Sometimes, a business can rely on word-of-mouth to keep profitable, such as those hidden gem neighbourhood cafes that only the locals know, love, and regularly frequent. Usually, however, and especially if you’re seeking to grow outside of your local neighbourhood, you’ll need some marketing and PR on your side. 

What is PR and digital marketing?

While these two umbrella terms seem similar, there’s a key difference. 

Public relations, what is commonly abbreviated as PR, primarily entails earned media. This includes media coverage, press releases, and gifted invites to encourage coverage and sharing about your business, from events to new product launches. The reason it is called earned media is because it’s free, or on a gifted or exchange basis; no spending involved. 

Digital marketing, on the other hand, consists of paid media such as digital advertising, boosted social media posts, paid media coverage, paid influencer collaborations, and so on. 

In short, PR is earned and digital marketing is paid. It’s important to understand this difference when constructing your marketing strategy and deciding how much and where to allocate your marketing budget.

In-house marketing vs a PR and digital marketing agency

There’s a few routes you can take when it comes to bringing PR and marketing professionals onto your team. The first is hiring an in-house professional, such as a social media manager. The second is to collaborate with an agency like Kin. 

Here’s when one option might be better than the other. 

Businesses seeking a stable, long-term approach to growth and that want to focus on establishing their brand with a defined audience would benefit from in-house marketing. This option is best for deepening a brand’s relationship with its audience, rather than attracting new demographics. 

Working with an agency is best for businesses venturing into new markets or experiencing a growth phase. Collaborating with an agency allows for scalability and flexibility, and agencies come with their own skilled team of professionals and a network of connections such as photographers and graphic designers who can help take your business further. 

Marketing agencies are best for brands with big campaigns and growth-focused strategies. Kin recently wrapped up two big campaigns of this kind – Superflux’s 5th Anniversary and WINGS’ Chicken Wing Day promotion, just a few examples of what a marketing agency can do for you!

Whether you decide to hire in-house or work with a marketing agency largely depends on your business goals. 

What services does a PR and digital marketing agency offer?

Agencies often offer an array of services that can be customized according to your marketing strategy. 

At kin, we offer strategy development, social media management, media relations and crisis communication, influencer and brand engagement, digital advertising, visual content creation, experiential event planning, email marketing and design, and copywriting services. 

Here’s a quick overview of what these services look like in action. 

• Strategy – We uncover everything from your brand’s origin story and values to opportunities left vacant by its competitors to develop a strategic plan that’s uniquely yours.
• Social media management – From brand launch to a total brand refresh, our social media strategies focus on engagement and growth, not just posting. 
• Media relations and crisis communication – We specialize in creating press materials, pitching stories, earning media coverage in magazines, blogs, radio, TV, and podcasts, and emergency crisis communication if something goes wrong. 
• Influencer and brand engagement – We get your product in the hands of influencers to develop content to expose your brand to their followers, as well as dream up collaborations between your brand and aligned businesses for activations like giveaways and pop-up shops. 
• Digital advertising – Our digital advertising campaigns ensure we’re reaching your target audience, supporting the growth of your sales, and increase your following.
• Visual content creation – We work with experienced photographers, videographers, animators and graphic designers to create still images for media, dynamic video clips for social content, design for branded collateral and much more. 
• Experiential event planning – We produce impactful events that connect your brand with targeted media, influencers, partners, and consumers and create experiences that resonate with the right people. 
• Email marketing and design – We use thoughtful design and applications to connect your brand with your audience via email, and convert readers into customers. 
• Copywriting – We offer copywriting and content writing services for your website and platforms to help elevate your brand using the written word, from sprucing up your bio to elevating a blog post. 

A PR and marketing agency will offer similar services, which you’ll oftentimes be able to customize into your own unique marketing strategy. Once you decide on an agency, there will be a few steps to take before you can begin to work together and start seeing real results.

At Kin, our client onboarding process begins with a discovery call where we discuss your brand and business goals. If we feel there’s alignment and once the contract is signed, we send you an intake form to fill out so that we can get a detailed sense of where your business stands and what you’re looking to achieve. Once we have an understanding of where your business is standing, we’ll set up a kick-off meeting where we’ll present you with a kick-off deck that goes over our scope of work, objectives, and next steps.  

The agency you decide to move forward with should have a similar onboarding process that takes into account your brand’s current positioning, your brand values and mission, and your business goals and objectives.

If you’d like to work with Kin, take a closer look at what we offer to make sure we’re the right fit for you, and get in touch!