PR vs Marketing: What’s the Difference?

For those not in the industry, the lines between PR and marketing can be blurred – and let’s face it, the difference can be hard to explain. If you’re confused too, you came to the right place. Here’s a cheat sheet to clear up any confusion between the two. 

Main Goals

Let’s start by deciphering the overall goals of a publicist vs. a marketer. While marketers focus on promoting a specific product or campaign, PR pros aim to foster and maintain a positive reputation for a brand. In other words, PR teams are seeking brand awareness while marketers are focused on promoting a product or service in order to increase sales. 

A Day in the Life

Admittedly, some of the day-to-day tasks of a marketer and a PR pro are pretty similar. For example, both will deal with client communication and spend a chunk of time researching market trends. Despite these similarities, other daily tasks are vastly different. 

Some daily tasks of a PR pro might include pitching stories to the media, writing press releases and handling client crises. The goal of a PR team member is to gain brand awareness for their client, primarily through media coverage in print and online publications, broadcasts and podcasts. 

On the other hand, daily tasks of a marketing professional could include managing paid advertisements, updating website landing pages (especially for new products), brainstorming new marketing campaigns and working with sales and advertising teams on product launches.

Media

As you can tell from the daily tasks of a PR pro, we handle most things media-related. However, marketers and advertisers also have a hand in the content you see in magazines, online publications and on social media. For example, paid ads in online publications or on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are all the result of marketing and advertising teams.

To Sum it Up… 

Although PR and marketing share many traits, their core goals are their biggest differentiator. While marketing strives to promote a specific product or campaign, the main goal for PR teams is to increase overall brand awareness. Though different, both fields are vital to the success of a company – and as a duo, they will increase not only awareness for a product or service, but also the brand as a whole.