PR Planning for a New Year
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Albers Communications Group's Director of New Media Gina Pappas outlines the four-step PR planning process businesses should utilize when setting goals for the communication strategies in 2014. www.alberscommunications.com
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PR Planning for a New Year
- 1. PR Planning for a New Year TO ACCESS THE AUDIO FOR TODAY’S EVENT, DIAL 1-866-740-1260 AND ENTER CODE 2925553#
- 2. About Albers Communications Group • Full-service PR, social media and marketing communications agency • Specialize in integrated strategies • Represent clients in all 50 states and Canada • Create national and local market exposure
- 3. Today’s Presenter • Gina Pappas, Director of New Media • Gina@AlbersCommunications.com • @GinaPappas
- 4. Today’s Topics • • • • • The Importance of Planning Four-Step Planning Process Case Study Interactive Work Session Questions and Discussion
- 5. Goals for Today’s Webinar • Help you better understand the fundamentals of PR planning • Illustrate the systematic process of PR planning • Provide an opportunity for you to start your own planning process • Inspire you to make your communications strategy a bigger priority
- 6. The Importance of Planning • Having a plan allows you to • Prioritize your communications goals • Budget for the strategies you develop • Stay on schedule • Measure your progress
- 7. The Four-Step Process Put a process behind your strategies to help drive business Research Planning Implementation Evaluation
- 8. Identify Problems You’re Facing • What business issues are you trying to overcome? • StrategicHealthSolutions, LLC • Recruitment and brand recognition • Develop a plan that will work toward solving your problem
- 9. Research • Determine your communications objectives • What problem are you trying to solve? • Identify your target audience(s) • Who are you trying to reach? • Consider primary or secondary research • Build a plan based on the research • Figure out how you will define success • Measure results every step of the way • Measure the actions you want people to take
- 10. Planning • What is a goal? • A goal is what you hope to accomplish through your strategies • Elements of a SMART goal • • • • • Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-Framed • Sample goal: • “By the end of the year, our goal is to increase media impressions by 15%.”
- 11. Case Study: SunCo • Goals • Increase visibility and brand awareness, especially in targeted ZIP codes • Increase sales among current clients • Earn new clients through an integrated offline and online approach • Engage clients in the digital space
- 12. Planning
- 13. Implementation • What is a strategy? • A strategy is the way in which you hope to accomplish your goal • Sample strategy • Create regular touch points with my target audiences • What are tactics? • Tactics are the vehicles you use to achieve your strategies • Sample tactic • Distribute an email newsletter every month that highlights your services
- 14. Planning for SunCo Grounds Management Establish credibility through targeted earned media exposure Cross-sell services by educating clients vz GOALS Revamp online presence to support organic SEO Increase Brand Awareness Increase Sales Among Current Clients Earn New Clients Engage in the Digital Space Become experts in topics relevant to the industry
- 15. Implementation for SunCo Grounds Management Establish credibility through targeted earned media exposure - Promote seasonal topics Share relevant “spot” news Comment on industry trends Provide an expert opinion Cross-sell services by educating clients vz - Showcase your services on the website - Establish a regular touch point through email marketing - Proactively provide relevant content via social media - Enhance SEO continuously GOALS Drive more people to SunCo’s digital properties Increase Brand Awareness Increase Sales Among Current Clients - Audit website for key search words Earn New Clients - Insert search-friendly content in Engage in the Digital Space relevant ways - Establish a video platform - Build online buzz through social media Become experts in topics relevant to the industry - Leverage the seasonality of your business - Be available for “spot news” opportunities - Create videos that showcase your range of expertise
- 16. Implementation
- 17. Evaluation
- 18. Outcomes for SunCo Grounds Management
- 19. Evaluation • Potential measurements include: • • • • • • • • Consistency of message Number of media impressions created Share of voice vs. competition Event attendance Social media engagement Website traffic/analytics Email metrics Video views
Editor's Notes
- Good morning everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar. My name is Gina Pappas, and I will be presenting today’s content.Before we get started, I’d like to cover a few administrative details. If you experience any technical problems on the call, please feel free to contact ReadyTalk customer service at (800) 843-9166. I will be recording today’s webinar and sharing the link with you via email, in case you’d like to review it again or share it with others in your office. Also, the lines on today’s call have been muted to avoid any background noise. You can use the chat function in the lower left side of your screen to chat in your questions throughout the webinar, and I will answer them at the end.This is a working session, and you all should have received the worksheet that we’ll be walking through during the presentation. If you haven’t received the worksheet, please chat your email address to my colleague Ann by using the chat function on the lower left side of your screen, and she will send you the worksheet now. I’m going to set up the webinar recording, then we’ll get started. Welcome to today’s webinar, PR Planning for a New Year. My name is Gina Pappas, and I’m the Director of New Media at Albers Communications Group.
- First, let me tell you a bit about Albers Communications Group. We are a full-service PR and digital marketing agency headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. We strongly believe that PR and digital strategies go hand in hand and work best when used as part of an integrated communications strategy. We represent clients in all 50 states and Canada – where our PR and social media specialists help our clients achieve positive exposure nationally and locally in their operating markets throughout the country. We have specialized expertise working with companies that have franchises, offices or branch locations in multiple cities.
- I am Gina Pappas, director of new media at Albers Communications Group. Feel free to email me if you’d like to speak in more detail about your company’s communications goals, and you can also follow me on Twitter @ginapappas.
- Here’s a look at what we’ll be covering today.First, I will explain why going through a formal planning process is necessary when determining your public relations and digital marketing goals.Next, I will take you through the PR industry’s four-step planning process and explain each step.We will then walk through a case study of an Albers client and show how we were able to help this client use the four-step process to achieve their goals.At different points during the call, we will be taking 1-2 minute breaks for the interactive work session. During these times, I will break from presenting to give you time to write your thoughts on the worksheet we’ve provided.Lastly, at the end of today’s session, I will answer any questions that have been chatted in throughout the call. Let’s get started!
- The purpose of today’s webinar is to achieve the following goals:First, I’d like to provide to you a firm understanding of the fundamentals behind public relations planning.In addition, I will illustrate the systematic process – there are four steps – involved in PR planning.The interactive nature of today’s webinar will provide you with an opportunity to start your own PR planning process.Lastly, I hope that the opportunity to start your planning process inspires you to get a head start on making your communications strategy a bigger priority for 2014.
- While it’s true that a successful, well-liked small business will probably generate some unsolicited positive media coverage or social media growth, the potential for you as a business owner to drive this activity is huge. Taking proactive control of the exposure your business receives starts with a plan.Walk through slide.
- When you’re beginning the PR planning process, it’s recommended that you follow four steps: Research, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation. Structuring our planning efforts like this ensures that we put meaningful strategy behind outputs in order to drive business.It also ensures that you know what to evaluate in order to measure your success.This process allows you to feel confident that the strategies and tactics you execute for your business are rooted in planning and are measurable, which will allow you to establish a benchmark for future communications strategies.
- In the planning phase, which is the first step in our four-step process, the first thing to do is identify the challenges or problems your business is facing. One of our clients, StrategicHealthSolutions, was challenged with very aggressive employee recruitment goals due to an increase in business. As their public relations partner, we were able to develop a plan that resulted in them receiving 1,500 resumes over the course of six weeks.Our plan included a carefully timed push to the local news media announcing the company’s move to a new, larger facility – in addition to including their recruitment goals in our conversations with the media. This proactive public relations strategy resulted in television news stories on both the local NBC and ABC affiliates, an article in the city’s largest daily newspaper, a seven-minute radio interview with the company’s CEO, and much more.
- As part of the planning process, you will have to do some research; it could be as informal as a meeting with your key players that helps you determine your communications objectives and identify your target audiences. Or it might be more complex and require primary or secondary research.Research helps you better understand your target audience and allows you to make informed decisions about your strategies and tactics; developing those is the next step. It’s the foundation on which your plan is based, and taking a snapshot of the current landscape is essential for later steps in the PR planning process – the measurement and evaluation of those strategies and tactics.
- The next step in the PR planning process is goal-setting. A goal is what you hope to accomplish through your strategies; it’s the outcome. In PR, when setting goals, we often use the SMART acronym when it comes to setting goals for our clients: Specific: A goal should be specific. Instead of setting a goal of getting more media exposure, make it your goal to achieve a specific number of positive impressions, for example.Measurable: How will you know when you’ve achieved your goal? Are there any checkpoints that will help you measure your progress? Measuring strategies along the way illustrates what’s working and what needs tweaking.Achievable: Set a goal that you can realistically achieve. The more achievable successes you can rack up, the higher you can set your goals in the future.Relevant: Make sure your goals serve your needs. For example, while being included in a major newspaper story may seem like an obvious way to promote your business, it won’t do you much good if most of your potential clients read smaller, community papers.Time-framed: Your objective should always be tied to a date. This will keep you on track and ensure that you don’t back-burner your goal. Set smaller date goals along the way, too, in order to avoid cramming in all of the steps at the end.Take a look at the goal on the screen: By the end of the year, our goal is to increase media impressions by 15%. This is a smart goal because it is specific in its percentage; measurable because it has a timeframe on it; achievable because, with the right PR strategies, it is a realistic goal; it is relevant if we assume that media outreach is a primary strategy for this particular business; and time-framed because it has a deadline attached to it.
- I want to share with you a case study example from one of our clients, SunCo, a full service landscape provider. When we began working together, their goals included:Increasing their visibility and brand awareness in targeted zip codesCross-selling their different services to their base of existing clientsEarning new clients through offline and online strategies that were integratedEngaging their clients in the online space
- Now that you have seen an example of what goals might look like, I’d like you to take a minute or two to jot down your goals on your worksheet. I will break from the presentation to allow you a minute or two to do that.
- With your goals now in place, it’s time to talk about the implementation…how you can reach those goals. I’d like to start by outlining the differences between strategies and tactics, because we often see clients confuse the two.A strategy is the way in which you hope to accomplish a goal, so it might be something like “Create regular touch points with my target audience.”The tactics are the vehicles you will use to achieve your strategies. For example, a sample tactic tied to this particular strategy might be “Distribute an email newsletter every month that highlights your services.”
- Sticking with our SunCo example, I’d like to walk you through the strategies we developed to help them achieve their goals (which you can see are in the middle of this graphic).Starting at the top left, our first strategy was to establish credibility through targeted earned media exposure; this speaks to the goal of increasing overall brand awareness. Our next strategy, in the top right, is educating current clients by cross-selling services; this applies to our second goal of increasing sales among current clients. The third strategy, on the lower right, is to become experts in topics relevant to the industry; this is tied to the goal of earning new clients – if they have exposure to your expertise, they will see you at the top of your field and want to work with you. And the final strategy, on the lower left side of the graphic, is to revamp SunCo’s online presence to support organic Search Engine Optimization; this is directly tied to the goal of engaging SunCo’s audience in the online space.
- On this slide, we’ve added another layer to our chart by adding the tactics underneath the strategies. I will point out a few for you before we break again and fill in this section of your worksheet.One way in which you might establish credibility through targeted earned media exposure is by promoting seasonal topics if your business has a seasonal nature to it like SunCo’s does; commenting on industry trends when they’re part of the news cycle through proactive media relations; or lending your expert opinion as a media spokesperson or community speaker on a topic relevant to your business.In order to cross-sell services by educating clients, you may want to showcase your breadth of services on your website, create regular touch points that include information about a variety of services in your email marketing strategy; and continuously enhance your SEO – which will also work with another one of our strategies: driving more traffic to SunCo’s digital properties. Another strategy we’ve outlined is becoming experts on topics relevant to your industry. One tactic that might help showcase your expertise is through a series of online videos and, of course, always being willing to lend yourself as a media spokesperson if and when “spot” news opportunities arise. The final strategy example I will provide is driving more people to SunCo’s digital properties. Some tactics that might be involved with this strategy include cross-promoting your offline presence in the online space, for example posting a link to a news media story about your business on your social media platforms or website; shoring up your social media strategy; and making sure your website is optimized for search.
- With fresh examples of strategies and tactics in your mind, we will again break for 1-2 minutes to allow you to write down your own strategies and tactics on your worksheet.Again, strategies are the way in which you accomplish your goals; tactics are the vehicles you use to achieve your strategies.
- The final step in creating your PR plan is determining how you will evaluate its success. We like to take a multi-pronged approach to this by looking at:Outputs: This might include things like the number of media impressions created, the sentiment of the media exposure you received, how the message penetrated your media coverage and, in the digital space, things like frequency of posts and email distributions.Also, we look at Outcomes; these are fed by the Outputs. Are people taking action as a result of what you’ve put out? Are they attending your events, visiting your website or calling for services?Lastly, what are the business results of these Outputs and Outcomes? How did your strategies move the needle. To determine this, you may need to look at revenue growth, customer satisfaction or another factor that is tied to your goals – like staff recruitment and retention.
- Sticking with our SunCo example, I’d like to show you how their results divide into Outputs, Outcomes and Business Results.Starting with Outputs, SunCo achieved:194% increase in Facebook “Likes” and email open rates that average at 46% (the industry average is 15%)This contributed to Outcomes – which are desired actions – such as a 35% increase in website traffic and a 5% increase in service calls – these stats were taken during what would be considered a “down” year for a landscape company – in 2011, when the city the company is based in received significant snow over the course of a long winter, which caused a late spring.The business result for SunCo, after measuring the overall success of our plan after one year, is that our combined strategies contributed to a 12% annualized growth for the business over the previous year, which was a very positive result considering it was a down year for the market.
- Now I’d like you to take a minute or two to determine how you’re going to evaluate the strategies you’ve created. To give you an idea of where to start, I’ve listed on the screen several possible measurements for your consideration. Take a minute or two to write down the ones that are relevant to you.
- Before we begin the question and discussion portion of the webinar, I wanted to let you know that once the session is over, a questionnaire will appear on your screen. If you don’t mind taking a few minutes to provide your comments about today’s webinar or share topic suggestions you’d like us to address in future webinars, we would value the feedback. And now I’d like to answer any questions you have. If you haven’t done so already, please feel free to chat in your questions. [Answer questions]Thank you so much for joining us on today’s working webinar. Best of luck to each of you as you work through your 2014 planning and, of course, feel free to contact us at Albers if you’d like to talk about how we can build a customized PR and digital marketing plan for your business. Have a great day!