Many companies dedicate a large chunk of their budgets to publicity, particularly to advertising. However, a lot of them – particularly small and startup businesses – struggle with high advertising costs and small returns. In most cases, the problem is that they jumped straight into advertising without building a reputation or establishing prior publicity.
Public relations is often considered the opposite of advertising, although it is more complementary than competing. In an ideal marketing strategy, PR and advertising are used together to reach the right market with the lowest costs and highest returns possible. Read on to find out how PR can help make your advertising cheaper and more cost-efficient.
Establishing corporate identity
It’s important to have a clear identity that people will associate with your product or service. Large companies do this by aggressive advertising – if your name or logo is everywhere, people are bound to remember it. But for startups, such a campaign will be too expensive; nor would it be guaranteed to work.
PR lets you introduce your product in cheaper, more subtle ways. You can publish short promotional articles, sponsor minor events, or give out promotional material such as shirts, pens, and mugs. This way, when you’re ready to spend more for advertising, you already have an identity and you can focus more on the quality of your advertising material rather than quantity.
Lower airtime and production costs
Both advertising and PR can make use of mainstream TV and radio, but the reason advertising is so expensive is that it uses commercial airtime – airtime that is meant to generate income for the station. In a PR campaign, you get to mention your product in one of the shows, which has cheaper airtime. You can even get on some radio shows for free, if you talk to the right producers. You won’t get as much creative input (such as jingles and video clips) but you won’t have to spend on actually producing the material either. The same applies to print media or web media. You don’t use ad space but editorial space, and you don’t need flashy designs and posters.
Better credibility
PR gives you more control on who sends, receives, and mediates your message. For example, your PR team can get you featured in a magazine or a radio or TV talk show, where you can present your product or service. Some stations will even prompt you to provide contact and purchasing details. Online surveys and forms can be sent within a specific company or community so they won’t be passed off as spam. Also, people tend to think more highly of your product if you are qualified to speak on the subject.
More direct reach
You can choose to use mediums that reach only your target audience, so that you know your materials reach the right people. In trade fairs, you present your product to serious prospective buyers and clients. If you use magazines or newspapers, you can discuss your product at length without fear of boring your audience, because you know they’re interested enough to read in the first place.
Conclusion
Investing in advertising is not necessarily bad – if your company needs to make sales quickly, then it could be a good investment. If you want longevity and are willing to build a solid reputation from the ground up, however, then refocus your resources on PR.