PR firms can be your most effective marketing partner during the COVID-19 crisis and most certainly during a recession. Here are three ways you can use your PR firm to pivot during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Invite their entire team to your marketing table.
Like every client, you are paying for a portion of the available resources perfectly allocated to your brand in a normal business environment. But during COVID-19, this is not business as usual – it is business unusual. By getting access to the entire team you will have a diversity of ideas, fresh opinions and more mind power in your marketing and public relations arsenal.
Don’t be afraid to ask your firm to rescope the next 30-60-90 days.
Your firm should, and likely will, help you rearrange your scope of services to where critical communication resources are needed. For our restaurant clients in particular, we needed to create internal and external statements, adjust how we were working with influencers and speed up promotions as well as concept new messages around delivery, especially after Texas authorized alcohol delivery. Take the time to ask your agency what services need to be adjusted to best market your brand during the Coronavirus crisis.
Ask them to be ‘more’ to your company during these distressing times.
We have an expression at the Power Group that we are more than the average PR firm. It’s because we help our clients think about the what-ifs, the next wave or think about the implications of management decisions. Your PR firm is not just there for external communications – we are communicators. So, if your HR, operations or IT department is overtaxed right now with COVID-19, enlist the help of your PR firm to help you speed up communication when it is needed most.
Hopefully, your PR partner is diversified like The Power Group with experience and clients across multiple verticals: technology, nonprofits, automotive, restaurants, franchising, manufacturing, and other industries. Why is this important you might ask? Industry cross-training helps your PR team see your business from multiple avenues. Their insights and creativity can help you pivot during COVID-19.