When building a PR strategy it is important to consider the following areas and remember to align everything.
Objectives
What is it that your business hopes to achieve through a public relations strategy? Boost awareness? Position services and attributes above your competition or simply announce the opening of a new office? Think of no more than three main achievements that you would like to accomplish.
Strategy Outline
Your strategy is often going to be controlled by your budget so here it is important to build a strategy inline with your financial capability. Also, it is important to consider at which stage of your business you are in. Whether it is launching, relaunching, maintaining, or growth, each stage involves different needs and different risks when considering a PR strategy.
Audiences and Stakeholders
Who are you trying to reach with your strategy? With these “personas” well defined out, it will help you develop a much more grounded series of tactics that will resonate with your target audience.
Media & Influencer Matrix
Who are the media and influencer that will boost and support your brand? It is imperative to define exactly who they are so you can effectively target specific people with content that is built specifically for them.
Tone & Messaging
Before starting with any communication to the media it is important to think how your brand wants to be perceived within its audiences and build messaging and tone in accordance with that.
Marketing Plan
Often forgotten, how will PR fit into my marketing plan, and how can it take advantage of the other activities that I have planned through the year? We have never found a business that has nothing interesting to communicate but we have known many that haven’t taken advantage through PR of their investment in other marketing disciplines.
Thought Leadership
To be able to help position a business and its values, a great tactic is the positioning of key internal figures in forums where they are able to talk about their experience with media, peers, students or government.
Storytelling
A key skill necessary in your public relations team. Communicating through press releases is not enough, a brand must be able to position itself into the editorial calendar and consumer conversation through intelligent and relevant storytelling.
Results and Measurement
As with any strategy, it is important to establish success and then measure the results. ROI, Reach, Brand Awareness and Quality Control are all valid controls but also regularly talk to your target media to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy.