Public relations has a well-earned place in the traditional marketing mix, alongside advertising, interactive communications and promotion. However, many marketers continue to hold a limited definition of the discipline, focusing only on securing publicity. PR really should be considered a broad-reaching, powerful tool that can provide significant results when used alone or with other marketing elements.
PR’s job is to help companies or individuals earn the understanding and trust of their target audiences (whether internal or external) and then help secure acceptance among members of that audience. This job can’t be done by writing and distributing a lone news release. Today’s audiences are extremely intelligent, and they want an abundance of solid, credible information as they form their opinions. That means public relations needs to do more than publicize – it needs to educate, inform and empower – all with high credibility.
The PR department at Osborn & Barr puts this into practice for our clients every day. We dig into their markets and businesses, and research their target audiences. Using that information, we develop a measurement-driven strategic plan that will best accomplish our clients’ goals using an arsenal of tactical elements – and sometimes we don’t distribute a news release as part of these efforts.
In order to fully connect with target audiences, organizations need to broaden their definition of PR. They must embrace the opportunities to create platforms from which they can broaden and deepen their relationships with their various audiences.