Although public relations is not necessarily synonymous with marketing, a public relations firm can offer services that overlap with a marketing firm. Remember, both public relations and marketing fall under the communications umbrella; that means that some of their services are bound to intersect from time to time.
Furthermore, public relations firms may at times offer ancillary services that go outside of the traditional sphere of communications. For example, some firms can accommodate requests to provide the following supplementary services in addition to traditional PR:
- Event production and management
- Political campaign management/fundraising
- Website development/website project management
- Search engine optimization (through content marketing programs)
- Social media management
- Advertising buys in specific media
Whether they provide these services is solely at their discretion, of course, and their availability to do so may depend upon how much bandwidth they have at the time the request is made. What determines that bandwidth can include the availability of:
- Staff – The firm can only provide extra services if they employ staff members who are skilled at those specific tasks.
- Time – If traditional PR business slows down temporarily, the firm may have time to accommodate an ancillary request.
- Budget – Does the client have the budget for extra support? If so, the firm may be more likely to block out time for the project.
For any business or individual seeking ancillary services from a PR firm, these are things to consider. A public relations firm may be able to provide supplementary services if they have the bandwidth in terms of staff, time and budget.