Source: nsookc.org
As a PR professional it is not lost on me that the current economic environment is something which has to watched with caution.
I remember when the dot com bubble burst and the effect on the PR consultancy I was working for so am not naive enough to ignore our current environment but also am a firm believer that you get to see how good a consultancy is when times are tough. Steve Earl has created a great list of what professionals in the PR industry should be thinking about at this time.
But, it is not just PR professionals that should be thinking long and hard about PR activities but also clients. It is too simple to just cut PR budgets when you are looking to save costs but when the bubble burst last time around it, it became clear that the brands who increased PR and marketing, when competitors were cutting back, improved their market share and return on investment at lower cost than during strong economic times.
Obviously I am going to say this I hear you say. Well, below is my list of 10 reasons why PR should be the last thing you dispose of when cutting costs:
1. This week one of Berkeley PR’s clients sold a product on stand at an exhibition which was worth £140,000. When the client asked what had made up their mind as to why they chose to buy the product the answer was simple “I chose your product over your competitors because of all of the positive coverage we had seen in the media”.
2. When you pay for a PR consultancy you pay for a team of experts. If you bring PR inhouse what happens if that person is off sick? Or on holiday? If you have the fall back of a team you have exactly that…..a team. For example, if an important story breaks you have four people on the phone pushing your story.
3. Do you think a VP of marketing will be prepared to craft a pitch, write a press release, interview a customer for a case study or spend all day contacting the media?
4. Who will manage your online reputation? Who is going to be your point of contact and ensure that that this vital part of the public relations is looked after if you don’t have a PR agency?
5. SEO – PR helps to improve this with backlinks and ensuring you are mentioned by the loudest voices online. Google is a beast and you need to respect it. If you don’t think that SEO optismisation is important than you are a gravely mistaken. If people can’t find you online then they don’t care about you! Simple as.
6. Give your sales team the tools they need. Traditionally one of the hardest groups of people to convert to PR is the sales team but if your product is being spoken about in the media then people are more responsive to your sales team. If potential customers have heard or read something positive about your brand then they are more likely to be interested in buying it. Think about it. Would you buy a car if you had never heard of the brand?
7. How much does it cost to advertise in your trade or national publication? How often have you read an advert saying that X product is the best and actually believed it? Additionally, how often have you read a piece of editorial about a film and made a decision about whether or not you want to see the film? The same is exactly the same for your brand.
8. Analyst relations is the start and end of the buying process. Organisations buying something will approach an analyst firm as will those who want to upgrade or ensure they have the right product. This relationship can be managed by your PR consultancy and shouldn’t be forgotten. If analysts don’t know about you then potential customers don’t either.
9. PR databases such as Gorkana or Media disk are very expensive. Your PR agency can afford to pay for it because the fee is split across a number of clients. These databases are invaluable in expanding your reach. You may read a few magazines and may have some contacts there but you pay a PR consultancy so you can reach out to new contacts and these databases are the backbones of this.
10. Thought leadership. In a market where your competitors are retreating and reducing marketing, PR and advertising spend this is the ideal time to demonstrate that you understand your customers pain and know how to help them.
