How PR and Marketing Can Work Better Together

PR and marketing are terms that are often used interchangeably and confused by people who work outside of these functions.

It’s very easy for these lines to become blurred. A marketing department can (and should) include a PR team focused on securing coverage for a brand or client. Plus, both need to ensure they’re working together toward similar goals – promoting products or services, changing brand perception, and driving better financial results.

A lack of communication and organization between marketing and PR can lead the two to deliver unclear messages and miss out on opportunities for growth. With that in mind, let’s look at how both functions can work together and how best to define them both.

Is PR and Marketing the Same?

While marketing and PR disciplines are intertwined, they are distinct functions with different tactics, methodologies, and objectives.

The difference? Marketing’s aim is to promote products or services directly to potential customers, while public relations steers relationships and communications between an organization and its various audiences, including the media, customers, investors, and employees.

Another distinction is that marketing initiatives are more typically paid efforts with direct control over messaging. You'll probably have experience of paid search and paid social campaigns, both of which are examples of marketing.

On the PR side, these efforts often revolve around media relations and winning earned media coverage for a brand, product, or service without using paid advertising. It’s also focused on creating positive sentiment with the public and building relationships through strategic communication.

What Do Marketing and PR Teams Do?

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines PR as "a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics."

The PRSA adds that PR is about “influencing, engaging and building a relationship with key stakeholders across numerous platforms in order to shape and frame the public perception of an organization.”

The American Marketing Association (AMA), meanwhile, defines marketing as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." 

The AMA suggests that marketing is about "creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value."

Each discipline focuses on different areas, which can be broken down as:

They can each undertake different activities, too. Examples include:

PR Activities

• The CEO of a bank being set up for interviews with major business publications about new industry regulations
• A consumer brand managing the fallout from a faulty product through a mix of press releases and social media communication
• A corporation publishing an annual sustainability report highlighting its environmental initiatives 
• An executive for an automotive brand delivering a keynote speech at a motor show

Marketing Activities

• A technology company launching a paid advertising campaign across social media platforms to promote its latest smartphone
• A streaming  service developing a tiered pricing model to appeal to different customer segments
• A B2B software company producing white papers to generate leads and showcase sector expertise
• A supermarket chain implementing a customer loyalty program with rewards to encourage repeat store visits and purchases

Though these represent distinct responsibilities and activities, PR and marketing can support each other across each. For instance, an executive delivering a keynote at a conference may have been secured as an earned media opportunity from PR, but marketing can help amplify the opportunity with targeted marketing through paid search and paid social advertising.

Can Marketing Teams Carry Out PR Activities?

While marketing teams can carry out PR activities, there's an art to public relations and it often benefits from a dedicated focus and expertise. For example, a marketing team might handle a press release or social media campaigns, but PR will directly handle media outreach and functions like crisis and relationship management.

Any well-aligned organization will recognize that these disciplines work best in collaboration rather than in isolation. Marketing teams with PR responsibilities should focus on maintaining consistent messaging across all channels while understanding when to involve PR specialists for complex communications challenges.

As marketing teams become more integrated and lines continue to blur, companies that understand the distinct value of PR expertise can achieve more comprehensive earned media coverage and more effectively boost brand reputation.

How Does PR and Marketing Work Together?

Public relations is a crucial component of the wider marketing machine. As its name implies, it’s all about building relationships with the public to foster a positive public image for a company, organization, or individual.

Within PR, there are different disciplines such as corporate communications, internal communications, marketing communications, and crisis communications. Whatever the function of PR, its goal is similar to marketing: help boost the bottom line and contribute to brand success.

PR and marketing can work together in several areas, including but not limited to:

• Sales enablement: Marketing and PR can work together to help sales teams move potential customers through the sales funnel. Here, think providing content and messaging around a brand’s product or service and the problems they solve. Another example could be PR and marketing collaborating on a newsletter that’s distributed to prospects.
• Performance metrics: PR and marketing should establish the metrics that matter to each function and set key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate impact. For example, PR targets like increasing earned media mentions and share of voice, and shifting brand sentiment can all help with marketing activities, such as improving SEO.
• Unifying messaging: What story is your brand trying to tell? Marketing and PR can together create this brand identity and voice. This may evolve over time, but it’s crucial to keep both teams in sync so key messaging remains consistent. Marketing materials, website resources, and social media campaigns should all be aligned – and that takes unified messaging.

How to Make PR and Marketing Efforts a Success

How does PR and marketing work together? There are a few steps both teams can take to work better together and improve results.

Set Responsibilities

Marketing and PR teams should decide on their respective roles and responsibilities and delegate tasks to spread the workload. By establishing this early, you’ll be able to make clear what each teams needs so that tasks can be completed overall goals in mind.

Use Data

Data is the backbone of any public relations and marketing strategy. Use data to find what works, what doesn’t work, what improvements can be made, and ensure both teams are sharing this information to identify gaps and opportunities. Media monitoring, social listening, and media database tools can help PR teams to quickly gather this data and track progress.

Revise Strategies

PR and marketing teams should arrange frequent meetings to share their tasks, results, and experiences as they strive to reach their respective goals. Though messaging and assets should be consistent and impart the same brand message, these may need to evolve over time. By keeping marketing and PR closely aligned, you’ll be best placed to succeed as you move forward.

The Case for Marketing and PR to Work Together

When working in tandem, PR and marketing can be a powerful and effective force for brand building. Though they are distinct disciplines requiring specific expertise, most organizations recognise the benefits of marrying the two.

In fact, the division between marketing and public relations is getting much smaller. Recent surveys have indicated a growing demand for an omnichannel approach and integrated marketing solutions.

By making that connection and establishing clear responsibilities, leveraging shared data, and maintaining consistent messaging, marketing and PR teams can amplify each other's impact rather than compete for resources or recognition. Ultimately, these are unique function that should dovetail to create more powerful brand narratives and deliver stronger business results.

Find out how CisionOne can help PR monitor, measure, and analyze your earned media impact. Schedule time now to speak to one of our experts.