Why PR is Essential
1) PR is important during a downturn. The actions you take to position and define your story are crucial to ensure you are best positioned to recover faster. A communications strategy needs to be approached holistically, in terms of its coordination with all other elements of your business, all working toward the same short, medium and long term business and brand goals.
2) Social media engagement has increased by over 40% in the last month. Getting coverage is key, while more people than ever are paying attention and gravitating towards the media as their primary source of content and information. It is the best way to make sure that you are able to hit the ground running as fast as possible, by creating and maintaining brand awareness, once restrictions start being eased. If not, it’s harder to gain attention and trust with existing and potential customers.
3) During this down time, small businesses may have more time to strategize parts of their businesses that otherwise have not been in the forefront of their minds. Creating strong public relations, communication and media strategies are important to keeping a brand active and alive. These strategies often take a lot of time and intentionality that may be hard to manage in-house for small businesses. Having a dedicated PR team that handles this for you while getting your input through every step is a vital part of creating a solid brand that is known to more than just passerby customers. Strategies that a PR team creates keeps customers engaged, your brand recognized and opportunities in your pipeline.
4) During this global pandemic, consumers have increasingly shown their support and buying power for products and services that keep them fed, healthy, hygienic, entertained, sane, happy and taken care of. For businesses that have experienced this boom, it is important to 1) separate what makes your brand stand out through strategic messaging 2) manage opportunities to expand your brand reach 3) create sustainable plans to continue the excitement of your brand once the pandemic ends.
5) How much a brand invests in maintaining the relationship with its customers through marketing and communications during a crisis defines its long-term success. Customers want to feel heard, empathized with and thought of during difficult times. Through content that is inspirational, entertaining and a positive form of distraction, there is an opportunity to create a community instead of just customers.