Finding the Balance Between Marketing and Public Relations

Traditionally, marketing and public relations were often siloed in an organization and didn’t support one another. Both tell the brand story but in different ways, so the new trend in communications is to strike the right balance between both marketing and public relations. That is the idea for the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) Gainesville 2018 Professional Development Seminar on June 22: Better Together: Finding the Balance Between PR and Marketing on Friday, June 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Florida Farm Bureau in Gainesville.

Before we start talking about how marketing and public relations can work together. Let’s know the difference between the two. For brevity sake, the ultimate goal of marketing is to convert a prospect to a customer by supporting sales. Marketing creates and maintains the brand. It is measured by conversions and revenue. Paid advertising and promotions are part of a marketing campaign. Public relations is about having conversations about the brand and telling stories about the brand, earning media attention. Public relations tactics are long-term and focused on building and maintaining your brand’s reputation.

So marketing and public relations are a lot like peanut butter and jelly. Separately they are good and together with an equal and balanced amount of each, they can be awesome. Both marketers and public relations professionals must be able to craft messages to persuade audiences into new attitudes or action.

VP Communications President Vickie Pleus, APR, CPRC agrees that strong storytelling is required of both professions. “I’ve crafted copy and stories for countless media formats and represented a number of industries throughout my 20-year career, so I understand how to engage with audiences through the written word by skillfully using tried-and-true as well as unexpected (yet effective) writing strategies to help communicate with any target reader.” An 11-time FPRA Golden and Image award winner, Vickie will be presenting on Tips for Tighter, Brighter and more Compelling PR Writing. “A fair balance of creativity and ‘rules’ can bring writing to life.  It’s possible to keep PR and marketing writing fun. I hope to remind attendees of this.”

Both marketers and public relations professionals must communicate through a variety of ways including digital and web-based channels which requires concise and efficient messaging. “Anything we can do to make it easier to use and to deliver needed information makes people’s lives better, and all of us can play a part in making those changes,” said Jeff Stevens who is responsible for content and social strategy at UF Health. “By working to minimize and streamline, we improve the impact of what we are delivering,” said Jeff who will be presenting on the topic Sky-Writing: Best Practices for a Cloud-Based Web. “It won’t be a technical talk, but it will help define ways to reduce our workloads and do better with less content.”

Streamlined and effective messaging is a must in both marketing and public relations. With the right amount of each approach, organizations and companies can strike the appropriate balance in communication of their brand. Other topics offered on June 22 will include Storytelling and the Science of Social Change and Social Media ABCs (Advertising, Behaviors and Content).

Join FPRA Gainesville on June 22 for FPRA Gainesville 2018 Professional Development Seminar. For more information, please contact Colleen Raccioppi at [email protected] or visit www.fpragainesville.com.


By Pat Vernon

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