“What’s the difference between advertising and public relations?”

This is one of the top questions that we get asked by new and prospective clients. And, it is an important question to ask yourself when trying to figure out a high-performing marketing mix. Here are three reasons to use public relations in place of or in addition to paid advertising.

#1 — save money and increase ROI

Paid advertising is expensive and measurement of your return, if not customized, can be unclear. This is where public relations can save the day.

Our job is to get free publicity for you and we can do this through our relationships with the media. We pitch story ideas and products, create press releases, and keep your business top-of-mind for writers and producers at a multitude of outlets. Articles and television segments provide third-party endorsements of your business and add a layer of credibility that advertising does not.

#2 — increase your reach with PR

Top 3 Reasons to Use PR instead of advertisingYou’ve created the perfect newspaper ad for your company. The local paper has a circulation of about 6,500, so you can assume that 10% or less saw your ad and paid any attention to it. If you spent the same amount of time creating a press release or pitch, you’re able to send this to many different outlets, including print, television, radio, and online. If the story gets picked up, it will likely be picked up in other outlets, increasing the reach of your business’s message. Plus, the shelf life of a good article is much longer than a one-off advertisement.

#3 — be more active with targeting your customers

The average person encounters hundreds of advertising messages throughout their day. Cut through the noise with a perfectly placed article or fascinating television segment. People pick up the paper to read articles, not to browse advertisements.

A good article in a carefully selected media outlet can actively target the audience your business is looking to attract and help convert them to customers. We sit down with each of our clients to find out what their goal is. Based on that, we devise a “most wanted” media list to help us cater our messages to the individual outlets. This increases our chances of landing a story based on the ideas we have pitched because we know what the media is looking for.

Goals and objectives behind a successful PR campaign revolve around the fact that consumers place more trust in and are more likely to do business with a company they know and admire. By using PR, businesses can enhance their brand awareness and public persona, something that advertisements can’t do alone. That’s why the best way to promote a business is to incorporate both public relations and advertising into your marketing strategy in an integrated way. Remember, people must be exposed to your marketing message multiple times before they’re able to recall it. We would love to have an opportunity to talk with you about coordinating your advertising, public relations, social media marketing and digital marketing under one brand umbrella.