One of the questions the Osborn team most often come across when we’re running media and PR workshops around the West Midlands is: ‘How does PR differ from advertising? Isn’t it all just the same thing?’
Traditionally, there’s always been a fine line between the two, so it’s understandable that there’s often confusion about how each one works.
In this guide, we’ll attempt to debunk some of the misconceptions about PR and advertising, and the points at which they cross over.
Let’s start with the essentials. Advertising and PR can both play an important role in marketing your products and services. Both practices are geared towards reaching your target audience, but there are some crucial differences between the two.
To explore these differences, let’s take a scenario.
Say you’re a freight company specialising in retail logistics, and there are five core magazines and online portals covering your market, each read by a proportion of your target customers; operational and supply chain professionals working for large retailers.
You know you need to become more visible to these people. You know the publications you want to appear in. But you have a limited budget of £1,000 to spend on achieving this.
So what do you do? Choose your preferred publication and take out a full page advert, or invest in PR? The answer really depends on what you want your audience to do.
Earned versus paid media
The crucial difference between PR and advertising is that PR is earned, while advertising is paid.
Paid media allows you to focus on promoting your own sales agenda. With an advert or advertorial, you can describe your services in as much detail as you want, offer special promotions or deals, use a ‘call to action’ like getting customers to call you, and proof everything before it’s printed.
You can do all these things because you’ve paid to do so – but earned media is a very different arena.
With earned media – usually achieved through a PR campaign – you can’t promote anything, include contact information (apart from your website, which editors may or may not include at their discretion), nor can you add a call to action or ask to see proofs before the article’s printed.
Why? Because to earn its place in a publication without advertising spend, your article must be of significant editorial interest to that publication’s readers on its own merit. It has to deliver unique insight, time or cost-saving advice, new trend forecasts, disruptive opinions, game-changing survey data, or new information that’s relevant to your industry or community.
The benefits of PR
So what can you do with a PR campaign? An awful lot, actually. Through PR, you’re getting your message in front of a much wider audience – and far more cost-effectively – because that £1,000 PR investment could get your article into all five publications, rather than spending it all on advertising in just one.
A timely, well-executed press campaign goes far deeper than advertising. It can shape the way you’re perceived by peers and potential clients, position your company as an industry leader, introduce you to audiences who haven’t heard of you before, and enhance your corporate reputation.
But the biggest benefit? PR allows you to gain credibility and trust amongst your audience because – and this is a BIG benefit – earned media effectively gives you third party endorsement, since the article appears to be independently produced or verified by the editor. An advert, in contrast, contains what readers will know is biased information.
Why you most likely need both
People aren’t necessarily going to pick up the phone and place an immediate order with you after seeing a piece or earned media (though they may!), but they *are* more likely to approach your brand with trust and confidence in the future. It’s very much about the bigger picture.
So there you have it – earned media is about generating awareness and building credibility, while paid media is about encouraging direct action. You’re unlikely to inspire action without first achieving credibility – and credibility alone may not inspire action.
Advertising and PR therefore often work best when they’re run in tandem, and both should be included in any effective marketing strategy.
If you’d like to explore how PR can help you reach your future clients, talk to us today. As an award-winning PR agency in the heart of the West Midlands, Osborn Comms has years of experience in successfully securing press coverage in the media that matter most to your industry. Drop us a line to book in a chat.