Understanding the Three Ps: Press, Publicity, and Public Relations

It’s fair to say that marketing can be both confusing and overwhelming. It doesn’t help that there are acronyms and sayings for many aspects of marketing. For example, you’ve probably heard of the 5 P’s, price, placement, and promotion, and so on. One of the areas that tend to stump is the concept of press, publicity, and public relations. So let’s define what they are and the role they play in your business.

Press and Press Releases

Press is media coverage. When a news channel, media outlet, or journalist covers your company – that’s press. A press release is also considered press. Press is the result of your public relations and publicity efforts. It’s also a tool that you can use to grow your business. Press releases are a wonderful way to gain media attention for your business, which in turn can increase awareness, strengthen your brand, drive traffic and increase conversions and sales. Take a look at your current sales and marketing strategy, and explore opportunities for press releases.

Publicity – It’s All Connected

You may have heard the saying, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Well that may or may not be true. However, publicity is what public relations creates. It’s defined as “the technique or process of attracting public attention to people, products, etc., as by the use of the mass media.” So the attention that your company gets from a press release or a media relations campaign can create publicity. That means if your company gets in the media for bad reasons, then you have publicity, just as if your company news is covered by the media in a positive way. Either way, you’re getting media attention.

Public Relations – It’s More Than Your Brand

Public relations is how the public thinks of your company. It is both the relationship between the public and your company, as well as the act of creating a relationship between the public and your company. So you might have both a public relations strategy as well as “good public relations.”

Pulling It All Together Into One Powerful Strategy

As you can see, these three concepts all support one another. Press releases are part of your public relations and publicity efforts. And your publicity and public relations teams and initiatives can be part of the press release efforts. All three help you create a connection with your audience, your community, your investors, the media and more.

Having a solid press and PR plan strengthens your business. It helps you strengthen your brand, increase awareness, drive traffic and much more. Understanding the three p’s helps you and your organization plan for the future.

Call us today to speak to one of our PR specialists: 1-800-713-7278

Anthony Santiago

Anthony Santiago is Director of Marketing at Newswire. With over a decade of experience in PR, he helps ensure that clients understand the value of brand messaging and reach.