We were discussing the state of business in a manager’s meeting today and the conversation turned to a refrain we have been hearing from people in the industry including friends, clients and investors.
The buzz is that the single biggest favor PR agencies can be doing for their clients these days in light of the down economy is to make sure that their campaigns are delivering solid ROI. And compelling ROI now means PR results that drive customer demand and keep the sales pipeline brimming with leads.
Many people don’t understand PR and view it as a sort of the read headed step child of the marketing mix, capable of delivering primarily soft benefits. It has not helped that many in our profession pursue coverage for the sake of coverage, without much regard for strategy or the connection between PR placements and the buying and selling processes.
There is no better time than now to take a good hard look at your PR practices and programs and make sure they are working. This means showing some connection between PR results and common objectives such boosting awareness and building brand. And the most compelling results these days are ones that can be shown to have a direct and real impact on revenue.
I’ll be blogging more about PR and demand generation, so please stay tuned, and thanks for reading.
