Top 5 elements of promotion mix

It is a paid form of communication.
Identifiable entity/sponsor-company or person gives advertising.
Various audio-visual, print, and outdoor media can be used for advertising purpose.

The primary purpose of sales promotion is to induce customers for immediate buying or dealer effectiveness or both.
It is taken as supplementary to advertising and personal selling efforts.
It involves all the promotional efforts other than advertising, personal selling, and publicity.
It consists of short-term incentives, schemes, or plans offered to buyers, salesmen, and/ or dealers.
It involves non-routine selling efforts.

Personal selling is an oral, face-to-face, and personal presentation with consumers.
Immediate feedback can be measured.
It is an ability of salesmen to persuade or influence buyers.
Per contact cost is higher than advertising.
It involves teaching, educating, and assisting people to buy.

Publicity involves obtaining favorable presentation about company or company’s offers upon radio, television, or stage that is not paid for by the sponsor.
It is a non-paid form of market promotion. However, several indirect costs are involved in publicity.
Mostly, publicity can be carried via newspapers, magazines, radio or television.
Company has no control over publicity in terms of message, time, frequency, information, and medium.
It has a high degree of credibility. Publicity message is more likely to be read and reacted by audience.
Publicity can be done at a much lower cost than advertising. Company needs to spend a little amount to get the event or activity publicized.
Frequency or repetition of publicity in mass media depends upon its social significance or the values for news. Mostly, it appears only once.

Public relations are a paid form of market promotion. Company has to incur expenses.
It involves a number of interactions, such as contacting, inviting, informing, clarifying, responding, interpreting, dealing, transacting, and so forth.
Public relations cover a number of publics – formal and informal groups. These publics may be customers, stockholders, employees, unions, environmentalists, the government, people of local community, or some other groups in society.