As retail stores began closing, events were cancelled and employees started working from home, PR trade industry giant AgilityPR.com asked Media Relations Agency CEO Lonny Kocina to share his advice for businesses of every size. Lonny’s article, How to rebalance your marketing campaigns during this pandemic, ran days later. We sincerely hope his wise words will help many PR professionals navigate their clients through these challenging times.
“The marketing environment normally changes at a snail’s pace. There’s usually plenty of time for most companies to adapt. But when things happen fast, it’s important that companies respond quickly to rebalance their promotional mix,” Lonny noted.
He suggested, “Beefing up publicity efforts is a quick way to replace some of the face to face contact that will be lost with the lack of personal selling. That’s one place you can still reach the big groups. Publicity as a sales tool is underutilized by most companies and it is relatively easy to ramp up. Putting your best salespeople in front of reporters and producers who have big audiences is always a win. Plus, unlike expos and trade shows, your competition isn’t right there beside you. I see a lot of trade show money shifting toward publicity and media coverage.”
Lonny also suggested that companies with products unrelated to the current pandemic be well prepared to quickly insert themselves into media conversations. “As people get burned out and begin to turn away from the bad news, the media will be looking for ways to change the narrative so they can hang onto their audience share.”
While Lonny reassured industry colleagues that the marketing environment will return to normal relatively quickly, he also cautioned them to become better educated on basic marketing concepts and principles. “As for promoting your company and products in the short term, now is no time to be shooting from the hip,” he warned.
Lonny’s book, “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing; the book every marketer should read before their boss does,” is a best seller among marketing professionals because it helps them know their marketing terms and concepts, and how they relate to one another. It also helps them understand what’s happening with the marketing environment and how that relates to other concepts such as the marketing mix, where their products are in their life cycle and the innovation adopter curve.
“Whether it’s in response to this pandemic or the next major event, understanding basic marketing concepts and following a sound marketing process will make your business agile and responsive,” he concluded.
From creating and refining their online stores to beefing up their media outreach, Media Relations is helping many businesses get through this pandemic. If you’d like to learn more about our processes and successes, complete this form, or call us at 952-697-5269.
