Hello reader . . . are you peering in from a PR platform or a marketing mainframe? Wherever you come from, I’ve always believed that marketing and PR are better together – kind of like peanut butter and chocolate.
“If marketing is the structure that transforms a company into a business, then PR is the marker that connects all the dots.” Barbara Rozgonyi
Marketers understand how to approach projects from a holistic master plan perspective. A good marketer will work to harmonize communications across the board. PR knows that the plan needs personality, sparkle, lift and courage. Take the poll and let us know if you consider your main strength to be marketing, PR or social media – thanks!
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So, Why and Who Are You?
My answers on who I am not
- a traditional PR practitioner – when reporters started telling me they’d never seen press releases like mine, I knew I was different – maybe it was the online version way back in 2003?
- a person with any kind of big agency experience – although I advise PR firms on digital strategies
- a member of PRSA, although I did present at two chapter meetings, or the AMA – still looking for a speaking opportunity here
At heart, I am a marketing person who stumbled into the PR door some how, some way.
Probably because the first client I cold called when I started my company asked if I could write a press release. That’s what they needed – now. The answer was, technically, yes.
But, no, I’d never written one. I was a marketing manager and a sales trainer by occupation. PR sounded intriguing, but completely foreign.
So I asked if I could come over and talk about the project. The prospect, a local hospital, agreed. And then I showed up without a pen. A writer without a pen – oh no! Oh yes, but my soon to be client somehow found this very amusing and gave me not only a pen, but the assignment to write many of the hospital’s press releases.
That’s why when I looked at the list of possible questions for my Future of Media: Radical Integration virtual conference presentation I went for “what can marketers teach PR people?”
If you listened, you know I talked about a call to action. When people take action, you have a measurable result.
In my work as a digital marketing consultant to PR firms, I’ve found some clients limit horizons. Clients pay for campaigns and projects, not long-term results. They want a hit here and there or a few thousand fans or a celebrity to tweet a few times for them.
Confined to a campaign, PR people often focus on what happens in the moment or the next few days. We do that, too. It’s fun to follow the reactions when news gets released. And, that’s part of PR’s job – to get people taking.
Marketers need more talkers.
It’s fascinating, to me, how corporate communications – and sales – gets left out most discussions. It’s always marketing vs. PR or sales vs. marketing or PR vs. marketing. Do these types of departments or areas of concentration exist in corporations or organizations anymore?
Ideally, creating content is a holistic process that flows throughout the organization. Does that mean someone has to steer the ship and navigate the waters?
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