It Feels a Bit Meta: Looking at PR Futures with the Austin Business Journal

Yesterday’s Austin Business Journal included an article on the future of PR in Austin during these unsure economic times. It led with a quote from Melissa Anthony — one of the first PR professionals I met upon my return to Austin two years ago — who said her clients saw this as an opportunity to gain market share.

Obviously, that’s exactly the kind of attitude we PR people hope for clients to have. When I worked with Dave Beck from Frost Bank during my six years in San Antonio, he’d talk about the importance of recognizing business cycles. When you’re in an up cycle, he’d say, you want to make sure you’re saving money to prepare for the next downturn. And when you find yourself in a downturn, that’s the time you most need to let people know about your business.

The ABJ article goes on to talk about the cost-effectiveness of PR compared to advertising, citing some of my other PR colleagues in town. I do think the article misses a key point about PR, though — it’s truly at its most cost-effective when there’s strategy involved.

When you’re building a PR plan, you should let your PR team know your wish list of where you’d like to be covered. That leads to some key questions: Who is your audience? Who are the potential new customers you’re trying to reach? What are the needs of those customers being met by your products and services?

And then that should lead to your strategy: Who will you try to reach? Which people at which media outlets will be most receptive to your story? What are all the stories connected to your company and your products or services? How does your company relate to what’s happening in the world right now?

For PR to work effectively, it needs to be integrated with everything the company’s doing as well as what’s happening around it. The rules for PR don’t change during tough economic times, but the storylines certainly do. Think about how you can demonstrate you bring value to customers when they’re looking for that. Think about how you meet an essential need or provide a much-needed reward when people are looking to cut what they feel are unnecessary expenses. And no matter where you’re at in the cycle, think about what makes you different and better than your competitors.