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What Advertising can learn from the Public Relations Industry.
Advertising is primarily a form of communicating to an audience to get them to take an action, or change their behavior. PR is pretty much the same, but the two use different tactics. What should stand out is the PR function of internal communication. When given the choice on whom to hire for employee communication, PR firms win hands down. This is because as a general rule, there are no “Internal Advertising” agencies.
So if both advertising professionals and PR professionals are communications specialists, then whey is there no advertising function for internal communication? Mostly, because when given the choice, the tactics used by PR professionals work better for internal communication than those of the ad professionals.
Can you imagine running ads for your employees to inform them of your companies’ strategic plans, direction, values and goals? It wouldn’t work. Imagine what the company newsletter would look like without news, and just full of ads?
So what does this all mean? Marketing communications aimed to the external audience (customers) is not so different from those for the internal audience (employees). Your employees have an interest in the success of the company. They need information. There is a group of your target market that shares a pretty close interest in your company, or product / service category. These are the influencers.
Influencers are the group of people that help shape the trends and opinions of the buying market. They influence because they are considered experts in a subject. To have that expertise they need information…just like your employees. The difference is really in the amount of interest a person has in your product / service category to determine whether they are an influencer or not.
This post is not intended to prove that PR is better for marketing communications that advertising is. The point here is that there are many tools in the toolbox available to accomplish each marketing need. If you need to reach the influencers of the market, traditional media and advertising becomes a supportive tactic, not a purchase pusher. Your advertising is a good way to help the general market talk to your influencers by offering a common frame of reference. Your influencers need more information but they like to get it a different way. They want to talk to you sometimes, and have their questions answered. Advertising and even traditional PR is a one-way affair, from you (the company) to them (the customer).
Treat your influencers like you treat your best employees. Don’t sell them. Inform them. Give your influencers a way to talk to you and get information, this way they will have a lot to say to the rest of your market.
It isn’t hard to see why employees, PR professionals, enlightened marketers and customers love social media. It may not be “the” tactic to ensure all your marketing communication efforts are golden, but no one tactic is. It can be a very powerful tool, though.