With the present economy growing increasingly iffy every day, people tend to ask us “How’s business? I guess you must be hurting like the rest of us.” But they are often surprised to hear that over the past 22 years, we tend to do better during tough economic times – those same times that ad revenues tend to shrink. That’s because during recessionary periods, many companies, particularly those that are small to medium in size, tighten the reigns on higher-cost marketing tactics, such as advertising, and delegate more of their marketing budgets for PR, which delivers a better CPM and ROI.
This works for both traditional media outreach and social media efforts, which are becoming increasingly important. For us, it comes down to simple math….no matter what the budget spend, RL&A typically sees the CPM within the $.40 to $2 range. And our proprietary Publicity Value Analysis, which helps measure the quantity and quality of the PR placements against comparable ad spending, is typically double or more the actual PR budget, so each of our clients is – at the very least – getting $2 worth of marketing for every $1 spent (we have clients getting four times or more their spend!).
For social media, we cost-effectively reach target consumers right where they are talking about your category, brand or topic, so instead of spending against the masses to “see what sticks,” we pinpoint the places where key conversations about your products are happening online to get your brand into the discussion….without spending tons of dollars to do so.
As you look for ways to make the best use of every dollar spent to reach your existing or potential consumers, we hope that public relations becomes a part of your planning. Yes, we know it will never completely replace advertising, yet PR is an ideal, cost-effective method to help cut through the clutter and get your messages heard by those key to your success.