We live in a digital world. Everything that has high sales, has a great marketing strategy with advertising and PR playing out in the background. Businesses, big or small, need to have a strong marketing strategy in order to capture the target market. Not just ads but all kinds of high-quality content needs to be generated to capture the relevant clients. Organizations have been using multiple tools to increase their presence in the mind of targeted people. There is a lot of debate going around highlighting the difference between press releases and advertising. This is because most people assume that they are one and the same thing but that is not the case. There is a substantial difference between press release and advertising. No doubt that they are used in order to accomplish the same goal, but they are both very different from one another.
This means that their purpose is the same i.e. marketing and increasing brand awareness but the strategies that they follow and the people that are targeted by them are completely different. The purpose of this article is to understand the difference between these two and how they impact the product impression on the targeted market.
The first thing when trying to understand the difference between press releases and advertising is to understand what they really mean and stand for.
A press release is a document that is used to publish news related to an organization. It is a tool used by the marketing departments of an organization to announce some kind of news. Press release is written in a formal way and is unbiased. The main goal of a press release is to raise awareness about an organization and make any new announcements that might interest the target direct and indirect audience. It is a formal declaration of any event, news, or major occasion.
Advertising is a method used to sell a product or service to a targeted audience. A highly tailored message is created when advertising. This message is used to attract the market audience which is being directly targeted in the process of advertising. Advertising is done in the hopes of attracting the relevant customers by influencing their thought process and eventually convincing them to make the purchase of the advertised service or product. This is one of the oldest strategies used in the world of marketing and is currently used widely as well. Now, onto the difference between press release and advertising.
Also Read: Difference Between Press Release and Media Advisory
When you are managing the marketing department of an organization, you must come up with a marketing plan that is easy on the budget but goes a long way in marketing. Using the right combination of marketing tools, a balance can be created between the costs of advertising and press releases allowing your organization to become recognized throughout the targeted audience.
Press releases mostly cost little to no money when they are published.
Nowadays, just getting a press release published is not enough. In order to ensure that people know about the product or service or any news that is being announced in the press release, it is important to market the press release and create a digital presence of it. This way, not only does your news reach a larger audience but the presence of your organization in the digital world increases as well.
Oftentimes, this may cost an organization a few more hundred dollars but due to this the press release will go a long way. Visibility increases rapidly. Interested in getting press release distribution services? Check out the following service provider:
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Advertising can cost hefty amounts of money. Every ad that needs to be run (whether on newspapers or televisions) needs a time slot (TV commercials) or space slot (in case of newspapers). The agencies which run or print them on their networks charge a hefty amount. But it is always important to remember that advertisements impact the purchasing thoughts of an individual. This is why investing in advertising is a secure way to ensure a rapid increase in customer conversions. The outcome is very positive.
The audience which is targeted in a press release and advertisements are quite different from one another.
Press releases are news announcements. This means that they are targeted at all those who are interested in following the news or have an affiliation with the world of media in one way or another. Sure, people who are not a part of the media industry may go through a press release here and there but they have little to no interest in them.
Advertising targets every person. They target the media industry as well as every other audience which can become a potential client. Mostly, journalists are not interested in the nitty-gritty details about a product or service which is why advertisements are not a point of interest for them. Common people who are looking to buy a certain product are the audience of advertisements.
Lifespan of an advertisement is different from the lifespan of a press release.
Since a press release is a news announcement, it stays valid for a limited amount of time. Different news stays valid for different periods of time. Hundreds of thousands of different kinds of news are bombarded to journalists every day. This means that it loses its relevance within a few weeks. This is a major losing point in the debate of press release vs advertising; press releases do lose relevance after a short time.
These can stay relevant to an organization for long periods of time. The product or service that they market in them are less likely to change with the passage of time which is why it is likely that these advertisements will stay the same. Sure, the approach of presenting the commercial can be different but the lifespan of an advertisement can last for months and in some cases even years.
There is a huge difference in the content of press releases and advertisements.
The content which is a part of advertisements can be informal. It does not have to include every detail about a certain product. The tone of advertising content is persuasive and tries to convince the customer to purchase the product. Advertising can be done in many different ways such as story-telling formats. They can be humorous, informative, and many other types. This is where adverts win out in the press release vs advertisement duel; adverts give much more creative range and space than what a press release can afford to its writers.
Press release content is also a story about certain news related to an organization. The only difference is that the tone of the content needs to be professional. The words used to deliver the message need to be limited as well. The length of press release needs to be precise and to the point. Some people believe that press releases can be informal as well but most journalists prefer to go through press releases that are properly formatted and have a serious and convincing tone.
It is hereby concluded that press releases are very different from advertising. Even though their end goal is the same i.e. facilitating the marketing department in increasing product awareness, it is important to remember they are two different kinds of strategies. Marketing departments need to understand their utilization and should be used when they fit the situation better. The press release vs advertising debate will go on, but the simple fact is that press releases are the better option when compared head on.
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