Is PR a direct sales tool?

At NATA PR we enjoy working for big companies, but we are also passionate about smaller brands that can greatly benefit from our services.` Over the past year, we developed an accessible 6-month formula for SMEs, to show them the kind of results that we can achieve. These small and medium-sized companies sometimes market very innovative products that deserve to be better known by media and by their target customers.

I was surprised to see that despite exceptional results, many have completely stopped their PR activities. The reason they give: PR does not generate enough sales.

Dear SME, please consider that a brand does not become known to its target audience overnight and that 6 months is a very short time to gain the notice of media and bloggers.

Not to mention that generating pure, hard sales is not the primary role of public relations, but rather of the sales department. The main role of public relations is to publicize a product, a company or a service among media and influencers and to reach a target audience.

In today’s world you need a marketing plan with several elements of communication: and PR is one of those elements. Social media alone contribute about 13% of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PR up to 40% via articles written and published organically (free of charge) online.

We need to stop looking for instant success. The greatest successes are related to duration and consistency. And that’s what public relations offers: continuous communications to maximize visibility.

Visibility should not be confused with direct sales. Sometimes they are related, but not always. SMEs mustn’t forget that a brand needs to be built. And that takes time.