Is your standard public relations (PR) plan feeling a little lackluster? With the global PR market expected to reach $129 billion by 2025, ensure your PR plans effectively put your dollars to work.

A seasoned PR professional can help your brand develop a truly strategic PR plan with just a bit of time and effort. Starting with a strong foundation and adding a forward-thinking strategy will carry you far — especially when your plan is focused on the people your business/products serve.

Incorporating these three strategies can take your PR plan to the next level.

 

1. Keep people at the focus.

News releases and pitches are not an oil change. Simply showing up is not enough to expect results. Approach these efforts with your audience at the center for a truly meaningful strategy.

It’s easy to get excited about media headlines showcasing your brand’s big announcement. But any earned-media effort should keep these three questions top of mind:

  1. Does my announcement hold value for the audience I want to connect with?
  2. Am I adding value for media outlets with this news or am I expecting them to add value for me?
  3. Is my target audience at the focus of this plan or could I be more specific with my efforts?

Hold your brand accountable by ensuring your PR efforts genuinely add interest and value to the news cycle. This is the first step in cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with media partners and your end users.

 

2. Leverage transparency and outside-the-box communication.

Clickbait has been replaced with authenticity. Readers want real. Every parcel of your communication needs to be transparent and authentic to build credibility and rapport with your audience.

It is estimated 77% of companies will devote dollars to influencer marketing strategies each year. And for good reason. Partnering with a well-suited social media influencer or even local community leaders can carry your message further and offer instant credibility for your brand.

Who else could be interested in delivering your news? Is there potential to collaborate with another non-competitive brand? What about elected leaders?

According to Reach Solutions, 58% of consumers don’t trust a brand until they’ve seen “real-world proof” that it has kept its promises. Be the brand that delivers each time.

 

3. Spot-test your messaging.

We all know SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound) goals are important. But it’s easy to get carried away thinking about how successful a plan could be.

An easy way to “spot test” a communications strategy before it launches is to lean on trusted contacts before going public. Have your PR pro call on some of their best media relationships to see if the message truly resonates. You can also spot test your message with family members or other lay people who don’t have a background in the work you’ve been doing.

If they express any confusion or an overall lackluster response, it’s likely your message needs some work. And a PR pro with trusted media relationships should be able to tell you quickly if a strategy should go back to the drawing board.

At Lessing-Flynn (LF), we believe relationships are the vessel that make PR work meaningful. With people as our top priority, LF PR efforts are designed to connect our clients, media outlets and other influencers in a mutually beneficial way.

That’s because a truly strategic PR effort goes beyond checking off boxes. It builds relationships between your brand and your stakeholders.

And after your campaign is over, measuring results will help your next one perform stronger. While this may seem obvious, only 51% of PR pros in the U.S. use reporting software to track results.

Interested in connecting with PR pros who track results, have established relationships and genuinely care about your brand’s success? We’d love to talk with you. Get in contact with us here.