I frequently encounter misconceptions about marketing and public relations, and what they actually accomplish vis-a-vis a company’s strategic objectives. The most notable of these is the belief that public relations and marketing are the same thing. These are actually two distinct functions within a company, whether a large global organization with thousands of employees, or a small business with just a handful.

While both marketing and PR must be integrated into a company’s overall brand profile, they are distinctly different, since PR relies on earned media, whereas marketing is typically supported by resources for advertising, email marketing, events, content production and more. In other words, PR is earned coverage by the media -- marketing is paid coverage through which the marketing team decides where to optimize their resources. Social media is a hybrid of both, and an increasingly important avenue through which companies can build their public profile, tell their story and even generate potential sales leads at little or no cost.

Public relations is not limited to building relationships with the media -- although this is a cornerstone for any effective PR strategy: build relationships with the reporters that cover your industry, so that they are in tune with your company’s products and services, your executive team and your brand. But even when you don’t have an announcement for the press, it’s important to maintain contact, continue nurturing those relationships and ultimately be seen as a source for reporters - someone they trust, who they go to when they need to get a handle on major events in the industry e.g. senior management shake-ups, regulatory approvals, mergers, IPOs, etc. PR is not limited to press contact either. Hosting events at trade shows, thought leadership roundtables, corporate social responsibility and public service announcements (PSAs) all tie into an overall PR strategy. These types of events can also yield press coverage that showcases your company’s role.

PR is an important and distinct element of raising your brand profile, and involves a different strategic approach and tactical execution.

Marketing, on the other hand, is typically facilitated by resources: advertising dollars, trade show budget, licensed automated marketing platforms, separate budgets for video and web production, and so on. With marketing budgets, you as chief marketer are in a position to determine where and how your message is read, seen and heard. For example, with email marketing campaigns, you get to choose when to send an email announcing your product launch, with what frequency and to whom. While this may not eventuate in a sales lead, it is a distinct and important part of effectively communicating your brand story and reaching out to your target audience. Marketing needs to incorporate these various tactics to persist in raising your brand profile. Public relations must continue to drive the message as well.

Together, they act as the two pillars of an effective communications strategy - neither function should be deployed in isolation and neither of them should be ignored.

While Marketing and PR are distinctly different functions, they are crucial components of achieving the following objectives for any brand:

• Communicating to clients and the industry the ethos of the brand
• Building trust with customers, prospects and the industry at large
• Sustaining a strong reputation and public profile

I referred to social media and how that intersects both paid marketing and earned media through garnering news stories. Social media and its value to raising your brand profile is one of my favorite topics, so I will save that for a separate post. Please refer back to this space for that!