It’s out there in the press, on the streets, in wallets and for some right on their faces. The current economic realities may be a worthy news story for the media, but for all we know it breeds fear, worries and stress for the average man and some businesses.

For businesses, this fear can make business owners or decision makers react by cutting their advertising, marketing and public relations budgets. This may seem the obvious choice –“cutting the fat”, but is it?

During economic spikes or down times, PR function doesn’t change. In fact, it grows. PR helps establish and maintain lines of communication and acceptance between an organization and its stakeholders. PR campaigns usually tie into a brand’s objectives and are based on a long-term view of a business’ strategic direction.

Knowing how important a positive perception is during a recession, here are four tips we at Brooks and Blake think brands can hold on to in getting through an economic recession.

1. Opportunities to Communicate regularly and consistently with stakeholders

The best way to retain and foster trust is to communicate. Keep the lines open; ensure your PR team or agency makes you relevant in the news and social media. Brands can use this time to tell their success stories or educate stakeholders on cost efficient ways through thought leadership.

2. Be active on social media

Use online public relations to increase your online visibility and develop relationships with your customers. Blogs, infographics and influencer engagements are simple yet effective ways to show how alive your brand is.

3. Monitor competition but be innovative

Brands have been known to follow the bandwagon of their competitions during downtimes. However, RadarTrail, an innovative digital agency is of the opinion that it is at such moments that brands need to be more innovative. If competition is cutting budgets, do the opposite; cutting back on marketing and PR may rob you the opportunity to steal competition’s dominance in the media space (especially if you’re up against bigger competition).

4. Take advantage of long term relationships

We strongly suggest that businesses don’t jump ships especially as regards the PR agency they hire or work with. During a recession, relationships comes in handy than you can imagine. The agencies your brand has worked with over time will usually be more willing to give extra because they’ve worked longer with the brand. Such agencies usually also have a better understanding of your brand, the business process and what the people behind the business want. Changing ships at such time may be disastrous as the new PR team may not catch up with what’s already on ground as quickly as you’ll want.

PR can achieve amazing results even with a limited budget. People won’t patronize companies they don’t see or know anything about. The summary of this post is to maintain presence in the marketplace so your brand has a chance to ride the storm and remains active even afterwards.

Source: Brooks and Blake [url]http://brooksandblake.com/blog/how-to-make-the-best-of-pr-in-a-recession/ [/url] is rated among the top PR agencies in Nigeria.