Public Relations – What Exactly is It?

The effectiveness of your organization does not matter if the people don’t aware of your business’s brand, successes or contributions. Effective public relationswork can enhance a company’s reputation and build its image in the mind of the target audience. A good public relations campaign highlights your products and services, educates and informs people about your brand and promotes the business as whole. It helps gain media exposure and deals with many stakeholders on behalf of the customer.

Though the goals of PR agencies and advertising agencies are same, to promote clients and make them successful, but the paths of creating awareness are extremely different. Unlike Advertising agency, a public relations agency increases public awareness of certain company, organization or individual without especially selling or promoting their products or services. PR agency is known as “free” or “earned” media that promote the companies and individuals via editorial page. It harnesses the power of print media, electronic media and online media to inform people about you, your company, your activities and your achievements. One of the advantages of PR over advertising is that it disseminates information about an organization through a third party, such as magazine or newspaper, which enhances people’s trust on the organization and its activities. Also, they often use embargo’s to ensure that the companies/organizations/ customers receive press from various outlets at the same time.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that people’s act generally based upon their perception of facts.  Thus, the primary aim of every PR agency is to create, control and influence people’s opinion because their perceptions will drive their decisions about whether they want to work with, shop with or support the organizations. Public Relation professionals work behind the scenes- they send information for media releases, courting journalists, identify the best way to reach the main client groups and audiences, draft speeches and arrange interviews to position their clients as positive role models.  

A good PR agency work also involves sharing general interest stories in different media channels, such as how you set up your company and it also educates people about your CSR activities.  PR also helps you to gain media exposure if you are planning to launch or re-launch your business or if you are organizing a promotional event.

Therefore, public relations agency enhances the brand awareness of a company by communicating and building relationships with media persons and stakeholders, and makes a business more relevant in the public eye.