June 11, 2010

Is the Recession Deleting Your Message?

Today’s PRSA Issues & Trends has an excellent article on circumventing the media, leveraging your PR with SEO, etc. (“7 Benefits of Partnering SEO & PR” at www.toprankblog.com/2010/06/7ways-pr-seo) I’m happy to say I’ve been doing this stuff with my biggest client for several years. I’m unhappy to say the excellent results of our efforts are dwindling. It doesn’t help that my client’s target market could care less about social media. They’re just not into it, thus eliminating a valuable tool. So, my client and I are scratching our heads mightily.

It’s no coincidence the trouble started in the fall of 2008 when it looked like the economy was slipping into the abyss. I think all PR professionals face a serious challenge as the recession drags on – getting your message read, viewed or whatever as those you want to reach are too busy running their struggling business, hanging onto their jobs or looking for a job. Don’t blame the ever-rising tide of marketing messages that bombard everyone 24-7 because that’s nothing new.

Is the recession a huge distraction for the folks we want to communicate with? How do we overcome this? If our target audience is focusing more on the economy than what we’re putting in front of them, then we have a trough road ahead because I don’t think our economic woes will go away any time soon. This recession is unlike any others and economists I have interviewed don’t see us breaking even – the economy regaining what it has lost – until 2014.


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