I get a lot of grief from friends and family because I am what you might call a “planner” when it comes to my weekends, holidays and other special events. This can clash with my friends who prefer to go with the flow. But I want to know what to expect and ensure it has the outcome I want. I’ve found if I don’t plan, I won’t do it. This is the same philosophy when it comes to communications and public relations plans.
At Communiqué Public Relations, we begin every client engagement with the development of a PR plan. This helps create shared expectations surrounding goals, strategies and expected results.
So why is it important to plan? If you don’t, you may not be executing at the most efficient level. It is also hard to measure success if you don’t have a sense of what you want to achieve. If you plan to run a marathon and you train for three months on a weekly basis and then run the marathon, you’ve essentially, created a plan, executed against it and achieved your goal. You don’t wake up one morning and say, “Hey, I’ll run a marathon today,” with no advanced training. The same is true for a PR campaign.
I came across an article on Ragan.com that highlights “6 must-haves for an effective communication plan” that are worth considering. I’ve outlined a few below, along with examples from my own experience.
- Set goals that set the strategy. Goal setting is essential. Just as you may set career goals, communication goals set the stage for what you want to change overall. Ensure that each goal is clear, concise and measurable. For example, “Increase the number of Twitter followers by 50 percent by June 30.” Ensure that the key stakeholders are in agreement with the goals. I like to ask these questions: What do you want? What will it take to get there and be considered successful? By when will you do it?
- Be proactive, not reactive. Being proactive in communications is the best way to lead the pack. Receiving reactive media opportunities or re-tweeting content is great, but generating original content and story ideas is a way to be considered a thought leader.
- Measure what matters. Measuring success is helpful for understanding if you’ve achieved your goal. However, with all of the measurement tools out there, it is important to ensure that the efforts are moving the needle of your overall goals. For example, are you selling more products or services, or growing members? It can be challenging to map back to social media or PR efforts, but finding ways to measure this can be helpful. Each organization has to find its own way to evaluate this process.
- Turn ideas into action. A plan should help address every aspect of the communications strategy and include the target audience, the competitive landscape, timelines, activities, budget, benchmarks and metrics. It is also important to outline who will execute the activity.
- Don’t file and forget. It isn’t enough just to develop a plan and file it away. Make sure that you review the plan weekly, biweekly or monthly. You’ll want to see how you are mapping back to the plan. Additionally, the plan could change depending on new events or products. Make the final plan accessible to those who are responsible for carrying out the duties. At Communique PR, we make our plans readily available on our file share and refer back to the plan as we execute against it.
Planning has a purpose. By knowing what you want to do, what you’ll do, who will do it, and how you’ll know when it is done, you are more likely to achieve your goals. For more information on the importance of planning, you can read our previous post here.
For the elements of a PR plan, you can read our previous post here.