Maintaining Your Momentum with PR Professionals

Everywhere you turn these days, there are reminders that a recession may be (or is) coming.  Even though U.S. unemployment is low at 3.4 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics this month, stories of large-scale layoffs abound, notably in the tech industry, in recent months. How many times have you heard the phrase “global macroeconomic uncertainties” thrown around in the last 30 days?  And, yet, sales and advertising teams are probably telling you that now is not the time to lose the marketing momentum you have built over the long term. 

According to Analytics Partners, 63% of brands that maintain or increase media investment during times of financial pressure see their return on investment (ROI) improve. They also reported that, during the last recession, brands that increased marketing spending saw a 17% increase in sales.

It is important for you and your business to stay present in the mind of your customers and vendors and take advantage of the opportunity to seize a competitive edge in your industry. Preserving and enhancing your level of communication and your public presence helps you project stability and reliability to audiences that are looking for that reassurance, despite economic uncertainty.

In these circumstances, outsourcing your business’ public relations and communications functions can give you the ability to maintain your momentum, be nimble in the face of changing communications mediums, and manage your expenses and overhead to stay profitable.

An agency can do this at a fraction of the ongoing cost of in-house staff and with a contract that can be structured and modified based on your needs and without having to be concerned about the hazards of termination or carrying the cost of underutilized employees.

The professional PR and communications agency’s business is to help you maintain your momentum. An agency’s whole job will be thinking about how your business connects with the world and maximizing your opportunity to be seen and recognized. An agency has existing media connections and stays on top of changes in the way media operates and the way the public consumes information.  And hiring a PR and communications agency to serve your business’s needs focuses a whole team of professionals on your business’s success.

An agency team will learn about your business, your core values and your culture in order to convey authentic messages to the public and any other important audiences.  An agency team will be available as you determine in advance, not in the way, but there when you need them.

An agency team helps you sustain your commitment to the health of your business and maintain a positive image in the mind of your customers and other businesses that you work with. 

Complicating your obligation to keep momentum going, the world of marketing, communications and media relations is changing rapidly.  Not just in the online social media space, where there seems to be a new service offered every month, but also in the way traditional media, advertisers and reporters get their information and disseminate it.  More of the public gets news and information from new sources than ever before.  Unless it is your business or your passion, you can quickly fall behind on the latest trends and tools in the communications world for effectively reaching your customers, but it’s literally the job of an agency to stay abreast of these trends.

You and your company should specialize in what you do best, while a PR agency can handle the communication.