How Public Relations, Marketing and Sales Work Together

A question that entrepreneurs often ask me is “What should I focus on to make my business more successful: PR, Marketing or Sales?”

You probably think that I’d say PR without question, right? But the reality is a business would thrive better with all three elements working closely together.

Marketing works to communicate the value of your offerings to your customers, potential clients, employees and investors, through your own advertising, newsletters and website. It’s you talking about yourself.

Public Relations can be simply defined as activities that build awareness and credibility for your company, product or service through third-party influencers – such as the media and bloggers. It’s others talking about you.

Sales is essentially the act of closing the leads brought in by your marketing and public relations efforts.

• Even though there are at least 50 great things about it, PR can’t always guarantee you’ll get a good review or media article (or even an article at all) within the timeline you need it by. With other marketing efforts, you have control over your message and how often it runs in your chosen channels.

• On the other hand, traditional and online marketing can often require more money to do and don’t have the same power of persuasion as a third-party endorsement- like a positive article or blog post from a key influencer in your niche.

• Without marketing and PR, sales can pretty much cease to exist as you need these activities to help “pre-sell” your leads and bring them to your business.

It’s definitely worth it to take the time to figure out how you can better integrate marketing, PR and sales into your communications and business development plan. And if you already utilize all three, I suggest doing a regular check to see if they are still working in harmony together.

How is your company integrating your Marketing, PR and Sales efforts? What works or doesn’t work for you? I’d love to know your thoughts- leave a comment below or send me a message on Twitter or Facebook.

Photo Credit: Scott Maxwell

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Elena is founder of a technology PR agency that works with startups to billion-dollar companies. She is passionate about helping marketers and small business owners with practical publicity strategies.

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