La capsula Informativa: Why Cutting PR During a Downturn is a Mistake
1. PR Maintains Visibility While Saving Money
Since it’s more cost effective, PR can help you maintain brand awareness and market visibility while you’ve cut high budget items like auto shows, conference sponsorships and customer entertainment events. If you’ve axed your $500,000 trade show expense, 10 percent of those savings shifted to your PR budget can fund some high visibility PR projects that will extend reach, frequency and credibility of your messaging and enhance thought leadership.
We’ve experienced clients boosting their PR spending while cutting more expensive promotional activities during business slowdowns, which has made their business more resilient and more recession resistant.
Earned media coverage not only raises awareness and increases your share of voice, but it also leverages credibility and implied third party endorsement of the media your customers and prospects trust. And it helps improve your company’s organic SEO by leveraging the publication’s domain authority. As AI powered search tools become more prevalent, that kind of third-party validation plays an even more important role in shaping what shows up in AI results.
2. Your Message Hits Harder in a Quiet Market
If your competitors are lying low, you have a less competitive environment. This means your messages are more likely to get through and have an unfettered impact on audiences.
By reminding your prospects that your company is stable, alive, innovating and thinking long-term, you underscore why your company is a preferred strategic partner who will help its customers succeed over the long haul.
You can build prospect confidence by sharing your resiliency and positive vision. According to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, businesses remain the most trusted institution in the U.S., with 48 percent of the general population reporting trust in business to do what is right. That compares to 47 percent for NGOs, 41 percent for the government and 40 percent for the media.
PR helps reinforce that trust through credible, earned media coverage that reflects your value and perspective.
3. You Build Share of Mind Now and Market Share Later
By communicating now when your competitors are less active, you can make big gains in share of mind with your prospects.
This traditionally has proven to translate to increased share of market when your customers resume purchasing. This grab of share of mind can help you secure the leadership position in your sector, which sets you up for long-term success, because it’s always easier to defend the top of the hill than to fight an uphill battle.
Perhaps at the beginning of the year, you had $200,000 earmarked for customer entertainment and events. Amidst industry or broader disruption, such high-priced activities may no longer make sense. So how about taking one quarter of that budget and using it to fund a series of customer video case studies, success stories or executive speaking opportunities? These investments can help generate sales leads for months or even years.
