Public Relations and marketing are often identified as the first port of call for the budget cutting razor gangs that an economic crisis necessitates, but this could in fact be the worst decision you could make.
With the country in the grips of an economic crisis that could slip into a recession, most companies are quite rightly taking a long hard look at their bottom line, but public relations budgets should be protected and expanded, not slashed.
What are your goals and objectives? What is your point of difference? What makes you different from your competitor? What is it you want to achieve from your communication? Think specifically about this from the point of view of reputation and relationships.
Who is it that you want to reach? Where are they? Why them? It helps to be specific here, break your customers or clients up into key groups. You need to identify basic demographic information such as how old they are, what they do, and how much they make, but also what they enjoy, what they read or watch and how they prefer you communicate with them?
Like any industry, there is a broad range of public relations assistance out there but if you don’t know what to look for, you might not get what you need.
The usual rule of research applies here. Ask prospective consultants about their experience and training, professional memberships such as being a member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, and the types of companies and clients they represent.
