← Insights

As I was finishing a boot camp class the other day, the instructor went around the room asking what everyone had planned for the rest of the day. I said I'd be working on a writing project for a client. She asked what I did for a living, and I told her I'm a public relations professional. She gave me a blank look, thought for a second and said, "So, is that like advertising?" I smiled and did my best to explain.

I have this conversation a lot. Unless you're in the marketing business, chances are you don't fully understand what public relations is or how it differs from advertising.

Advertising controls the message. PR earns the credibility.

Public relations, or PR, is the practice of managing communications, written and verbal, between an organization and its "publics," its target audiences, to create goodwill and a favorable image. For my clients, those audiences are buyers and renters of construction equipment. The goal of their PR effort is to get their news, products and customers into trade magazines, industry websites, online newsletters, blogs and social media, without paying for the coverage.

In marketing we call these "non-paid" placements. The media calls it "editorial coverage."

So how is PR different from advertising? Plain and simple: advertising is paid for. With advertising, my clients develop their message through copy, images and design, then pay to have it appear exactly as designed, exactly where they choose. The creation and distribution of the message is tightly controlled.

Advertising is an excellent way for my clients to generate sales leads and build brand awareness. It just isn't what I do.

With PR, clients build their brand by weaving their messages into press releases, articles, customer success stories and Q&As with editors, to name a few. It's a softer, less direct approach, because once I submit a piece for publication I'm no longer fully in control of it. The editor has the final say. They may run everything I provide, pick and choose a few nuggets or use nothing at all.

Because it isn't paid for, PR positions my clients as experts in their fields, and being seen as an expert earns credibility with their publics. That's what makes PR so powerful. Credibility leads to sales, which is the end goal of both PR and advertising.

The explanation ran longer than my workout partner expected, but it was a good exercise, pun intended, in explaining what we do.