An organization’s marketing communication mix includes public relations, sales promotion, and professional selling. These are vital tools to engage customers, enhance brand recognition, and increase sales revenue. For example, public relations strategy focuses on communication to maintain and enhance the organization’s reputation. On the other hand, sales promotion incentivizes customers to purchase or take action. Also, professional selling involves personal communication between the salesperson and the customer to build relationships and close deals.
How public relations, sales promotion, and professional selling are related?
In spreading the word about your business, it is undoubtedly to have a marketing plan to promote your product and services, which includes the right mix of media. Here are important terms you should get familiar with.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is a marketing activity that stimulates consumers to purchase a good or service by adding value, offering special deals, or lowering the price of products. It simply increases the perceived value of the product.
Undeniably, people love discounts, free services, and free products, but for the promotion to work, it must be valuable to your target audience. It must be valuable enough for them to act immediately while still getting the deal.
Public Relations
Public relations (PR) refers to the variety of planned activities conducted by a company to distribute necessary information to build up a good public reputation and persuade consumers to buy a product.
This marketing term can be a goldmine as it analyzes trends, predicts their consequences, and implements planned programs of action that serve both the organizations and the public interest.
It also builds awareness, identifies issues of public concern, evaluates the public, and executes programs to gain public acceptance.
Hence, these audiences form opinions about that organization, which affects their decisions.
Professional Selling
Professional selling is the art of persuading customers to buy products or services through interaction between the buyer and the seller via telephone or other technology.
A professional seller’s utmost priority is to develop a relationship with the buyer. Generally, the seller contacts the buyer and promotes the product through their attitude and specialist product knowledge.
Furthermore, they inform and encourage the customer to buy and modify their presentations to fit individual customers’ needs, motives, and behaviour.
How is public relations sales promotion and professional selling related?
For a business to grow and compete against others who offer similar products or services, you must promote what your company offers.
Sales promotion, public relations, and professional selling are ways of marketing your business, products, and services to reach your targeted audience.
They all have a similar goal: to tell your story to your potential customers to generate interest. Without a doubt, each medium builds recognition each time it is seen or heard by members of your target audience.
Which is more important?
Each medium is important in its way. A company or business has to choose which works best for them, and in some cases, some companies apply the three media.
However, sales promotion stands out of the three media.
Sales promotion drives immediate and larger purchases through short-term incentives such as games, coupons, contests, mail-in offers, and rebates.
It influences behaviour, not attitude, and encourages customers to repeat purchases.
In conclusion, public relations, sales promotion, and professional selling are interrelated components of an organization’s marketing communication mix. Public relations builds the organization’s reputation, while sales promotion aims to boost sales revenue through incentives. Professional selling involves personal communication to establish relationships with customers and close deals. By strategically integrating these components, organizations can enhance brand recognition, build customer loyalty, and drive sales revenue. Therefore, it is essential for organizations to carefully consider each of these tools when developing a comprehensive marketing communication strategy.
Check the following reference articles to learn more about public relations, sales promotion, and professional selling:
- Bean-Mellinger, B. (2019, February 1). The difference between marketing, advertising, public relations & sales promotion. Small Business – Chron.Com. URL
- Libretexts. (2020, August 10). 8.6: Sales promotion and public relation. Business LibreTexts. URL
- University of Minnesota Libraries. (2015, October 27). 11.2 the promotion (communication) mix – principles of marketing. Open.Lib.Umn.Edu. URL
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