The PR Crisis Communications Kit How-to Guide shares a five step action plan for protecting your organizations public image during a crisis.

2. 3
8
Introduction
The 5 Step Crisis Communication Action Plan
4
14
Preparation in Advance of any Crisis
! Build a Crisis Communications Plan
! Create a Crisis Communications Team
! Monitor Changes to the Plan
Step 5 – Monitoring the Media
Table of Contents
15 Final Thoughts
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Public Relations Crisis Communications Kit – How-To Guide 2
16 Acknowledgements
17 About Demand Metric
10 Step 1 – Initial Assessment of Crisis
11 Step 2 – Notifying the Crisis Team
12 Step 3 – Managing Crisis Communication
13 Step 4 – Preparing Crisis Messaging

3. INTRODUCTION
You never know when disaster will hit your public relations (PR) team, and when it
does, is your team prepared?
A crisis communications plan is as important as a fire extinguisher in the hallway of
your office, the firewall for your computer network that keeps hackers out or the
insurance plan on your property that protects your assets. If your organization is
fortunate it will never need to use one of these safety nets, but emergency plans are
still an important insurance on your ability to respond to a crisis situation where every
decision, every moment, second or minute is absolutely critical.
Public relations is no different; your organizations public image and brand must be
protected by a crisis plan when something goes wrong, and the media or family
members of employees get involved. A crisis communications plan is the first line of
defense for your organizations reputation, and in some cases can actually help save
the lives of your employees themselves.
In this How-To Guide you will discover how to:
• Build your Crisis Communications Team
• Empower them with a step-by-step plan for any crisis
• Describe exactly who they should contact and when
• Explain the entire crisis management process from start to end
Throughout this guide we will also be linking to ‘Resources’, in the form of ‘Tools’,
’Templates’ and ‘Checklists’ you can leverage to prepare your organizations crisis
response. With these resources and processes in your company's tool belt, you can
rest assured that if a PR-related emergency occurs, you will be ready to protect your
brand from disaster, and guard your employees from harm.
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3Public Relations Crisis Communications Kit – How-To Guide

4. FINAL THOUGHTS
Being prepared for an unexpected crisis simply makes your organization stronger and
more capable for surprise. Having a good crisis communications plan is a great sign of
both strong teamwork and proactive thinking in any company.
To reap these rewards, there is a lot of initial preparation work to be completed, and a
strict maintenance routine to be installed, to ensure the plan continues to be ready
when it is needed. To save you lots of time, please leverage the additional included
resources; you will immediately have the groundwork in place for a very capable crisis
communications plan.
We hope you never need to use this PR emergency action plan, but if you ever do, you
can be assured that having your plan will be just like having have a fire extinguisher
in the hallway, sprinklers on the ceiling and an evacuation procedure in place to
respond to any public relations crisis you may ever face.
RESOURCES:
• ‘Crisis Communications Plan’ Template
• ‘Crisis Communications Plan Review Chart’
© 2016 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This How-To guide and the included resources are in part, based on the teachings,
books and research of Dr. Tim Tinker, and Dr. Vincent Covello, both recognized global
specialists in the field of of risk and crisis communication.
© 2016 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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6. ABOUT DEMAND METRIC
Demand Metric is a global marketing research & advisory firm serving a membership
community of over 75,000 senior marketers with primary research & benchmark
reports, technology research & advice, consulting services, training, virtual events,
and a library of 500+ practical tools & templates.
Demand Metric’s core focus is to help B2B Marketing organizations improve internal
capabilities and connect their activities to revenue growth.
To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit: www.demandmetric.com.
© 2016 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
License our research to fuel your content marketing programs.
Contact us at info@demandmetric.com or +1 (866) 947-7744
17Public Relations Crisis Communications Kit – How-To Guide