Should PR be part of your marketing activity?

Here at Blue Rock, we’re always surprised when we see a business investing heavily in their latest marketing campaign without even thinking about PR.

We say – ignore PR at your peril. You’re missing a great chance to complement and boost your marketing efforts and increase your return on investment.

Marketing and PR go together like a good gin and tonic – they’re the perfect partners, especially when they’re mixed in just the right way. In fact, we’d never have one without the other!

Good PR alongside well-executed marketing activity can really help you connect with customers in a meaningful and authentic way, as well as improve brand awareness and perception.

In a nutshell, PR is marketing’s best friend.

Marketing and PR – what’s the difference?

At a very simplistic level, your marketing strategy is all about what you’re offering, who wants or needs it, what they’ll pay for it and where they can get it.

This then shapes your marketing activity – how you’re going to reach your customers and persuade them to buy into what you’re offering.

Your PR supports your marketing by telling your story, painting a picture of your organisation or product and persuading influencers (like journalists or bloggers) to say great things about you – which in turn boosts your profile, reinforces all of your marketing activity and delivers a really positive result.

What people say about you, matters

What other people say about your business or product – whether that’s in the media, via social networks or out on the street – is much more powerful and influential than what you say about yourself via your marketing activities.

So, if you can persuade a journalist or blogger to write nice things about you – for example by having a great story or great product/service, then that’s going to reach your customers in a much more authentic way and have a bigger impact than if you’d just taken an ad out on their site or in their paper.

Our top tips for getting the most out of PR