking they’re the same thing and so not knowing how to choose between the two. It can certainly be confusing and social media is often awash with people looking for advice on who they should spend their money with.
You might find that a lot of Marketing and PR agencies are fighting their corner to try to show how much value they can add to a campaign or product. Others embrace the fact they are similar and work together to share their skills, knowledge and experiences to help clients fulfil their goals.
Here at Awe Creative we embrace both sides of the argument. We are an innovative and dynamic company that prides itself on delivering a bespoke, personalised service to its clients and we know that real competitive advantage comes from a combination of smart thinking and creativity that actually means something. That’s why all our specialist teams work together to develop and bring to life marketing and content solutions that are relevant, motivating and differentiating.
So what is the difference?
Many years ago when I was at school and first started learning the concept of marketing and public relations, I learnt that marketing was the process of promoting and selling whereas public relations dealt with press releases and endorsements. Today when our team talks about marketing campaigns with clients, it is all about nurturing and making their brand/product stronger; this can be aimed at an existing customer base or at new prospects. We try to generate new business by using a variety of marketing platforms like websites, SEO, social media, email marketing, direct mail and PR.
The main impetus that’s drawn marketing and PR together is the rise of digital communications and the number of platforms that are now available and widely used. These days it is common for both types of agencies to offer content marketing, social media and marketing to the end user. They will probably also engage and communicate with the target audience in a similar relevant way.
The benefit of an integrated approach to PR and marketing is that both functions can learn from each other. For example, PRs might not have any focus on ROI, while marketers do. PRs might be more concerned about the amount of exposure at a given period in a campaign while marketers evaluate the final outcome.
Similarly, PR consultants are excellent at telling a story and engaging customers without any hard sell, an area in which some marketers might struggle as traditionally their role is to promote a product and drive sales. Content marketing is a prime example of where this approach doesn’t work. Content such as blog posts and social media needs to build trust, engage audiences and raise brand awareness. Marketers can support PRs by helping them create content that gets audiences to take the next step.
Supporting a client needs across all communication platforms during a campaign is important: from initial marketing activities like sending an email campaign to backing this up with social media, a blog post or even an advert in the trade press. Similarly, on the PR side if we secured a write up in a magazine we would promote this in the same way. This helps create brand awareness and hopefully encourages the customer to find out more about a brand, product or company.
While you can define some tasks as marketing or PR, there’s a large number of shared roles that can be even more efficient if both sides collaborate. When sounding out an agency for their support it is most likely these days you will get access to both functions as agencies ensure that they have the necessary expertise in-house, or work with partners with whom they can collaborate to offer a full service.
