Digital marketing vs public relations: where do you draw the line?

Digital marketing vs public relations: where do you draw the line?

As our lives become more digitally oriented, every aspect of business has been baptized by it, including public relations. Digital marketing and PR are ideally used together in an effective marketing strategy, so much so, that their differences are being subsided. Both are essential part of any business approach, but vary in their target performance, and outcomes.

Integrating the two in your campaign can bring the best of both the worlds. Despite the similarities they share, there are some key differences between the two, such as:

Communication Source:

The outlining factor dividing digital marketing, and PR are the sources they use to channelize information. Digital marketing solely accounts the online sphere, focusing on PPC, social media, and web development. PR, on the other hand, is a combination of print publications, and social media. However, the PR strategy includes both traditional, and modern tools of marketing.

Result Measurement:

When quantifying the impact of both the channels, they wary in their output metrics. While PR is more focused on increasing brand awareness, digital marketing focuses on increasing citations, and driving favorable search results. Through paid, earned and online media, digital marketing focuses more on numbers with ROI measurement. Therefore, both work on different success criteria but cater to a common goal, i.e., to increase a brand’s overall credibility.