With all due respect to all those stereotypical males out there who hate to ask for directions, the fact is that even if the territory is somewhat familiar, if you don’t have a roadmap and follow its directions, you’re going to get hopelessly lost.
So it goes with your PR program. If you truly intend to have a proactive media
relations program, rather than one that just reacts to news developments, a plan is
essential to ensure you stay on track with not just with tactical details, but with your
organization’s overriding business goals and objectives.
Here are some guidelines to establishing a plan that will put and keep you on track:
Start by analyzing your organization’s positioning and how it is perceived by the
markets you serve, particularly vis a vis your competitors. Look at your menu of
offerings, in terms of products, services or areas of expertise, or at the underlying
challenges your organization faces.
Identify and prioritize your key imperatives according to your organization’s most
pressing business needs. Your mandates from management, for example, might be
to develop PR approaches to help support the trial and launch of a new product or
service, to support an existing specialty that may have been neglected for past lack
of resources, and to generally help bolster the business’ brand.
A mini plan of attack should be designed for each imperative that incorporates the
overall strategy for the project, how it will be supported tactically (audience and
media markets targeted, vehicles used, such as news releases, surveys, or bylined
articles), implementation timelines and assigned responsibilities, and, ideally, how
the PR tactics will dovetail with marketing tactics in terms of everything from
messaging to timelines.
To better support an existing specialty service, for example, perhaps the strategy is
to develop a program that underscores your expertise and thought-leadership in
that arena. You’d identify markets of your buyers, media markets that cater to their
interests, ideas for a series of bylined articles on issues or trends tying in with that
service to be positioned with those media outlets, a timeframe and responsibilities
for article development and pitching, and a plan for how the placed articles should
be used (e.g. links to a PDF incorporated into a direct mail piece or client
newsletter).
You should also figure out estimated costs, in terms of internal staff time, PR
agency fees (if you use one) and ancillary costs (reprint permissions/PDFs, clipping
service, etc.), as part of the plan. You may, in fact, have to pare back – or bolster –
your initiatives depending on what the numbers tell you.
Moreover, those numbers tie into another important component of the plan: how
you anticipate measuring the effectiveness of the program. Return on investment is
one (though not the only) way to go – for which you’ll need total spendings as well
as a way to tie those spendings to such measurable results, like more business
coming over the transom.
Developing a PR plan takes time and energy, but is essential to bringing focus to
your PR program. Ideally, you’ll get the structure in place so that each year, the
planning gets easier, the metrics help prove out where refinements are needed, and
your value is substantially demonstrated to management.
Sally Saville Hodge is president of Hodge Communications, Inc., specializing in
strategic public relations and marketing communications for businesses,
entrepreneurs and professional associations. Formerly an award-winning financial
journalist, she brings over 30 years experience to client engagements. Subscribe
today to Communic@te! our free bimonthly e-newsletter and get a free special
report: “Using Buzz To Create a Groundswell For Your Business.” Visit http://www.hodgecommunications.com
Categories
