Economic crises often force companies to rethink their spending strategies and cut budgets for less important departments. Across industries, cuts and layoffs become common responses to financial pressure. Specifically, marketing and communication teams are usually among the first departments affected.
In this article, we break down why it is important to keep PR in a crisis and how cutting budgets can affect your reputation.
Why PR Matters Most During Economic Turmoil
The fintech sector is no exception in decreasing budgets, when a crisis starts. It follows the same pattern, and we have seen it right and left with massive lay-offs in fintech. Actually, it’s a continuing trend since 2022. But if this doleful tendency taught us anything, it would be to strengthen a PR team and never underestimate the power of the media.
While a cutting-budget strategy could make sense on the surface, it is not an effective way to respond to the reputational challenges a business can face during economic turmoil. And what is effective then?
Keep the Audience Updated
Since PR is the key to building and maintaining long-lasting relationships with stakeholders, cutting your company’s PR budget is counterproductive. Instead, financial firms should demonstrate openness, readiness, and a sense of responsibility in times of crisis.
Your company should keep its audience aware of what is happening behind the curtains and how it copes with current market conditions. An established business should have an anti-crisis plan developed by the PR, IR and SM teams.
This plan outlines the main steps on hand, for example, when and who convenes and attends an emergency meeting, how much time is given to create an official company statement, what formats can be used to convey a message: news, a word from the director on the official company website, social media posts, etc.
Regularly updating your company’s investors during a crisis via social media channels and newsletters and having official stances published in respectable media further bolsters the company’s credibility. Depending on the company’s turmoil level, the list of actions would be to arrange wire distribution, a first-person interview with a company representative, and a follow-up publication. The goal is to have stakeholders not worry about the unknown.
Be One Step Ahead of Competitors
While sitting quietly may seem like a safe option in times of crisis, this is a faulty approach. As some of us are former journalists, we can assure you that these professionals will not stop working on hot stories. As you fail to share anything solid with the media, they may collect and publish misinformation about your company.
Moreover, keeping to yourself gives enough space for your competitors to thrive and gain a market advantage. We recommend showing professionalism and, most importantly, maintaining your PR budget. This allows communications to keep going with clients, investors, and users and stay ahead of the competitors.
Data from analytics, a word from top management, or even the CEO directly — all of these are highly useful tools that help maintain your image in the eyes of the public and showcase that business goes on as usual, even amid economic turmoil.
Understanding the Long-Term Effect of PR
Over the past year, attending fintech conferences and industry events has highlighted a recurring trend: smaller businesses and startups frequently underestimate PR’s role during difficult periods. While the collapse of FTX encouraged many companies to rethink crisis communications, newcomers to the industry still often confuse PR with marketing.
Many early-stage companies approach PR expecting measurable customer acquisition results. These expectations are understandable but misleading. Customer growth metrics primarily belong to marketing performance, while PR focuses on building trust, reputation, and credibility that is impossible to measure with strict numbers.
Unlike marketing campaigns, PR outcomes are rarely immediate. Trust takes time to develop, and it’s not possible to build reputation overnight. However, companies that consistently invest in transparent communication tend to maintain stronger customer loyalty and stakeholder confidence.
When businesses clearly communicate their development plans, demonstrate accountability, and show long-term strategic vision, customer anxiety decreases. Over time, this strengthens brand perception and supports sustainable growth.
Conclusion
PR is about building trust and brand awareness and showing transparency and openness to clients and stakeholders. The results in PR cannot be observed immediately, and trust cannot be gained quickly. Although big brands understand the value of our work, small companies tend to consider PR a cost. They believe it should be cut first in difficult times.
But when the company positions itself as trustworthy and open, assures the audience that it is moving in the right direction, and has great development plans, customer anxiety decreases and trust in the brand increases. This is the value PR specialists bring to our clients during times of crisis.
