Every day we’ve been reading about the very real possibility of the US falling into a recession, recession, recession. All of a sudden we’re standing on a ship and hearing the sailors scream, “Batten down the hatches!!!” It’s an old English phrase referring to making the vessel water tight, or, in other words, prepare for trouble. 

Some crew jump ship, get knocked off, or sink altogether. There is another option. Stay afloat. Survive the rough seas. Keep that ship upright and visible for all to see. Come ashore. 

Wait, what? How do you weather the storm? You’ve tightened the budget, maybe even have let people go - or will. Your runway has shortened. Customer leads have shrunk or retreated. What’s your next move? Redirect your public relations — and any other awareness campaign —  to focus on the one specific problem to be addressed - your why.

Focus on the solution

Instead of getting sucked into “breaking news,” and being pulled under by the problems, focus on the solution. Meet with your stakeholders, media, industry analysts, and assess the competition to define the current market situation and what your company can do to solve it.

Don’t sit in your captain’s chair and dump your problems on others. Be accountable to your organization and use your awareness campaigns to drive all the eyeballs to one thing - your reason for being. If you choose to only set your sights on the bottom of the funnel and use lead generation and growth marketing tactics, you will fail to maintain or increase your brand awareness when the water settles.

Your customers have been bombarded with more messages than ever before. New communities are popping up every day. Distractions abound. Social media isn’t effective if you’re only running one-off organic posts with no paid social. Advertising won’t work if your messaging is all over the place. Public relations will fall flat if you’re only pushing press releases or trying to get into one publication after another with no plan.