Any good public relations campaign must start with a plan. With this in mind, how do you go about making “a plan”? At The Agency we have system (as most PR cohorts do). So what’s our plan? After getting to know a new client and identifying their PR needs, we formulate a step-by-step guide that serves as a roadmap for the campaign roll-out. Here are some of the components that we use for our public relations strategies — our “plans.”
Communications Strategy
The Communications Strategy document is the foundation of all our PR plans. In it, we identify the client and the campaign goals, objectives, audiences, and tactics. Often, the goals are high-level and intentionally over-arching. Everything else in the strategy document including the objectives and the general top-level tactics serve to achieve these goals. After determining the objectives for these goals, we identify the audiences for the campaign and determine the key messaging for these audiences. All of the above inform the tactics for the campaign.
Social Media Strategy
As we have discussed in a previous blog post, we believe that any successful social media project should start with a social media strategy. Creating a social media strategy — and including tailored strategies for each platform — helps ensure the social media components of a PR campaign are effective, and maximized. If the client has an existing social media presence, this is also a good time to assess its current success, and ask what could be done to move it forward.
Editorial Calendar
Content is king in today’s PR campaigns. At The Agency, we create two editorial calendars for our clients: one, with upcoming opportunities from relevant publications (both online and print) based on their own editorial calendars, and another with owned content for the clients’ blogs. The first allows us to look ahead at what relevant publications are planning to cover in future issues and see when we can pitch them throughout the year. The second internal editorial calendar is for planning content that we can generate and distribute throughout the year, and also tailor them to any significant themes or events depending on the time of year.
Targeted Media List
We create a targeted media list for each client when we first begin work with them, which can include mainstream media, local press, and industry publications. The outlets in this list may include reporters we have worked with in the past who might be interested in our clients’ sector, as well as publications that our clients (and their clients) read and subscribe to. This document is evergreen; as reporters change their beats and we discover new publications, we continuously modify the media list to make sure that it is up-to-date.
The above are only some of the components of a PR campaign strategy. What else would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments below, or tweet us @PRTheAgency.
