Email marketing and public relations might not seem to have much in common.

In the beginning, at least, because email marketing and public relations focus on two different aspects of your business plan.

But they both have an impact on how people view your brand. And keep in mind that increasing brand recognition is strongly related to public relations. Let’s deconstruct it:

• PR = brand awareness
• Email marketing + other types of marketing = brand awareness

This means that email marketing and public relations not only coexist but also, when done well, may strengthen one another.

Public relations definition

Press releases, news organizations, and journalists come to mind frequently when people think about public relations. That’s not incorrect, but public relations encompasses more than just that.

The strategic communication process is what public relations, as defined by the Public Relations Society of America, Inc., is all about. Through this procedure, a brand and the general public develop ties that are mutually beneficial.

The target market for the brand is meant by “public.” In addition to using press releases to share information with the media, public relations also employs other channels to reach audiences.

This frequently entails carefully forming connections with authorities and influencers in the business.

Typical forms of content used in public relations vary from white papers to reports, case studies, press releases, interviews, and more.

Email marketing definition

While public relations are about strategic communication, email marketing is about spreading brand recognition and boosting customer loyalty on a less strategic, more day-to-day level.

But no email marketing campaign would be possible without a list of subscribers who voluntarily signed up for an email newsletter. And while public relations may be targeted at people who are not familiar with the brand, in email marketing a voluntary sign-up, and thus at least one touch point with the brand is needed.

This is what makes email marketing so effective. It is a direct, campaign-based form of marketing, which offers certain activities to specific audiences for a limited period of time. And it’s commonly known that each campaign has very clear KPIs and goals and ways to communicate them to the audience.

Depending on the campaign you’re running and the CTA you may be using, types of email marketing communication may vary from promotional offers and seasonal offers to welcome and thank-you emails, feedback requests, surveys, newsletters, lead generation emails, and more.

Email marketing vs. Public relations

While comparing these two marketing techniques does not really make sense — since they both serve a relatively similar purpose — still, is necessary to understand the difference between the two.

Below is a great infographics summarizing it in detail.

Source: Selzy

While there are such significant differences between email marketing and PR, there is an intersection, too. It happens when email marketing is used as a PR channel. Sounds intriguing? That’s because it is.

How to use email to boost your PR campaigns

Let’s dive deeper and discover some top tips for email marketing in PR.

1. Bringing visitors to your website

How do you get outstanding content to your audience once you’ve created it? You probably send them an email.

You may increase your SEO and drive visitors to your website with email marketing campaigns. Additionally, you’ll retain visitors interested in your website and business.

Each email you create with a link to your content should have a call to action (CTA) so that readers can click through to your website.

2. Distributing press releases via email

It is recommended to send out an email newsletter whenever you announce a merger, an acquisition, or any other significant company update. 

A lot of companies merely tweet about it or share a story on their Facebook or Instagram pages. You should stop doing this and start sending emails. You cannot be positive whether someone has read your update, even if you enhance your post or use paid social media marketing. 

Email analytics, on the other hand, will provide you a clear understanding of how many people have opened your email, allowing you to send the same email to those who have not yet opened it.

3. Sharing event invitations or announcements

If you want to publicize an event or send out invitations, emails work brilliantly.

Even though events significantly boost your PR, they are useless if you cannot attract enough participants or registrants. Emails can be a very effective marketing strategy for your events. They give you a platform to tell the subscribers of every specific event information directly in their inbox.

Here is a great illustration of a Google Cloud event invitation.

Source: AgilityPR

4. Building community buzz

In this situation, email marketing focuses on informing customers about the specialized content that centers around a business’s involvement in the neighborhood. 

As a result, email marketing can support PR efforts by strengthening connections with the audience by sharing information about community events, blog entries about the community, or CSR initiatives.

5. Getting more media opportunities

In PR, success of getting published is about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.

With email, you may easily produce customized content. As simple as inserting a contact’s name in the email qualifies as personalization. In actuality, emails with the recipient’s first name in the subject line receive more clicks than ones without it.

You can also develop customized content based on audience segmentation to send the appropriate emails to the appropriate publishers. For instance, you might want to send one email marketing campaign to publishers you’ve already interacted with and another to new ones.

Email marketing has many advantages, one of which is the ability to greatly customize your content to the demands of your audience. While it is not the only one, customization is obviously a No.1 step for winning your next media opportunity.

6. Running a charity or promoting a good cause

If you run an NGO, you can use emails to increase donations and raise awareness of your cause.

Email marketing provides you the power to say a lot more than the well-known Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram altogether, so NGOs can include emails in their PR strategy, too. 

You can include a video demonstrating how your actions have improved people’s lives. As a result, you would receive more donations. Emails can not only aid in the promotion of your cause but also foster trust among subscribers. 

7. Sharing insider industry tips for boosting reputation

Emails can be used across various industries to set yourself apart from the competition by building your expertise and establishing you as a thought leader.

One example is the travel industry. Travel agencies can use email to showcase the best destinations.

Email can be used by the public relations department of travel agencies to advertise the most popular locations. Additionally, they can share actual pictures of the companions they have traveled with. They can also use hashtags to increase their social media visibility, which will help their PR.