With businesses more likely than ever to be watching costs, demonstrating the effectiveness of even a modest PR spend is likely to be crucial. Focusing whatever PR resources you have (be that in-house or, an agency or consultant) will ensure you can deliver more with less. Below are my top three tips for honing your PR strategy to get the results you need this year.
- Start with asking some fairly searching questions of the business to establish clear and measurable goals. What is it they are looking for from the PR effort, is it increased revenue, new clients, brand engagement, or something else? If there is more than one ambition, what is the priority?
- Agree your PR goals for the year – which are in alignment with the clearly articulated business goals. Talk to other teams, especially marketing or BD, to ensure PR is not operating in a silo and that any possible synergies are properly exploited.
- Be clear about what success will look like and how you will measure and/or demonstrate it. This will enable you to devise a strategy which makes the right impact and supports business goals.
How do you reach success?
Once you know what you are aiming for, the next crucial question to ask is how will you get there? PR only works if the right media outlets are being targeted. It’s no good getting loads of great endorsements in a publication or on a podcast which isn’t relevant to the audience you are trying to talk to. For example, do you wish to impress existing clients and reach new out to new ones or perhaps recruitment is a target? In the legal sector, the drive for top talent seems to be a continuing struggle fo many firms. Getting the right pieces published in the right place or an interview secured on the right podcast is something that needs careful planning and should be built into your strategy.
Over the years, many lawyers and barristers have told me that their ultimate PR goal is press coverage in The Times or FT or perhaps an interview on Sky News. But, while a piece of national media coverage puts you in front of a huge audience, it is always worth asking whether it is an audience you want to engage with? Is the effort involved worth it?
Given the amount of resource required to achieve such coverage, a more pertinent PR strategy could be to focus on the sectors that a professional service firm operates in and to target the trade press for each of those specific sectors.
With an enormous range of niche titles, the UK B2B business press is amongst the most sophisticated in the world providing plenty of opportunities for PR savvy professionals to position themselves as experts in their field.
For example, a law firm or barristers’ set with a construction practice. The two leading sector titles, Construction News and Building both boast massive circulations and are highly influential within their sector. Given their depth of knowledge, editors and reporters on these titles are likely to welcome comment or feature ideas from construction lawyers or barristers.
And, while it may be trickier for generalists such as a corporate team to identify target B2B titles, with a bit of creative thinking, it can be done! For example, a corporate team with a specialism advising retailers could seek to engage with The Grocer or The Retailer (the quarterly magazine of the British Retail Consortium). If recruitment is the key driver behind PR then your own sector press might be a priority.
Keep things under review and tweak, if necessary
Sometimes even the PR professionals are surprised by the articles which gain traction and really fly! So don’t file your new PR strategy away in February never to be seen again. It should be a living document which is amended as things develop (both internally and externally).
It’s important to keep looking at the data as the year progresses. This needn’t be a complex exercise – Google Analytics may be all you need to keep tabs on what articles/activity drives the action you are hoping to achieve. If it works, do more of it, if it doesn’t, look at other options.
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Need some help with PR? Feel free to drop me an email to arrange a 30 minute complimentary call or take a look at some of the packages I offer law firms, accountancy practices and other b2b businesses.