PR Plan for your project: a simple guide
Whether you are a PR practitioner or a business/project owner who needs that magic pill of publicity, hope you find this guide on How to Make a PR Plan useful.
It is based on 15 years of personal experience with whichever-you-can-imagine sectors and markets, both on an agency side and in-house. And yes, it always works. You are welcome :)
Big step 1. Research
Yes, you cannot avoid research… so better to enjoy the process. Now, after all these years in Comms (and writing) I can say I genuinely love it.
Key objectives
First things first. What are the business/project objectives? What are the products/services/ideas to be offered? What is the target audience?
All of those need to be clearly defined and needs to be put on paper. Great if there is thought-of Commercial/Sales/Marketing strategy in place, then you just read it carefully and use the info while planning your Comms activities. If there is no, you will need to put together a brief overview based on discussions with your client or relevant colleagues, data from the CRM system, existing social media and web pages, etc. Or, if there are no colleagues and data available yet, just write down your own vision as a business/project owner.
Second things second :) Now, what are the objectives for the PR campaign you are about to plan? How will it support overall business/project objectives?
PR strategy and key messaging
Again, great if you have a PR Strategy and key messaging for your company/your parent company/your project umbrella. Then just make sure your actual PR Plan is based on those and if needed localize general materials for your specific geography, market niche or audience.
If there are no any, you still need to define for yourself and put together at least a brief overview of PR Strategy and Key messaging. Yes, even if you plan something very tactical and niche, you should bear those in mind.
Competitors and news stories, market overviews and analytics
Now it’s time to understand who are the competitors and what are they doing in terms of PR, what are they good at and what are they ignorant of. How are they represented on owned web pages and social media pages? How do media/bloggers cover them and what are the news stories? What is the feedback from clients?
If you have some experience with PR you will easily see which stories in media/blogs are generated by the competitors and what is the focus of their PR activities. As a bonus, you probably will find some good overview articles/posts and analytics on your service/product category in your target region.
Besides, this may provide you with great insights for the first two parts of the research.
Your own speakers and news stories
Considering all the info you have gathered, think of possible news stories on behalf of your company/project. Think of who may be speakers on your side, what are their areas of expertise and which topics they may cover. Ideally, if you have a few speakers, topics they can speak on will cross slightly and complement each other.
If you put all the above together, here you are with your first general PR Plan.
Key objectives
First things first. What are the business/project objectives? What are the products/services/ideas to be offered? What is the target audience?
All of those need to be clearly defined and needs to be put on paper. Great if there is thought-of Commercial/Sales/Marketing strategy in place, then you just read it carefully and use the info while planning your Comms activities. If there is no, you will need to put together a brief overview based on discussions with your client or relevant colleagues, data from the CRM system, existing social media and web pages, etc. Or, if there are no colleagues and data available yet, just write down your own vision as a business/project owner.
Second things second :) Now, what are the objectives for the PR campaign you are about to plan? How will it support overall business/project objectives?
PR strategy and key messaging
Again, great if you have a PR Strategy and key messaging for your company/your parent company/your project umbrella. Then just make sure your actual PR Plan is based on those and if needed localize general materials for your specific geography, market niche or audience.
If there are no any, you still need to define for yourself and put together at least a brief overview of PR Strategy and Key messaging. Yes, even if you plan something very tactical and niche, you should bear those in mind.
Competitors and news stories, market overviews and analytics
Now it’s time to understand who are the competitors and what are they doing in terms of PR, what are they good at and what are they ignorant of. How are they represented on owned web pages and social media pages? How do media/bloggers cover them and what are the news stories? What is the feedback from clients?
If you have some experience with PR you will easily see which stories in media/blogs are generated by the competitors and what is the focus of their PR activities. As a bonus, you probably will find some good overview articles/posts and analytics on your service/product category in your target region.
Besides, this may provide you with great insights for the first two parts of the research.
Your own speakers and news stories
Considering all the info you have gathered, think of possible news stories on behalf of your company/project. Think of who may be speakers on your side, what are their areas of expertise and which topics they may cover. Ideally, if you have a few speakers, topics they can speak on will cross slightly and complement each other.
If you put all the above together, here you are with your first general PR Plan.
Big step 2. Homework
Now it’s time to do your homework before going public.
Press kit
First, you need to develop a set of materials you will share with media, bloggers, industry forums, etc. A typical press kit includes a factsheet on the company/project with all the key figures and dates, maybe additionally a few factsheets for each product/project, speakers’ bios, a press release on your launch or a few of most important press releases (if you have already distributed some).
Cheat sheets
In an ideal world, you would think of and prepare in advance a few documents which help you significantly when you are on the go with your PR Plan and even for the purpose of planning itself.
First, a media/bloggers list that targets your audience. This will help a lot when you distribute your first press release. To make it simple, start with the list of media and bloggers who covered your competitors and overviews of your industry.
Second, a content plan for your social media pages and/or your blog on an owned page. Believe me, it is much easier to be creative based on the plan (which needs to be agile based on the data/feedback you receive and the news agenda, of course).
Third, Q&A for speakers where you think of the most challenging questions on your company and product/project along with the perfect answers which are on the message. You may want to arrange media training for your speakers too. If you are the speaker and this is a one-man show, better to hire someone for media training to have near-to-the-real-world experience.
Fourth, a calendar of key industry events and editorial calendars. Just research quickly which big events are planned on your topic and in your region. If you have good relations with the media, you may choose a few editors to discuss informally possible news hooks and get their editorial calendars. Ask bloggers you are friends with about their plans and interests too. Think of how you want to participate in relevant forums/issues/projects and here you are with your own PR timeline. Again, this is for the ideal world. If your world is not ideal, do not worry, you will get all this info eventually when you start your PR activities/follow-ups.
360° view
This is something most of us do not consider when focusing on PR but think of all the points of contact with your company/product/services for the target audience and bloggers/media. Those are your website, landing pages, social media including profiles of your key executives, customer service via email and phone, distributors on the market, shops and other venues where your final product is represented, internal communications, etc.
Even if some of those points of contact are not under your responsibility, think of them from an informational point of view. Which information/messaging do clients/media/bloggers get from each? Remember that your current employee also may move into a category of a client/media/blogger easily.
Offer your help with developing tailored Q&As, glossaries, templates, etc. where appropriate so the information and messaging client gets is consistent and is up to the high level of standards (or make sure they are if you are the business owner).
If you will combine all the above and make it look neat, you probably would have a perfect PR Plan with a timeline.
Press kit
First, you need to develop a set of materials you will share with media, bloggers, industry forums, etc. A typical press kit includes a factsheet on the company/project with all the key figures and dates, maybe additionally a few factsheets for each product/project, speakers’ bios, a press release on your launch or a few of most important press releases (if you have already distributed some).
Cheat sheets
In an ideal world, you would think of and prepare in advance a few documents which help you significantly when you are on the go with your PR Plan and even for the purpose of planning itself.
First, a media/bloggers list that targets your audience. This will help a lot when you distribute your first press release. To make it simple, start with the list of media and bloggers who covered your competitors and overviews of your industry.
Second, a content plan for your social media pages and/or your blog on an owned page. Believe me, it is much easier to be creative based on the plan (which needs to be agile based on the data/feedback you receive and the news agenda, of course).
Third, Q&A for speakers where you think of the most challenging questions on your company and product/project along with the perfect answers which are on the message. You may want to arrange media training for your speakers too. If you are the speaker and this is a one-man show, better to hire someone for media training to have near-to-the-real-world experience.
Fourth, a calendar of key industry events and editorial calendars. Just research quickly which big events are planned on your topic and in your region. If you have good relations with the media, you may choose a few editors to discuss informally possible news hooks and get their editorial calendars. Ask bloggers you are friends with about their plans and interests too. Think of how you want to participate in relevant forums/issues/projects and here you are with your own PR timeline. Again, this is for the ideal world. If your world is not ideal, do not worry, you will get all this info eventually when you start your PR activities/follow-ups.
360° view
This is something most of us do not consider when focusing on PR but think of all the points of contact with your company/product/services for the target audience and bloggers/media. Those are your website, landing pages, social media including profiles of your key executives, customer service via email and phone, distributors on the market, shops and other venues where your final product is represented, internal communications, etc.
Even if some of those points of contact are not under your responsibility, think of them from an informational point of view. Which information/messaging do clients/media/bloggers get from each? Remember that your current employee also may move into a category of a client/media/blogger easily.
Offer your help with developing tailored Q&As, glossaries, templates, etc. where appropriate so the information and messaging client gets is consistent and is up to the high level of standards (or make sure they are if you are the business owner).
If you will combine all the above and make it look neat, you probably would have a perfect PR Plan with a timeline.
Big step 3. Go ahead and rock
Finally, it’s time to go ahead.
Launch your social media and blog, distribute your first press release and make a follow-up, pitch expert comments and columns from your speakers, find out speaking opportunities at forums/events, identify partnerships with bloggers, influencers, media and different organizations.
Do not forget to develop your report with deliverables regularly (weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly, depending on the dynamics of your business) and share it with all the relevant stakeholders. Believe me, it is worth your time and will pay off significantly.
Even if you are the main decision maker, you will simply enjoy seeing the results and finding some insights for new great projects to come.
Here you are. You rock.
Launch your social media and blog, distribute your first press release and make a follow-up, pitch expert comments and columns from your speakers, find out speaking opportunities at forums/events, identify partnerships with bloggers, influencers, media and different organizations.
Do not forget to develop your report with deliverables regularly (weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly, depending on the dynamics of your business) and share it with all the relevant stakeholders. Believe me, it is worth your time and will pay off significantly.
Even if you are the main decision maker, you will simply enjoy seeing the results and finding some insights for new great projects to come.
Here you are. You rock.
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