Planning for a brighter future

“Analysing the true impact of the pandemic on PR can help us all plan for a brighter future”

– Chris Bignell, Managing Director and Founder at XL Communications

This year has been a tough one for many industries including the public relations, marketing, and communications sector. After months of lockdown and uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic, the future of PR in a post-coronavirus world may be different to what we know today.

PR always needs to evolve but with many businesses cutting communications and marketing roles as financial restraints kick in, PR professionals will need to work even closer with sales and marketing departments to raise brand awareness, manage reputation and quantify sales leads.

COVID-19 & PR: 2020 Impact Survey

To try and compile an accurate snapshot of how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted PR planning, strategy, and budgeting amongst UK technology companies, we sent out our COVID-19 & PR: 2020 Impact Survey to marketing and PR leads for their feedback.

The results were enlightening and showcased the different approaches businesses are taking to maximise their business potential in 2020 and beyond.

Key Highlights

• 78.6 per cent of companies said PR is vital to achieving business goals in the next 12 months, signalling the importance of PR in brand building and lead generation
• Despite the pandemic, the majority of technology companies indicated spend would remain unaffected (up to £30,000 per year) while 7.1 per cent plan to buck the trend and actually spend more on proactive PR to meet their business objectives in 2020/21
• There was an exact split between those companies planning to review PR strategies and those who do not, with 50 percent indicating they plan to stick with their current course – making it one of the most divisive questions in the survey

We firmly believe analysing the true impact of the pandemic on PR can help us all plan for a brighter future, so we have made the full COVID-19 and PR: 2020 Impact Report freely available.

Click here to read it.