As the threat of a global recession looms large many small businesses are worried and thoughts turn to reducing overheads where possible to help them ride out the storm. Historically during times of economic downturn one of the first things that a company considers reducing is its marketing budget. While it is sensible that a business will want to reassess its spending; cutting activity in the wrong areas can have a damaging impact on a company’s long-term stability.

At this time businesses can’t rely on their existing customers staying put and need to think about securing a consistent pipeline of new business. The marketplace also becomes more competitive and it is more important than ever to stay ahead of the pack. This means that raising awareness and driving action among your target market becomes more important than ever and generating media coverage about your product or service is a particularly cost-effective way of getting the right messages through to your target audience.

An effective public relations campaign can improve a brand’s positioning and reputation, giving it credibility and communicating its key selling points over and above the competition. PR provides the next best thing to a word of mouth recommendation except that it is reaching thousands of people and not just one or two.

But not all PR is good PR and it’s important to remember this. It is essential that your campaign is focused towards your business objectives and not done just for the sake of it. It’s all very well securing press coverage but if its not improving the brand’s reputation and driving sales what’s the point?

So your activity needs to be targeted from the start, ensuring that your company is read about in the right way and by the right people. You also need to take a more targeted approach with the journalists that you are working with.  Sending out untargeted press releases will grab journalists’ attention, but not in the way you were hoping for.

Journalists receive hundreds of news stories every day. If you send them irrelevant information, you will simply be adding to their workload and they will not thank you for it. At worst, unfocused activity can potentially damage your relationship with the press, and put them off wanting to write about you. At best, your press release simply ends up in their deleted items. Instead of simply pinging out a release to untargeted contacts take time to get to know the journalists and publications that you are targeting, this tailored approach will be far more effective for your business.

Kim Stoddart is the managing director of ethical media relations company Blue Rocket ( www.bluerocketgroup.com ). To find out more about the company or for your free Effective PR factsheet please contact info@bluerocketgroup.com or call 01273 779196