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Advertising vs. PR PR and communications consultant Julia Kendrick goes back to marketing 101 and outlines how and when to use these powerful tools for your clinic With a booming UK aesthetics market, and an industry coming out of lockdown, there has never been a more exciting time for practitioners to create and grow a thriving brand presence. However, this highly competitive specialty brings the inevitable challenge of standing out from the crowd and being heard above the ‘noise’. PR and advertising are two key tools in your marketing arsenal, but how and when should you use them? In this article, I will outline what differentiates these two methods and provide insights as to how they can be delivered effectively, helping you grow brand awareness, secure and maintain revenue, and connect effectively with new and existing customers.
Spot the difference… The main difference between advertising and PR is that in the former, you have complete control over the brand messages, tone, and how or when content appears. Adverting is a paid channel – so you spend the money to secure the space or visibility directly. For the latter, you can shape and influence how your brand is communicated, but don’t have direct control on the outputs – this is down to third parties such as journalists, influencers, your patients, and the broader public. Although often you might hire a consultant to help, PR is earnt, not paid – it focuses on securing credibility and trust by influencing and informing others to talk on your behalf, hence why it is often more convincing for consumers (but more challenging to implement!).
PR vs. advertising Contrary to the title of this article, the biggest mistake you can make is assuming it should be PR VERSUS advertising – putting your marketing tools in an ‘either/or’ scenario. The most successful way to build a strong personal or clinic brand is to employ a combination of these tools over time – in my experience neither one in isolation will truly deliver the right results for your business. These are complementary strategies and should be tailored and combined to your individual business needs, challenges and current status. In addition, many clinics may not have the budget for a combined PR and advertising approach – so think carefully about your business objectives, available time, resources and budget when deciding which route to use and when. Whilst many consider PR to be mainly focused on media coverage, this is not always the case, particularly within the world of aesthetics. The ultimate aim of PR should be to increase trust and understanding of your business amongst target audiences and the broader public. Advertising can be a useful strategy for more short-term, targeted boosts to help attract new customers and establish/drive recognition within a rapid timeframe - often as an adjunct to broader PR and marketing activities.
Selling vs. convincing PR and advertising both aim to influence your audience to make a certain decision – they just approach this differently. According to
Advertising
PR
Paid or unpaid?
Paid
Earnt
Key strength
Builds exposure
Builds trust and credibility
Audience mindset
Audience is sceptical
Media or third parties give validation
Guarantees?
Guaranteed placement
No guarantee, must persuade
Control
Complete creative/content control
Media/third parties’ control
Style
Ads are mostly visual
PR uses language, experiences
Speed
Can be implemented quickly
Takes time to build and generate results
Bottom lines
“Buy me, I’m great!” What you say about yourself
“Buy them, they’re great!” What others say about you
Table 1: The key differences between marketing and PR
a 2014 Nielsen study1 commissioned by inPowered on the role of content in the consumer decision-making process, PR was found to be almost 90% more effective than advertising. An advert may contain all your brand messages verbatim, but there can be a lack of ‘independent verification’ to push consumers through the indecision barrier. We know that an advert will say their product is the best, but do we instantly believe it? Sometimes yes, but we often look for other sources of validation and opinion before we make a purchase decision – especially for higher price items. This is where PR can come in – unpaid media coverage and people talking about your brand can increase the reasons to believe your sell. We all know the power of a personal recommendation; PR uses other people to do the talking for you – relaying their personal experiences of you or your clinic to the media, their followers, or friends.
Using advertising tools Print advertising remains the most expensive platform, and even with many publications switching to a digital format, purchasing space is still a cost premium. As a highly visual format, you may need to budget for creative imagery costs. Once developed, adverts can be used repeatedly for as long as your budget allows – the more repeats, the more visible your brand becomes. Online advertising has grown rapidly in the last few years and can be a highly targeted and effective option for clinic marketing – including social media ads, pay-per-click (Google ads) and display or banner ads. For an idea of costs, look on target publication websites for a media pack. Costs will be based on advert size and duration, and you may be able to secure a discount by booking repeated slots. Usually, you will be expected to provide your own artwork, which you can commission out to a freelance graphic designer or company, but certain publications may offer a design service for an additional cost. Advertorials are an alternative option – these blend advertising and editorial, with a mix of visual and text content so there is more opportunity to deliver your messages, versus a visual ad format. Advertorials are still charged as ‘paid space’ and usually you are responsible for the content, but this form of paid placement usually gets more support from the publication in terms of design and layout. Here are my top tips for creating a good quality advertorial:
Reproduced from Aesthetics | Volume 8/Issue 11 - October 2021
