The new year is upon us. It is always a good time to analyze your current PR plan or create a new one.
Companies should review their current public relations plan and determine if it is still in-line with your corporate goals.
Did the firm reach the desired increase in sales and revenue? If so what role did your PR plan play in the process?
Did the current PR effort help establish or re-energize your brand, or did it simply add some publicity for your firm?
Did your brand connect with customers and prospects or did it play a secondary role in your sales efforts?
Businesses should ascertain which portions of the plan succeeded and which did not.
Did social media play a role in the plan and if so which aspects were successful… blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc.
Did your firm run an ad campaign to coincide with the plan? Did it drive traffic to your website or merely remind customers you are “out there”.
Did you stage several special events, apply for industry awards, publicize new hires, send out an email newsletter?
The key is to determine what worked and what did not. Adjustments can then be made to include the best aspects of the plan and drop those that placed too great a burden on resources without generating positive results.
For those creating an entirely new plan, the PR effort should be an outgrowth of the business plan. Instead of thinking, “If we could just get some nice publicity we could get more customers,”… think instead of, “Our goal is to grow revenue by 20% by connecting with 100 more prospective clients. How will PR help us to make those connections?”
Once the business goal has been determined then the PR objective can be created as well.
Instead of “getting our name out there” the PR objective or question then becomes “What can we do from a PR standpoint to connect with those 100 prospective customers to help increase sales by 20%”.
Sales should help the PR department or PR firm identify who those 100 prospects may be. A program can be developed that touches those prospects and has an actual impact on the bottom line.
