October 2009

Smarter planning now, better results later

Not to put any pressure on you, but the choices you make right now will have a huge impact on your PR success for 2010. Sure budget will dictate the size and scope of your PR efforts, but other decisions in the planning process will have more of a bearing on your program’s success:


Access – The strongest campaigns and story angles usually surface when PR pros aren’t just given marketing materials to review, but also given access to executives and leaders. That’s because PR people work best in reporter mode. And while access isn’t always possible, it never hurts to ask.

Open dialogue – Too many PR programs tank because they were doomed from the beginning by a bad premise or angle. So push your PR team to be real counselors and encourage them to raise a red flag if they feel a program – or a component – won’t work.

Collaboration – The other toxic approach to PR? Creating a program in a vacuum. That goes for PR teams who write the strategy on their own and companies that hand down directives to their PR team. Talk about the program, ask the PR team to outline recommendations, discuss again, then give approval to write a full-blown plan when everyone’s happy with the outline. Sure this approach involves an extra step or two but it’s better than re-writing an entire plan.

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Research, the forgotten art

Without good research, your PR strategy will be based on hunches and assumptions, which don’t make for a very solid strategy foundation. The reality, however, is that research can be expensive and you may not have the budget for it.

So get creative. Can the cost of research be split among several departments? Can you tap into analyst or association relationships for data? Is there another way – beyond focus groups – to understand customer perception? Spend some time looking at the alternates if other kinds of research are out of your reach. Good research can mean the difference between a so-so PR program and one that really shines.

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Everyone else is doing it…

Today it’s social media. Tomorrow it will be something else. No matter the trend, one thing’s for sure – PR pros will always be urged to try one new tactic or another just because “everyone else is doing it.” It’s definitely a sticky situation.

So let’s make a New Year’s resolution to stop following the herd in favor of finding the best way to reach the customer. Of course, we know it’s easier said than done when an extremely excited executive comes to you with an idea for a Twitter campaign that you think really won’t fly. Instead of immediately pushing back or giving in, take the moment as an opportunity to talk about WHY the executive wants to launch the campaign. Who does she want to reach? What’s the objective? What’s the message? Getting an understanding of the result your exec really wants can help you develop and recommend other ideas that could do the job better.

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