Are you a company looking to increase your customer base? Are you an individual consultant searching for leads? Maybe you are a non-profit organization seeking to create awareness about an issue or increase donations. Whatever your challenge, public relations along with marketing strategies and tactics should be worked into your business plan to help you create a greater, positive presence in your target market.

The Need for a Marketing and PR Budget
There are many differences between the two complementary roles of marketing and public relations. In the largest sense, marketing deals with positioning a product or service in a particular market or markets. Through tactics like promotion, messaging and strategic pricing, marketing strategies seek to influence the consumer’s behavior to purchase your product.

Public Relations efforts fall into the category of image management. Can you answer the question? ‘What does the marketplace feel or believe about my company or brand?’ The public perception of your brand effects whether a consumer will buy your product or service? Independent of size of company, there are subtle and overt ways to create a positive perception for your brand.

Public relations tactics use factual information to influence the beliefs of consumers and those that influence consumers. By influencing beliefs, you can influence values, attitudes and thereby behavior. Especially for small businesses, public relations efforts, which should complement a marketing plan, will keep your organization visible and in a positive light. This oftentimes intangible process is powerful, and can truly affect marketplace behavior and feelings toward a company and the services and products it provides.

Public relations and marketing tactics are strategic processes that will create brand awareness in a competitive marketplace. Both can be fruitful endeavors when they create and build a need or desire for the service or product you provide. To better understand your customers, to have your messages heard by your target market, and to create and maintain a positive brand image, consider incorporating some marketing and public relations tactics to more effectively communicate with your customer base and attain a stronger presence in the marketplace.

In subsequent columns, I’ll be discussing strategies and tactics for small businesses to become more visible in the market and to create a positive image in the community.

Cynthia L. Schick
CLC Communications
Lebanon New Jersey 08833
Cynthia@CLSCommunications.net
clscommunications.net