On top of this, brands always strive to invent new products, find new marketing tactics, and enlarge their target group. After all, more customers equal more profit.

Customer attraction is incredibly important to businesses, no matter the size.  

Every business should also have a marketing strategy that describes its main marketing goals.

👉🏼 This strategy encompasses the actions that the company needs to take to accomplish its goals.

Organizing giveaways, partnering with other brands, or paying for ads are just some of the most popular marketing tactics.

However, to attract customers and impress your target audience, you need to do more than just promotions and have an online media presence.

You also need to develop your brand and build a brand image your customers could resonate with and collaborate with different media entities that will offer you media coverage.

Even though many businesses think that all these processes and tactics are part of marketing, public relations are also involved.

👉🏼 If you think about all of the marketing team’s goals and actions, the difference between PR and marketing is certainly there.

Think about all those press conferences or press releases the marketing and PR team are preparing.

Are those the responsibility of the marketing team or the PR team?

To help you and your business align its goals with the marketing and PR goals, we have compiled a list of 5 vital PR marketing concepts companies often fail at.

But firstly, let’s take a look at the world of PR 👇🏽

  • What Does PR Stand For? 🧐
  • 1. Public Relations Vs. Marketing 💁🏻‍♀️
  • 2. Does Your PR Strategy Include Social Media? 💻
  • 3. Understand Virality And Word Of Mouth 🗣
  • 4. Don't Confuse Press Release With Paid Promotion 👩🏾‍💻
  • 5. Setting The Right Goals 💯
  • Important disclosure: we're proud affiliates of some tools mentioned in this guide. If you click an affiliate link and subsequently make a purchase, we will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you (you pay nothing extra).

    What Does PR Stand For? 🧐

    PR stands for Public Relations, but its meaning can change depending on the context.

    Various PR Tactics
    Various PR Tactics

    Not many companies know the differences between public relations and marketing, every PR responsible for every company could have different tasks.

    👉🏼 A public relations specialist aims to make sure that the image the target audience forms on the brand is positive.

    This means that a PR specialist will connect the brand and the audience by sharing interesting information. This information might be on creating a new product or the investors the company managed to attract.

    One of the key differences between marketing and PR is that the last one focuses on attracting stakeholders and investors.

    The positive image a PR specialist is trying to create around the brand they represent can attract new investors. Of course, it is a process that is beneficial for the marketing team as well.

    However, most companies and brands choose to have a Public Relations Marketing Specialist that usually coordinates both the marketing and PR activity.

    Depending on the context and business, the role of a Public Relations Marketing Specialist can change.

    Both marketing and public relations enrich themselves, so choosing to unite them under the same umbrella isn’t wrong. The main activities, tasks, and responsibilities change depending on the domain, so let’s explore the primary contexts.

    For Influencers 😎

    Being an influencer is a job.

    Thanks to the rise of technology and social media platforms, it became easier and to share things about your personal life, your job, and your hobbies.

    A lot of people have become influencers and they usually have a wide pool of fans or people that follow or admire them. So, what could a Public Relations Marketing Specialist do for influencers?

    What would be their tasks?

    When it comes to influencers, there is one thing that they build their awareness on the relationship with their community.

    However, it is not about a cold and distant relationship but an engaging and authentic one.

    Social media and the online world are overcrowded with ads and fake people who share inauthentic stories and expect to grow their follower base.

    When it comes to influencers, they need to build and share real stories and keep connected with their community. They should engage with their followers through a wide range of possibilities, such as polls, giveaways, or open-ended questions.

    A Public Relations Marketing Specialist focuses on building a positive image of the influencer, making them known to the public, and managing collaborations with external entities.

    👉🏼 Check out how to write a great influencer outreach email.

    For Bloggers 📝

    Image Source: Say Yes

    There is a vast difference between bloggers and influencers, so the Public Relations Marketing Specialist has a different role. At its core, we can say that it is the same.

    However, because blogging revolves around sharing information and stories in a written form and not through videos and photos, the tasks shift slightly.

    Bloggers focus on sharing authentic and genuine experiences through texts.

    But text usually has a lower engagement than videos or photos. So, the task of getting new visitors becomes more challenging in this case.

    Public Relations Marketing Specialists can help bloggers choose topics for their blog posts that would attract more visitors. At the same time, PR and blogging are a match.

    Bloggers already have the flow of words and have formed wonderful ways of expressing their thoughts and emotions. And Public Relations specialists can help them use their skills to reach a wider audience and, maybe, get a publisher’s attention.

    For Content Marketing 👩🏾‍💻

    Video Source: Vimeo

    Content marketing focuses on creating content for blogs, websites, social media posts, journal entries, and many more.

    Content marketers have the unique goal of sharing valuable and engaging content with their audience.

    A Public Relations Marketing Specialist needs content marketing to accomplish his or her goals.

    Public Relations Specialists’ main goal is to craft the right message and deliver it to the right audience. Content marketing is more like a marketing tactic that Public Relations Marketing Specialists are using.

    Content marketing is about creating engaging and valuable content that helps the brand connect better with its audience.

    Public Relations Specialists usually have a colder and more distant way of communicating and sending the message. It’s a combination made in heaven 😇

    For The General Public 💁🏻‍♀️

    How the general public sees your brand or company is very important.

    Image Source: Swell
    Public Relation Marketing Specialists focus on writing press releases, speeches for other company members and developing a positive impression on the brand.

    The public is susceptible to all kinds of information, and the way Public Relations Specialists choose to send them is crucial. A positive impression of the brand and a strong connection with the public will help the company grow.

    So, as an independent brand or company, what should you do?

    Should you hire a PR agency that will take care of everything for you or open a PR position within the company?

    While hiring a PR agency might make you feel more comfortable and relaxed, as PR agencies supposedly have a lot of experience, opening a PR position within the company has more significant advantages.

    Why? 🧐

    Because the initial processes are the same both for PR agencies or in-house PR. Yet, an in-house PR will get to know the brand, the company, the values, mission, and vision better.

    👉🏼 Interacting daily with the marketing or graphic design team will help the in-house PR specialists develop a more comprehensive business understanding.

    This is essential since PR specialists write the promotional materials or press releases. And they need to reflect the company’s values and goals.

    Now that we have clarified more about the role Public Relations Marketing Specialists have in different domains let’s look at 5 vital PT Marketing concepts companies often fail.

    1. Public Relations Vs. Marketing 💁🏻‍♀️

    There are many public relations jobs to choose from, but they are defined differently.

    One of the marketing concepts companies fail at is confusing public relations with general marketing.

    Yes, they are connected and intertwined. However, their tasks and responsibilities are different.

    One of the main differences between these two concepts is their goal. A PR manager will take care of the brand’s public image or the company, work on pr campaigns, and be responsible for messaging its vision.

    It focuses on maintaining the reputation of the company through press releases, press conferences, or speeches.

    A PR manager includes having media relations that support his mission of promoting the company to the broader public. The income is usually higher than an even manager's salary, and this is because his tasks are essential.

    Marketing, on the contrary, focuses on building relationships, establishing a strong connection with every customer, and building strong marketing campaigns. Its strategy is to increase sales and profit or drive more visitors to its website or page.

    A marketing manager’s main action is to create a strategy to enlarge the follower pool. Marketing focuses on ads, promotions, and other ways to increase profit.

    Non-profit simply does not exist in the marketing dictionary.

    2. Does Your PR Strategy Include Social Media? 💻

    The second approach many businesses and companies miss is failing to listen to the community.

    Image Source: Instagram

    Many companies think that they have control over the narrative or conversation. This makes them not listen to what their community and followers are saying.

    This can turn out to be a huge mistake, as the community usually sends signals about its needs, pain points, and expectations.

    Failing to meet these can make a company and brand lose its customers. Why? Because they will choose another brand that can do this.

    Social media is an excellent tool for public relations and marketing alike. There are so many platforms where users are engaged and active that you will find out a lot of useful things just by following those communities.

    The public relations strategy should include finding niche communities on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Discord, Slack, or other platforms.

    These niche communities will help you get an accurate insight into the community’s needs and pain points, which will help you structure your strategy better.

    Now that everyone has shifted their activity online, people are spending more time on social media.

    A PR team should use all PR tools on the market to give them a metric of insight. For example, when the public release is shared on social media, the brand blog, the TV or radio, or a podcast, all the engagement and responses should be tracked.

    3. Understand Virality And Word Of Mouth 🗣

    Virality and word of mouth are some of the essential concepts companies often fail to understand. Social media is tremendously developing and rising every day.

    It has the power of making the company known to the broad public in a matter of hours or days.

    Creating content that could go viral is a goal included in a marketing strategy.

    Social media is the place where everyone shares their experiences. But it is also the place where you can get negative replies and endorsements.

    If someone has a negative experience with your company, that person will likely share his thoughts on social media.

    This means promoting your business to their friends who will trust his opinion. This is word of mouth, a concept many companies fail at.

    Virality and word of mouth go hand in hand. Because when you like it, you feel like letting your friends know. The same goes for when you dislike something.

    A brand that values virality and word of mouth understand that this is about leveraging the feeds of highly followed and trusted blogs or influencers.

    If the company has a good relationship with a well-known influencer, they will recommend the company to their community and increase your reach.

    4. Don't Confuse Press Release With Paid Promotion 👩🏾‍💻

    There is an essential difference between press releases and paid promotions many companies fail at. They see writing a press release as yet another marketing opportunity to promote their products or services.

    While this is partially true, there are important differences between these two. A press release is about promoting an idea, while paid promotions promote a product or service you offer.

    PR professionals have the social responsibility of making the difference between these two.

    They can outreach stakeholders through a press release, which may be more interested in the ideas you sell.

    Press releases act as informative content that might bring your business free publicity. They have a shorter lifespan than a paid promotion, so PR professionals must pay attention to how they craft it.

    On the other side, paid promotions involve an investment of money and the advancement of a specific product to increase sales. The main difference is that ads can be on the market for how long you are willing to pay them to.

    5. Setting The Right Goals 💯

    Many companies and brands look at their followers’ numbers and aim to raise them.

    They think that more likes and followers will increase their sales. But even with the best SEO, an unknown company will not succeed if it does not invest in its brand image.

    This is why companies need to put themselves in their target audience’s shoes.

    They need to understand their perspective to learn more about them and their expectations.

    These are essential concepts of crisis management and thought leadership that could define the marketing and public relations strategy. Communities are not only after beautiful and eye-candy pictures but also after valuable content and information.

    These also contribute to raising your brand awareness and strengthening the bond with your target audience.

    Setting the right goals is crucial. Based on these goals, you can derive some actions you can focus on to accomplish those goals. If one of your main goals is to increase brand awareness, you can write down a few ideas for this.

    You will soon notice that it is not about having a logo and a consistent image across all social media channels. It is about answering your target audience’s needs, supporting them, showing your real face, and shedding a personal touch on your brand’s image.

    Conclusion 🙌🏽

    Public Relations and marketing are two separate things that are deeply connected.

    They enhance each other.

    While public relations focus on creating a positive image and impression around the brand, marketing focuses on increasing sales and driving profit.

    Setting your goals, understanding the power of viral content and word of mouth, or paying for promotion are just a few of the marketing concepts you need to pay attention to.

    Your success depends on them.