We Should Always Market Like There’s a Recession
The recession has had devastating effects on our families, friends, businesses and towns. Watching things unravel around us, we’re worried about taking risks and unwilling to spend money where we can’t measure the return on investment. I’ve reduced my own marketing budget and I’m constantly looking for creative methods of connecting with people.
Advertising is expensive and becoming less effective, so how do we create awareness when times are even more dire? We need to add low cost marketing strategies to our existing business plans and get back to the basics. Find ways to advertise and create conversations about our businesses without exceeding our budgets or putting our businesses in jeopardy.
Use Public Relations and Find Stories that Fit Your Business
Let’s get creative, throw out the old rules and start breaking some new ground. We’re most creative when the options that were readily available to us quickly disappear. That’s where PR comes in. When we can’t rely on the traditional advertising methods and techniques we need to expand our options and search for solutions that extend our reach and add credibility to our businesses. We can read the news, follow journalists and media outlets in our areas and find ways we can connect with issues and involve our businesses in the solutions.
Show Your Customers You’re Still There For Them
Add more Public Relations practices to your plan. I’m not talking about media relations, but “public” relations. Even if you have a small client base, reach out your previous and existing customers and give them a reason to talk about you and pass on your message. Offer some low-cost incentives for being loyal to your company. Consider customer appreciate days or contests that reward customers for their opinions and loyalty. We can’t be afraid to ask for opinions and feedback. Although we don’t like criticism, it can mean the difference between survival and bankruptcy.
Fill the Gaps Your Competitors are Leaving
We need to stay one step ahead of the competition. They’re being hit with the recession, too. While they’re pulling back, we can push our businesses forward with consistent positive communications. It’s not difficult to differentiate ourselves when we’re listening to your customer’s most immediate concerns. We need to ensure we know where people are talking about us and what they are saying. We can’t afford to miss an opportunity to create an open and positive conversation with our business community. We’re not the only ones looking for gaps and if we’re not paying attention, someone else will step in and take over the conversation.
Always Focus on Building Your Story
Businesses have survived recessions before and what we need to remember is people are still going to buy products and services and plan for the future. They’re just being cautious and becoming more educated about their purchases. When customers search for products to purchase they’re going to be looking for trustworthy companies that are generate positive buzz.
I believe that the recession is best time assess our marketing efforts and create a plan that focuses more on the benefits of our products and the relationships with our customers. Once we start using non-traditional marketing and stepping away from the expected methods of advertising, it’s easy to realize how disconnected from our customers we’ve become.
Public relations isn’t just about what media attention can do for us. It’s about being part of the story and giving people something to talk about. Read the newspaper and watch the news, the people who get the most exposure are the people who put their customers and communities first.
People are changing the way they live. We just have to figure out how we fit into the picture.
The Future of Public Relations?
Last week, Jason Falls sparked a debate about the future of Public Relations in his post Social Media is the Responsibility of Public Relations.
Falls points out, many companies don’t have the resources to employ Social Media specialists and must rely on internal resources to create and maintain consumer and business relationships online. He suggests that social networking must become a function of Public Relations.
In my mind, social media is essentially public relations in the online world. Divide the category up by component — blogs, social networks, microblogging, podcasts/Web TV, wikis/collaborative software — they each ladder in some way to a component of public relations — writing, corporate communications, community relations, media relations, event management.
I agree. As people demand more from brands and service providers, Social Media is enabling us to connect with our prospects and customers in very meaningful ways. Blogs, forums and social networking are changing the way companies interact with customers. Our communications are becoming more targeted and personal. We can expand out market coverage and create the opportunity to interact directly with the people who purchase our products. Moreover, companies that make the effort to adopt current technologies will gain an advantage over their competitors.
Solutions for Small Business
So what is the solution for the small business that does not have a Public Relations, Marketing or Social Media department?
Companies incapable of meeting the ever-increasing demands of Public Relations will need to outsource most of their Social Networking functions. In the future, Social Media Specialists will be in high demand as more companies realize the importance of these activities. For those of us willing to learn new technologies and participate, we have the ability to create manageable internal social networking strategies. If we want them to be effective, we will need to acquire the appropriate skills and dedicate ourselves to the ongoing process.
As media outlets become smaller, we need to find new ways to gain publicity and get people talking about our companies. We can’t always rely on media contacts to relay our positive image. We need to create continuous strategies we can monitor and alter depending on our observed results. Through direct contact, we have an opportunity to discover what our customer wants, gather relevant ideas and present a solution to their immediate problems. If we create valuable connections, and refrain from using Social Media as another medium for our sales pitch, we have the opportunity to use these interactions to create a positive public image and develop desirable product.
Falls predicts:
Social Media will evolve into components of a sophisticated public relations effort.
Businesses that have clearly developed Social Media strategies, and use both Marketing and Public Relations resources, will be further ahead than companies that ignore online networking, or misuse it as a form of advertising and promotion. The main purpose of social networking is to create ongoing conversations. Companies that do not participate in the conversation, or use it solely as a means to push products in the faces of potential buyers will fail.
As more and more of our potential customers are using social networks to evaluate businesses and brands, we need to learn how to start conversations, build relationships and grow communities.
What do you think?
Pamela Weir is a Marketing Copywriter. If you are looking for a sales writer with experience creating website content, press releases, media one-sheets, and warm letters, please visit her Copywriting Services page for information.
Proper Use of a Press Release… This is Not It
This post is about a month late.
I had planned on writing a post on April 2nd, when I first stumbled on the Press Release.
I’m not going to say much about it. It really needs no explanation, but I thought it was worth noting because it’s an example of the Labour Congress’ blatant misuse of Press to downplay a very serious issue.
Well… they probably hadn’t intended to make light of the issue, but this doesn’t help the public’s view of their commitment to solving the problem.
I know, it was April Fool’s day. This was intended to be light-hearted and in the moment of the festivities (are there April Fool’s Day festivities?).
Here is their first release of the day:
Our Kind of Tax Cut
Labour welcomes government action on women’s wagesOTTAWA – The Canadian Labour Congress today welcomed news that the federal government will finally move to close the persistent and growing wage gap that sees Canada’s working women paid an average of 70½ cents for each dollar earned by men.
“Lower taxes for lower wages: higher taxes for higher wages. It’s plain old common sense that works for women. We work just as long and just as hard to support our families as men do in this country. It’s about time something was done to address the fact that we get paid less for our work,” says Barbara Byers, Executive Vice- President of the Canadian Labour Congress.
Last month, the CLC released a report that showed just how deep Canada’s pay inequity problem has become. The report, “Women in the Workforce: Still a Long Way from Equality” revealed that Canadian women who work at full-time jobs throughout the entire year earn just 70½ cents for every dollar earned by men who do similar work. Worse, the report showed that this wage gap was growing and growing fastest among women with post-secondary education.
“As women file their income tax returns, they see they are paying taxes on wages where they’ve done a dollars’ worth of work for thirty cents less. It’s not fair and, finally, the government has decided to do something about it,” says Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress.
According to Byers, the Minister for Women will announce plans to have women pay, on average, 70% of the income taxes on their wages that men pay. Because nearly 40% of women who file income tax returns already don’t earn enough to pay federal tax (according to Revenue Canada statistics from 2005), the impact on the federal treasury is something the government can manage.
While greater access to affordable child care, higher minimum wages, and meaningful pay equity laws would do more to close the wage gap between Canadian women and men, Byers says this is an April 1st to remember. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca
My point is, they could have picked a different issue or dealt with it in a different way. They actually released this to an international PR website. So, it was released as genuine news about labour equity and tax cuts.
I’m sure it’s not the first time a company has done this, but it certainly should be the last time a governing body does this.
They issued this retraction, which was released later in the day:
April Fools! – Cutting taxes really doesn’t help
April 1, 2008
OTTAWA – Earlier today, we issued a release about plans to have women pay just 70% of the income tax on their wages that men pay as a measure to compensate for the fact that women earn, on average, about 70 cents for every dollar earned by men who do similar work. Of course, it was an April Fools’ joke.
While it’s true that something needs to be done to address this problem, there are better answers. To learn about them, visit onceandforall.ca or look for the Equality! Once and For All! campaign on our web site, canadianlabour.ca.
The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 136 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca
I agree that tax cuts aren’t the appropriate way to solve the problem, and the likelihood of the Government taking a stand in this way is pretty far-fetched.
Maybe they were attempting to gain more support by creating awareness of the situation and making people angry. Maybe they thought that this would spark some huge debate in Social Media and people would contact them or support them in their fight. If they were purely looking for a laugh, it didn’t work.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not averse to humor.
I just don’t support their idea of a joke.
Pamela Weir is a Marketing Copywriter. If you are looking for a sales writer with experience creating website content, press releases, squeeze pages, and sales pages, please visit her Copywriting Services page for more information.
