By Angie Sparks
Account Executive and Public Relations Specialist at Mustang Marketing
Article written for the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.
Many times, when a prospective client is meeting with me, he or she already has an idea of the value of public relations and how it can help their overall marketing strategy. But there are a lot of questions that remain about public relations – what it is, how it is different from advertising or other marketing efforts – that many people even those already considering PR as a part of their marketing plan don’t know the answers to,.
Public Relations can be an elusive animal. It shows up in newspapers and magazines, on television, on radio, the web and in communities, and can in so many cases go undetected when a media consumer isn’t looking out for it. PR is the chameleon-like portion of marketing that gets read, listened to or viewed right along with the news. And that’s no accident, because that’s exactly what PR wants to do.
Articles versus Ads
Take a look through a few pages of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and pick out some ads. It shouldn’t take long at all; they are easy to spot. Not only are advertisements designed to immediately catch the reader’s eye with intense images and snappy copy, but you should be able to tell with just a quick glance who the advertiser is.
Now if I asked you to go on the same hunt for PR placements, you’d have a much harder time. Articles gained through public relations efforts come part and parcel with the news articles you are reading. The reason? PR placements are news, just news a journalist or editor may not have been aware of unless a PR professional developed a press release, made a phone call or sent an e-mail.
Impression versus Impressions
While advertising is often measured in what is called “impressions,” how many times a particular ad was seen, public relations aims to, over time, make a specific and measurable impression on media consumers. Sometimes this includes changing public opinion, sometimes it is creating an opinion where no opinion existed.
Whether a company aims to be known as a leader in philanthropy, on the cutting edge of a technology, or as a thriving and vibrant business in tough economic times, the work of public relations is to communicate key messages about that company on a consistent basis through every media outlet the applies.
What a PR Professional Does
The first job of a PR professional isn’t to merely send out press releases. A PR professional’s real job is to first carefully examine your company’s current marketing strategies and tactics and develop a PR plan that lays out how PR results can be measured and framed within your overall marketing plan. From there, tactics like press releases, media tours, press conferences, blog entries, bylined articles, white papers, media interviews and crisis communications all come into play.
The goal of a good PR plan is to keep target audiences aware of the best news your company has to tell. The everyday work of a PR professional is determined by this PR plan. One week may be devoted to finalizing a press release, sending it out and following up with media contacts. The next week may be the beginning of a 4-week ramp up to a big media event. Meanwhile, your PR person may be fielding media inquiries, setting up interviews and preparing your key company personnel to talk to the media.
Public Relations as Part of Your Marketing Plan
It is a hackneyed phrase, one you’ve probably heard over an over, but there is no silver bullet in marketing. Public relations may work best for one company as a fundamental tactic, but for another company, PR may be best used to supplement other marketing efforts.
The best marketing campaigns are a combination of several vehicles, while Company A may have a winning combination in advertising, PR, direct mail and web presence; Company B may be best represented in community outreach, brochures, blog entries and only supplemental PR efforts.
Your best bet is to sit down with a trusted PR professional and learn how your company can benefit from public relations. While constant public relations efforts extended to a variety of media outlets is always the recommendation of a good PR firm, your goals and your budget will be big factors in determining the PR plan and the type of campaigns that are right for you.