If you look at an average publishing company, you can see that publicity and marketing cross each other on a permanent basis. It is common to see such specialists working in one department. Despite the fact that their work is very close, sometimes we hear people saying “That looks more like publicity…” or “It is not a common thing in marketing…” – So how can we understand the difference between marketing and publicity?
We do not want to make things even more difficult to understand. So, marketing mainly deals with the paid media, it is a traditional advertising we all are used to, while publicity deals mainly with free media resources. The main target of publicity are newspapers, magazines, etc. This is the easiest explanation we could provide you. However, when it comes to social media, the whole story gets a bit blurred.
A professional publicity team is responsible for writing reviews in various publications or featuring on podcasts. However, if you see a fantastic merchandise campaign, which has been distributed alongside a bestseller book, it is the sign of an excellent job of a marketing team.
If you refer to big corporations, marketing and publicity departments are separate as they cover a lot of responsibilities and tasks. However, these two departments are in charge of promoting the company on different media resources. If you are hesitating between these two spheres, you can check out how a typical publicity.marketing day looks like in reality.
Typical Day in a Publicity Department:
Composing detailed pitches to many different members of the niche media.
Replying to emails from journalists/bloggers/influencers/publications who express real interest in the sent pitch.
Handling mailing regarding Advance Reader Copies.
Getting in contact with authors regarding various events at a local bookshop or international book fair.
Providing assistance to authors though the process of writing an article for a publication.
Arranging tours for authors to important events.
Composing press releases for upcoming events to target the right audience.
Typical Day in a Marketing Department:
Creating photo/video content for corporate profiles on social media platforms and posting them according to the schedule.
Finding relevant magazines for your paid advertisement of a book or any other product/service.
Targeting the suitable demographics.
Generating digital advertisements using the top keywords.
If there is an author’s event where people are required to purchase tickets, you will need to construct the Eventbrite webpage. Creating/updating pages on the Amazon Plus platforms.
Applying SEO principles in order to increase a site’s visibility.
Creating professional bookmarks.
Final Thoughts
Many roles in marketing and publicity overlap, especially in little companies. If you want to make your book well-known, you need to hire the services of both sectors. Doing all the promotions by yourself is too time-consuming. Find a professional team, who will help you get the book out there as popular as possible!