Publicity and public relations in marketing are so much important for brand awareness and revenue generation respectively. Many people got confused and take both of them as the same thing but they’re two very distinct things and publicity is just an aspect of public relations.
The relation of publicity with public relations (PR) is the same as the relation of advertising with marketing. Advertising is also an aspect of marketing as publicity is of public relations.
Let’s discuss more publicity and public relations!
What is Publicity?
Everyone has heard this word as it is so famous nowadays. Whenever someone does something to gain recognition people say look that person is doing publicity.
As we’ve said publicity is all about spreading awareness, and this awareness can be spread in several ways such as
- Event Information
- Interviews
- Magazine Articles
- News Stories
- Press Releases
- Publicity Stunts
- Public Speaking
- Self-authored articles
- Speaking Engagements
You need to decide which way is the best suitable for your brand and how it’s going to help in increasing brand awareness of your brand. Publicity is one of the many facets of PR and depicts an individual’s or company’s presence in the media.
We’ve discussed what publicity is, now let’s discuss public relations!
What is Public Relations (PR)?
Public Relations (PR) is an umbrella term and consists of several aspects including publicity that can help individuals as well as companies to achieve their goals in the decided time.
Public relations are responsible for establishing and maintaining the whole reputation of an individual or brand through several marketing strategies.
A good reputation is the result of long-lasting and strong relationships built through public relations in marketing. Building strong and deep relationships with the clients helps in retaining and making them loyal and with time-being advocates of the brand.
Good PR are the sum of so many efforts in the various strategies such as;
- Announcements through different mediums
- Audience Engagement Efforts
- Civic Engagements and Crisis Management with SCCT
- Customer Relationship Management
- Community Outreach (Publicity)
- Conveying Brand Message with the help of narrative and storytelling
- Events Coordination
- Grassroots Communication
- Media Advisories and Kits
- Pitch Letters and Press Releases
- Public Appearances
- Public Presentations
- Reputation Management
- Social Media
- Social Responsibility Programs (Showing Corporate Social Responsibility )
- Good Support and Helping System
As publicity is part of PR, so, PR not only targets the existing consumer base but also the new markets. PR reaches every individual with the above-mentioned tactics. Public relations are responsible for creating and maintaining the brand image even in times of crisis.
Publicity and public relations have some similarities but even with them they also differ a lot from each other. Knowing the difference will help you in drawing a fine line between both of them. So, let’s get started with the differences between publicity and public relations.
Key Differences between Publicity and Public Relations in Marketing
Some of the major key differences between publicity and public relations can help you in understanding both of them on a deep level.
Meaning of Publicity and Public Relations
The meaning of publicity is promotion and it is used to gain people’s attention and increase brand awareness. Publicity can be done in any suitable way such as circulating information or providing news to the media, spreading stories, and write-ups about the brand. Mass media is used to enhance public visibility about the brand and publicity is also described in the form of public visibility and exposure.
On the other hand, public relation is a strategic process in which strategic personalized messages are sent to specific audiences to influence their buying behavior and decisions. These strategic personalized messages help build strong relationships with consumers and create a company’s positive image in the eyes of the public.
PR is used to create a positive brand reputation and maintain this brand image with PR marketing strategies.
Aim of Publicity and Public Relations
The aim of publicity is to create brand awareness through whatever means possible but mass media or press is preferred because of the capacity of reaching to masses.
On the other hand, PR aims to increase sales by building strong long-lasting relationships with the consumers. These relationships make consumers loyal to the brands and furthermore this loyalty makes them the advocate of the brand. Thus, sales and revenue are increased through PR. The aim of public relations is to target potential consumers to increase sales and return on investment.
Control
As we know that publicity just aims to create brand awareness through any means, so you can comprehend that we can’t keep control over publicity.
On the other hand, the company is responsible for public relations, so the brand has complete control over public relations.
Nature of Publicity and Public Relations
As there’s no control over publicity so it’s organic and being organic there may be positive and negative impacts of publicity on the perception of the public.
On the other hand, PR is managed by the company itself and has complete control. So, there’s only a positive impact of public relations on the perception of the public.
Scope
The scope of the publicity is narrowed down to the mass media and press releases and it’s just one facet of public relations.
On the other hand, public relations has a broad scope with several different marketing strategies and efforts along with publicity.
Form of Communication
As publicity is done through the media, so it is a form of non-paid communication, as the media gathers the news stories and articles on its own.
On the other hand, the company has invested in public relations campaigns such as organizing events, so PR is a form of paid communication.
Now, can you differentiate between the tactics of publicity and public relations?
I have firm faith in you that after reading this blog and absorbing the knowledge you can easily differentiate and make the best use of both of the strategies for the success of your brand.
Benefits of Publicity and Public Relations in Marketing
We are going to discuss the benefits of publicity first backing up with the benefits of public relations;
Benefits of Publicity
- Create Awareness about the brand, products, team members, methodologies, solutions, expertise, and services.
- Increase traffic to the web application, mobile application, or brick-and-mortar store.
- Educate consumers about the true problems and their solutions
- Free of cost
- Reaching to all people with just a single campaign
- Give topics to people to chatter about the brand
- Increase mentions of the brand
Benefits of Public Relations
- Grabbing public attention
- Building brand reputation
- Increment in brand loyalty
- Increased numbers of brand advocates
- Increment in sales and retainer income
- Increased in the amount of return on investment
Wondering how amazing the benefits you can get through publicity and public relations! But, it’s true, you can definitely reap those benefits.
Publicity and public relations are connected to each other and the source of information is stories, news, and events, so we need to make sure that there’s no flaw in conveying the brand message and information.
Best Practices for Publicity and Public Relations Campaign
Best practices help brands to focus on valuable tactics while leaving behind the things that can have negative impacts on the whole campaign.
- As publicity can be negative and positive for the brand, so try to always maintain positive information and experience across the platforms of the brand.
- Connecting with bloggers, reports, news publications, media channels, and online press channels will help you in reaching to a broad audience while making announcements regarding new products or services.
- Create an events calendar for the whole year.
- Create a content calendar for the events with engaging, interesting, interactive, and relevant stories with the help of storytelling.
- Build unique stories with unique ideas.
- Don’t forget to mention consumer stories in your marketing collaterals and campaigns.
- Be authentic and provide genuine information to the consumers and build long-lasting and true relationships with them.
If you’ll follow the above-mentioned tips for publicity and public relations campaigns, then you’re going to run a successful marketing campaign.
I hope, we’ve covered everything until now, so let’s wrap up this blog!
Wrapping Up
Publicity is all about building awareness and public relations is about getting people’s attention while providing an outstanding experience with the brand to maintain good relationships with consumers. Public relations is responsible to maintain relationships with the targeted consumers, employees, government, shareholders, suppliers, and creditors.
Publicity uses press releases, publicity stunts, and speaking to increase public visibility and PR uses social media, events, sponsorships, and announcements to gain consumer attention.
PR is responsible for building a company’s reputation but it is also responsible for fixing the damages done by negative publicity or creating rumors by people with the help of stories.
One last recommendation for you, make use of psychology and storytelling in writing stories to convey information, brand, and consumer stories.
We’ve covered everything related to publicity and public relations (PR) in this blog, if you still have questions then please do let us know in the comment section below!
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