Selling Public Relations’ Value in a Downturn

Most independent and PR professionals, including leaders of large, established agencies, indicating a good degree of certainty that we are in the midst of an economic slowdown. While it affects the majority of all businesses, presents a greater challenge for PR professionals.

As anyone who went through the dot-com boom and subsequent bust of you will say, PR is particularly vulnerable to contractions and expansions wild. Companies often spend money like crazy when times are good and can substantially lower when the hard times get. While it is understandable in a way that a company would prefer to reduce their budgets in difficult times PR agency, is often a short-sighted approach.

One thing that often is not related to PR is that it offers a better value proposition is not to many other forms of marketing. For starters, unlike advertising, PR usually does not require expensive budgets creatively to produce their final product. Similarly, there is no budget to buy the space, since in most cases, the media provided by public relations is free. There are certain “pay to play” opportunities, especially for special sections in trade publications, but are relatively uncommon and often are not worth a chance.

One of the reasons that PR does not get the respect it deserves in many respects is due to how they sell, as I have noted on several occasions. In a recession, one of the best ways to sell is to say that PR is one of the few that marketing costs can generate more revenue in addition to the cost of a campaign. Obviously this is not certain that will happen with every client, but even if that sales do not rise immediately, there is often a direct correlation between the fruits of a campaign of public relations and sales inquiries. Clients repeatedly tell me that the delivery of good faith is the best opportunity that you can realistically expect from a campaign. Once that happens, you get a client’s sales staff to close the deal.

PR like firms do well to insist on its value proposition to existing and potential customers, who would also do well to include the value of customer metrics within their PR programs. For example, if you are trying to improve the position of a technology company that primarily serves businesses, where possible, to identify how the technology of its products or services have been either saved the money from their customers or increase of efficiency, which in the long run does the same.

They also often forget that in a down economy, much of the attention is drawn by large organizations, as they often have more immediate struggles that small businesses – at least in terms of layoffs and revenue / reduction benefits. While small businesses often also suffer, they are also often responsible for the few bright spots for growth. This gives them a unique opportunity to capitalize on its position and makes them perfectly positioned to benefit from a well planned and executed public relations program. Even in areas that are often home to a wide range of issues during a recession, such as financial services companies that are thriving, including debt consolidation of suppliers, and small regional banks with structures lower costs, among others.

One of the reasons why the PR is more cyclical than many other industries it is difficult to drive low-hanging fruit during the boom times. Most people now admit that it probably was not smart to store lists of clients with the dot-com companies that questionable business models during the boom of 2000-2001, but did so anyway – largely because the money was good and the euphoria was contagious. A better strategy is one that emphasizes smart growth, an agency or consultant is not trying to be everything to everyone, but rather a leading provider of services within the sectors where it has a solid reputation. This obviously does not apply to corporations that are part of clusters of ads or the few large independent firms, but most people working in PR are not employed in one of these companies and will not benefit from the that may experience a relative calm, or at least a less severe recession, during difficult economic times.

I do not pretend to be an economist, but benefit from an understanding of financial matters that came to meet them for nine years as a journalist. My personal feeling is that we are a little hard to spin and when it comes to the economy through at least half of 2009. Given the fact that “easy money” is not likely to flow through PR company coffers anytime soon, it is imperative that industry leaders are focused on our value proposition and deliver them successfully. In a perfect world, the industry will end up with a client list that best suited to withstand downturns.