How does Marketing messaging differ from PR/Comms messaging?

There’s an old saying: PR is the coverage you pray for and Marketing (Advertising) is the coverage you pay for. With PR messaging, the limitations to what can be said and what will catch the media’s eye are vastly different than the ways marketing can share a similar story. In my experience, PR is also more of a medium for analysts and the industry vs marketing as a medium for buyers to learn more about the offering. 

In addition, marketing has the opportunity to tell a wider story through multiple channels and PR has a much smaller number to leverage.

I think about PMM messaging and positioning more as the internal reference by everyone in the company to ensure a common understanding and language of who we build for, what we build, and why. Brand converts that into how you say it out loud. PR and Comms further translate this for different audiences (press, media, analysts, etc.).

I’m not sure I’d draw a strong distinction between the two actually. As a product marketer, my teams and I are building the messaging framework that supports all types of external comms including PR. I work closely with my PR counterpart and/or PR agency to ensure that we are using that framework to find various angles or storylines that might appeal to the media and provide us with greater coverage and exposure. At the root of these communications is the messaging framework we’ve developed.

I think of PMM and PR/Comms as a different flavor of the overall marketing/communications strategy. Just like in PMM where you think of personas for buyers, how/what/where you communicate also differs in the marketing path.

Consider that what you say on social media varies from what you say in your performance marketing campaigns, blogs, websites, and field marketing events. You have different people for those roles, right? It's no different between PR/Comms and PMM. PR/Comms is towards a more publicity, attention, analyst, and general public driven audience while PMM focuses on helping sellers sell and buyers understand what they are buying once they get through the door.

It doesn't go without to say that the two don't work together. It's essential that they do, yet at the end of the day the two hit different audiences.