The deliverables of public relations

The business benefits of using public relations tools or a PR agency are broad and diverse and will depend on a number of factors including the objectives set and the environment in which the organisation operates. They can encompass:

• Awareness: of an organisation’s products, services etc
• Education: about markets/new products etc
• Credibility: notably PR is more credible than advertising
• Third party endorsement: the aforementioned credibility stems from the endorsement of a journalist to run your article
• Differentiation: PR can help to differentiate a product or service from those of a competitor
• Positioning: positioning a company, person or product is a leader or best in its field will help in differentiation
• Building relationships: PR can help build relationships through two-way communication
   

The objectives of public relations

In general the main objectives of PR are two-fold:

• Awareness
• Induce some sort of action

Whatever the objective, it needs to be based on clearly measurable results. If it is to be measured effectively, it needs to be defined clearly. There is no point in stating that the objective is ‘to increase awareness’, if it is not known ‘what’ we’re increasing awareness of and ‘by whom’.