You’re a seasoned communications executive, or perhaps you are just starting out. Can you tell me why two business functions as critical as marketing and public relations have been disjointed for decades?
Marketers earn their degrees in colleges of business, while budding public relations professionals enroll in colleges of arts and sciences. And the larger the company that you work for, the more segregated its departments.
If you own your own business, perhaps you only have time and resources for one or the other … or even worse, none at all. Even the active local chapters of the American Marketing Association and the Public Relations Society of America have rarely converged, until now.
Marketers who unequivocally inform their customers gain credibility for all of their communications messages, right? Public relations closes the marketing credibility gap because it’s the one marketing communications tool devoted to providing information, not promotions. It makes every other marketing campaign more effective, which is precisely why there needs to be a convergence of marketing and public relations and communications cross-training for business professionals.
Convergence is an old notion. You hear it all the time: There’s convergence of this and convergence of that. But it’s the best way to describe what is occurring in our industry. The notion of integrated marketing communications was really adopted in the mid-1980s. Today, the decline of mass marketing and proliferation of new media seem to be key factors behind the convergence of marketing and public relations.
Without cross training in both disciplines, you have an ugly game of corporate twister happening behind departmental walls: The ad guy’s left foot is crossing the PR gal’s right arm, while she’s awkwardly stretched across the marketing dude, who’s about to collapse on the brand lady. No one understands their cohort’s next move, and they end up stepping all over each other.
Here are a few cross-training tips to get you on the right track:
1. Local Resources
Tap into professional development resources and educate yourself on the fundamentals of each cross-discipline. The local chapters of the Public Relations Society of America and the American Marketing Association have educational events and networking opportunities on a monthly basis. To learn more about how each organization can benefit you, log on to www.prsasene.org and www.amasne.org.
2. Collaborate
Do you want to learn more about the new brand that Jack’s department is developing, or are you curious as to how Kim secures such great stories in the local business journal? If you are not, you should be. And after that, you should reach out and collaborate. It is not only about learning more about what marketing is doing – it is about finding out how both disciplines can improve their success rates by collaborating rather than operating in silos.
3. The PR Pitch
News is not advertising for your company. What is important for your business may or may not be important to the media. Shamelessly promoting your business or its products will hurt you in the long run. The value and relevance of your news drives coverage, and once you grasp that concept, the way to secure media is through a great story pitch.
When developing story pitches, you should make sure you can answer yes to the following questions:
• Is this story different from the hundreds of other stories being pitched?
• Is the story relevant to this media outlet’s target audience?
• Will this story benefit the audience professionally, financially, emotionally, etc., in any way?
4. Making a Match
Match your target audience with the right media channels. This fundamental concept is often ignored and can immediately lead to the demise of any campaign. If your company markets to women in their 30s, then don’t pitch media that targets men in their 50s. Unless you can really massage a specific angle and make a strong case to the editor, you are just wasting your time and theirs.
In sum, public relations professionals need to grasp and implement marketing concepts and tools. Likewise, marketers who want to be on the cutting edge of their field need to understand and be able to use public relations concepts and tools. Cross-training will make you more efficient and flexible, and more marketable to your company’s management and clients.
Courtney Guertin is president-elect of the Public Relations Society of America, Southeastern New England, and director of public relations of the American Marketing Association, Southeastern New England. She works as public relations specialist for LIN TV Corp.
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