How PR is More Cost-Effective than Advertising

Bill Gates once famously said: “If I was down to my last dollar, I would spend it on public relations.” This shows that one does not have to have a fortune to spend on PR activities, making it the most suitable marketing tactic especially for small and medium enterprises and upcoming startups.

Public relations delivers great returns on investment both directly, using the ROI modeling, and indirectly, in promoting brand awareness and supplementing other traditional marketing tactics.

How public relations can be a money saving tool for your business

1. Public relations is the cheapest alternative to advertising because PR is earned media coverage, whereas advertising is paid media coverage. PR is about communicating a message while the latter is more about selling a product or service.

2. What also makes public relations most cost-effective is that it enjoys greater credibility than advertising, which people know is paid for and hence not independent. PR messages, on the other hand, are communicated by a reliable third party, such as a newspaper, trade publication or TV channel, making it more believable for the audience.

3. Moreover, public relations is not only affordable, but it is also cost-efficient as a long-term mechanism that focuses on building cumulative awareness and trust among target audiences over a period of time. Meanwhile, advertising is only concerned with the immediate goal of selling a product.

4. It is a well-known fact that “word of mouth” marketing trumps standard advertising and all other marketing tactics. Public relations in the current age of social media has become an extension of “word of mouth” marketing. This is because PR utilizes the services of a trustworthy source of information, such as an influencer or a journalist, to talk about their brand or product, thus influencing the consumers in the most effective way.