Leveraging Market Downturns for Digital PR Dominance

No matter what industry your brand falls under, events out of your control will likely impact performance, sales, or results. An example of one such event is the current climate of economic uncertainty, which has resulted in consumers being more cautious about spending. 

For some business owners, a turbulent market time could cause them to retreat, observe their competitors’ handling of current challenges, and avoid taking risks. 

However, brands should use these exact times to their advantage, and one way they can do this is by implementing a calculated digital PR strategy that will help them get ahead of their competition.

Here are some key takeaways you’ll learn from this article:

• The importance of keeping a consistent marketing budget
• The power that digital PR can present during a market downturn
• The importance of a strong digital PR strategy
• How to gain the edge over your competitors

When a brand faces several obstacles which could impact results, the digital PR budget can often be one of the first areas to pull back on when it should be one of the last.

Some stakeholders see digital PR as just links, which is why it’s important to educate your clients and explain the bigger impact it can have and the possibilities it will open up for their brand.

During uncertain times, it’s more than likely your competitors will pull back on marketing spend or even cut it altogether, so this is your opportunity to ramp up your digital PR efforts and lead from the front, showcasing that you are the experts and that your audience can rely on you during unstable times.

Pulling back on digital PR spend is in some ways, admitting defeat. 

As we’ll discuss later in this blog post, customers will want reassurance from experts. If you’re unable to do this because of reduced marketing budgets, you’re going to fall to the back of the line and be overshadowed by your competitors. 

Digital PR is about more than just links; it can present a multitude of opportunities for brands across all sectors.

Through effective digital PR tactics, we can significantly boost market presence and position a brand’s in-house experts as the go-to authorities in their field – providing the knowledge and high-value insights a target audience needs precisely when it needs them.

By expanding the scope of digital PR even further, we can prioritise earning covering in high-authority, relevant publications; brands can enjoy increased organic traffic, elevated social engagement, and (perhaps most importantly) improved revenue from direct sales. 

Being featured in these types of publications will help to build trust amongst consumers and search engines alike, which will reinforce those all-important E-E-A-T signals that we know play such a crucial role in giving brands a competitive advantage.

Of course, media coverage is a major piece of the digital PR puzzle. By using digital PR tactics, which we’ll cover later in this blog post, you can strengthen your brand’s backlink profile and help boost rankings.

Your business will be faced with events that you could not have planned for, which is why it’s important to be proactive in your approach. 

Your digital PR strategy should be business as usual during market downturns, but there are certain areas you can focus on, such as expert commentary and industry insights, which we’ll explain in more depth in this section.

It’s crucial to continue building your backlink profile no matter how busy or quiet your business is. The most important thing, though, is to ensure that relevancy remains at the forefront of your efforts and that the publications you are targeting align closely with your brand.

Using an estate agent as an example, there could be times when the economy is unstable and interest in purchasing property declines. 

So, how do you leverage this downturn to your advantage?

• Industry insights – People will inevitably hesitate to buy property during economic uncertainty, so in order to gain trust with your target audience you could look back at previous years when the market took a downturn and provide useful insights on when the situation could improve and why purchasing a property right now isn’t a bad thing.

Where possible, use internal data to strengthen the point you’re trying to get across. For example, if you can prove that in years gone by, people have continued to purchase property during economic uncertainty, this will help to position your expert profile and build trust between you and your audience.

• Expert commentary – House prices, rental costs and mortgages are always a hot topic in the news cycle, and journalists will be on the lookout to share advice that will help consumers. This is the perfect opportunity to draft and reach out to journalists with expert commentary and advice pieces as well as responding to inbound journalist requests.

For example, a journalist may want an expert to comment on why house prices are rising at a rapid rate. This is the perfect opportunity for you to provide your thoughts and knowledge on the matter and position yourself as an industry expert.

• Thought leadership articles – Similar to expert commentary, a market downturn is the perfect opportunity for you and other industry experts to publish insightful, informative and in-depth articles on the brand’s website, which can then be outreached to relevant journalists.

Similar to industry insights, if you have internal data that you can present in the form of a blog post on your website, you could cover topics such as the most sought-after areas in the UK to live in and why you think this might be, how property prices have fluctuated over time and everything people need to consider when moving house.

All of the above strategies will help present your brand and your employees as industry experts, helping to demonstrate E-E-A-T. These tactics will also secure coverage on authoritative publications which will result in an increase in backlinks being secured to the website. 

A higher volume of backlinks which are relevant to your brand will drive organic traffic to the website, as well as boost SEO rankings and sales. During uncertain times this can be vital for the success of your business and staying ahead of your competitors.

On the other hand, you also need to look at the situation from a customer’s point of view. If they’re worried about a certain topic because of economic or global events, they’ll want experts to provide reassurance and guidance, which in turn, will create trust between your brand and your target audience.

To reap the benefits of digital PR, you need to be ahead of the curve. Many business owners won’t think proactively, and this is where you can gain a competitive edge. 

If your business is seasonal and relies on specific months of the year, you want to make sure that you’re still driving traffic to your website during quieter times – which is where being proactive comes into play.

Creating a plan consisting of upcoming content you can upload to your website, topics that you and fellow experts can comment on and internal insights you can share before the quieter times hit will mean you can hit the ground running and be one step ahead of your competitors who may miss the boat because they haven’t pre-planned.

To start with, look into trending industry topics and carry out keyword research to discover which areas you need to target the most. This will then give you a starting point that will be useful when you begin to brainstorm ideas for thought leadership pieces that can sit on the blog page of your website.

Having a bank of informative and unique content will mean that you can keep the momentum going all year round and capitalise on the quieter periods when your competitors may pull back on marketing spend and miss out on new opportunities.

• Use market downturns to position your brand as an industry expert by providing expert commentary, insights and advice.

• Market downturns are almost guaranteed to happen, so don’t sit back and hope for the best. Instead, use digital PR to strengthen your brand’s profile within the industry and connect with your target audience by sharing insightful advice and information.

• At times, market downturns can be expected, so use this to your advantage and plan ahead. Create a content plan to help you push new information out to your target audience and highlight any key topics you can comment on to help drive traffic to your website.

• During a market downturn, don’t pull back on your digital PR budget. Instead, ramp up your efforts and position yourself as the experts within your industry which will help to create trust between you and your target audience.