When it comes to reaching your marketing goals, it is important to consider using both an advertising and PR campaign. Advertising is great for improving website traffic, brand awareness, lead generation, conversion and sales. Public relations is great for creating and enhancing your brand's reputation and image, stimulating demand by communicating information that connects with your audience.
Brand awareness can be increased by up to 80% through Google paid ads, and paid ads return $2 for every $1 spent (a 200% ROI). Moreover, a stronger corporate image will boost your stock price by an average of 5-7%.
In this article, we’ll explain each marketing tactic and why they work better together.
Companies that run a PR campaign are typically looking to get a clear message out to the public about something generally big and important going on with or at the company. Unlike advertising campaigns, the objective wouldn't be exclusive to a specific audience — but rather the public as a whole.
There are 10 steps in a comprehensive PR campaign plan that you need to know. They include identifying the target audience, drafting PR goals, outlining PR objectives, defining strategies, deciding on tactics, planning other PR activities, settling on an ongoing evaluation method that allows for adjustments as the campaign progresses, determining the materials needed to carry out the campaign, creating a budget, and drafting a timetable and to-do-list.
When done correctly, you can also expect to enjoy the following benefits:
Situations that benefit most from PR campaigns require reaching a large audience like:
If you're looking to spread brand awareness in a given area (maybe you have a new or additional store coming to the location or upcoming discounts/deals), using display ads, pay-per-click (PPC), and paid social media ads can help spread the news.
Paid ad campaigns have many advantages, but the following are some key benefits to consider:
Paid ad campaigns will benefit you most if you're looking to:
When you combine advertising and PR in your marketing mix, you are maximizing your efforts to gain positive brand recognition and coverage.
One of the most important things you can do in marketing is to integrate other methods into your marketing plan, and these two are particularly useful together. Seventy-two percent of consumers want an integrated marketing approach, and 86% of professionals contribute long-term success to having an integrated marketing strategy.
Learn more about advertising, PR, and other marketing tips to help your business grow by following our Gray Las Vegas blog.