What is the Role of PR within Your Marketing Strategy?

Posted In: Hidden by Dan Howard,
January 30, 2018

PR is the discipline by which a company or person engages with its audience through the media. These days, media goes far beyond print and broadcast journalism. The rise of the digital age has paved a way for a much more complex and exciting media arena, including an element of direct control with owned social channels.

PR professionals aim to create and maintain a positive reputation for their clients, creating strong relationships with consumers and creating positive brand sentiment.

Here’s how industry body CIPR define it:

Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.

Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.

From tried and tested press releases and photo calls, to exceptional experiential and clever crisis comms, it’s a PR team’s responsibility to find and secure the best route to engagement. Ultimately, it lives by the power of third party endorsements and is a long-term brand building exercise.

We often say if you want to shout, advertise, if you want to engage, PR. But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s some of our favourite PR quotes of all time:

“If I was down to the last dollar of my marketing budget I’d spend it on PR!” – Bill Gates

“Publicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front page ad.” – Richard Branson

“Advertising is saying you’re good. PR is getting someone else to say you’re good” – Jean-Louis Gassée