More than once, a client has asked me what public relations actually means. It’s a fair question. Public relations, much like its umbrella industry, marketing, can be hard to pin down. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying: “Advertising is what you pay for; publicity is what you pray for.”
Publicity doesn’t come from the gods, but rather hard work and a solid strategy. PR is defined as any effort toward creating a favorable opinion of your company or brand in the eyes of the public. Yet who is the public? Unless you are a mega-brand, chances are Jane Public will never know who you are, and probably doesn’t care. That’s why I prefer to define PR this way: Any effort, aligned with business goals, that creates a favorable opinion of your company or brand in the eyes of your target customers.
PR is valuable because you have to earn it; it’s not paid advertising. This is why it holds greater credibility than advertising in the eyes of a brand’s target audience. PR strategists often refer to “earned media,” meaning press mentions such as print, online, radio, or TV articles, social media posts (but not social ads and not paid influencer posts), guest blogs for third-party sites, op-eds and letters to the editor. The reason brands invest in PR is because trust equates to a higher conversion rate at about 5%, versus paid advertising, which is less than 1%. Even in the era of “fake news,” most consumers still have particular news outlets, blogs, and people that they trust. The key is to get your brand’s story into those best-fit outlets, based on what your target audience finds credible.
I’ve found PR to be most impactful when buffered by an overall marketing strategy that includes paid, earned, owned, and social media and measurable goals around each. Known as PESO, the good folks at Spin Sucks invented this model and have all kinds of resources to help you leverage it for your company.
