When hiring a marketing professional, employers are usually looking for someone with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in marketing. Companies often think that these are the only people equipped with the right knowledge to succeed in their marketing department. However, there are a plethora of other qualified candidates who have degrees in public relations. Here are some of the benefits of hiring someone with a PR degree for your marketing team.

Writing Skills

Business majors may know about crunching numbers, but PR majors are masters at writing. Grammar, syntax, vocabulary — they’ve got it all down. It’s imperative that all of your marketing materials are easy to understand. Improper grammar and spelling puts your company at risk of coming off as unreliable or unintelligent. PR majors can help you avoid this.

Even if they are not creating the content, they can act as a proofreader. As an added bonus, they also have experience in writing press releases, media alerts and other useful tools.

Communication

At universities, the public relation program usually falls under the umbrella of “communications.” Communications degrees often get a bad rap, as they are sometimes seen as “easy” majors that have a lighter workload than others. Regardless of whether this is true or not, communications majors are adept at communicating, which is important in marketing.

Not only do PR majors write well, but they can speak well too. Many PR programs require multiple public speaking courses, some of which include practice in making client presentations. As a result, the PR major is excellent at communicating with clients or customers.

Social Media

Unless they take a specialized course, most marketing majors don’t learn much about social media. The complete opposite is the case in PR majors. Social media is a huge part of modern public relations campaigns, so PR students go over it extensively. They learn how to use social media as a campaign tool, often using them in real-life campaigns completed during their education. Adding a PR major to your marketing team can help significantly boost your social media presence.

Reputation

One of the most important aspects of public relations is cultivating and maintaining a good image. PR majors always keep this in mind. Marketing majors often focus more on how to increase traffic or sales, but if consumers don’t “feel good” about you or your client, no marketing campaign will be effective. Adding a PR major to your team will ensure that your company or client’s reputation is considered with every move.

Look beyond the scope of business majors when looking for new hires in marketing. Those with public relations degrees can assist you in writing, communication, social media and maintaining a good reputation.