As a small business owner, finding cost effective ways to promote your business is most likely one of your primary concerns. There are several different ways to promote all types of businesses, and most businesses can benefit from incorporating several different types of promotional activities into their marketing mixes.

Cost is an important consideration when it comes to promoting one’s business, but it’s important to keep in mind that it is often necessary to spend money to make money. It’s important for entrepreneurs to understand the difference between public relations (PR) and advertising so they can make the wisest possible decisions about how to spend their promotional dollars.

There are three very important differences between PR and advertising.

1. Cost: Advertising is a paid form of communication. When you purchase space for a promotional message, you are buying advertising space for your business. You will pay to have your message produced, and also for the space or airtime in which it appears. When you send out a news release or submit an idea for editorial consideration, you are engaging in publicity. If you write the copy and submit it to the news media yourself, there is no cost. If you use a freelancer, employer, or PR firm, you’ll pay for labor.

2. Control: Advertising is a controlled medium, whereas PR is uncontrolled. When you purchase an advertisement, you know exactly where it will appear, how much the bill will be, what the text will say, and what the ad will look like. When you send out a news release in the hopes of generating publicity for your business, you don’t have control. The media may run the message the way you submit it, print a partial version, or completely ignore it.

3. Credibility: Consumers are bombarded with advertising messages every day, and are often skeptical about the content, because they know the advertiser retains control over the message. However, when people read editorial coverage in a magazine or newspaper, or hear a broadcast news program, they tend to assign more credibility to the message.

When solidifying marketing plans for your company, it’s a good idea to include a combination of public relations and advertising activities. It’s an error to assume that one of these two forms of communication is better than the other. They are both important techniques for helping spread the word about businesses, and each of them serves its own unique purpose.