Public Relations vs Marketing

Public Relations and Marketing may seem like interchangeable careers on the surface, but there are a few differences that set them apart.

Marketing focuses on supporting the sales team while public relations focuses on promoting the entire brand.

Marketing focuses heavily on the monetary side of a company. They will organize advertisements and other means to increase the sales of the company they are working for. For example, they will work to promote a product or service by means of advertisements, events and publicity.

Public relations focuses heavily on promoting the image of the brand overall. They will be the first team to respond in times of crisis for the company. They also may work with a marketing team to promote the brand through advertisements and events.

Marketing targets the customers while public relations targets anyone with interest in the company.

The marketing team caters their work towards drawing in potential customers and retaining current customers. They will analyze sales metrics and other data to see what is working and what needs improvement. They usually have short-term campaigns in which they are constantly trying new ideas to boost the companies sales.

The public relations team works with any public that will interact and have interest in the company. These publics can vary from customers, investors, employees of the company and the overall population. In the age of social media, the entire world can have an influence on a company’s perception.

Public Relations tactics are seen as more reputable than marketing tactics.

This is not to say that marketing tactics are not credible or well done. Marketing tactics are generally done as advertisments or self-promotion. This can make it less reputable as these messages are being conveyed directly from the company itself.

Public relations uses outside sources to promote the company they are working for. This can be through writing press releases and having journalists cover it, or having the public respond well to a certain campaign, like corporate social responsibility. By the message being conveyed by someone outside the company, it increases the trust the public may have in the specific message.

Marketing often pays for campaigns while public relations relies on free promotion.

Marketing will pay to have their campaigns ran, for example, with advertisements. They usually pay to have advertisements ran on TV, radio, social media, etc. This is because paid promotion is more controlled, in which you can control how much you would like your product or service advertised and how it is advertisement.

Public relations rely on press releases, events and public feedback to promote their company. With press releases, they are addressed towards journalists and other media companies, in hopes they will report on them. But how they report on this is entirely up to the journalist or news organization. As for events and public feedback, there is no control over the perception. Public relations specialists will strive for a positive reaction, but it may backfire.