Why you need PR…….

Okay this is not just because I’m in PR but in this economic climate I have seen how as people are making cut backs and concessions they cut out the marketing and PR budget – it’s like they are viewed as the “colouring in department” so first to go.

But if this is the rational tell me how you get people to notice your brand in a crowded market place where new dot. com sites open up daily, blogs start and brands appear and shops open up and they are all shouting for the consumers money – so by just being on line or being in the market place doesn’t mean the world will suddenly see your USP your amazing product etc okay some people will find you but not everyone and it will take time and during this time you could be running out of money so the sales and budget forecasts are looking very unrealistic.

Last week I saw too instances of the views on PR the first at a LFN event where one our panel who has a men’s footwear brand was very passionate about PR, quizzing the audience about how they do PR and emphasising the importance of always PRing your brand and being a walking, talking ambassador and then we had someone email us who has bravely entered the world of online retailing as a complete novice – so they had set the site up bought the stock , photographed and got it looking fabulous but now have less than 30 visitors a day and as a consequence almost no sales and are running out of money fast so are looking for PR but put the budget at £300 which is less than £10 a day !

Think of it this way if you had opened a shop you could get a great sales assistant to serve and be the ambassador for your shop on that and get customers through the door, on to the mailing list and returning every day or week – so why expect that from PR and treat it as an afterthought when suddenly the sales don’t happen make it part of your strategy as it’s like money in the till when you get that traffic on your site.