4 Essentials to Start Your Public Relations Plan
Starting a public relations plan is easy. It doesn’t matter if you are a PR professional or just wanting to put something together for your small business, you can work through the essentials without a lot of experience or technical skill.
Here are four simple steps I take to start a public relations plan.
1. Know your audience
Your public relations plan needs to be a little bit like a billiards shot. You want to line up the cue stick (your pitch) to hit the cue ball (a publication), but your end goal is to have that cue ball sink the eight ball (their audience) in the corner pocket (your business).
What I’m trying to say is that you need to know if your audience is stripes or solids before you start reaching out to publications.
You should be confident that your ideal customers are already part of the publication’s audience.
This will help you make sure you are reaching the right media contacts and even increase your odds of getting a media placement. Think of it this way, if you have a story that their audience wants to hear, they’ll want to publish it.
So to get started with a PR plan, make sure you know who your audience is first. Then use this profile to guide you in everything from choosing which publications to pitch and what stories to pitch them.
2. Write down ALL your story ideas
Right after I get a new client, I write down every story idea that comes to mind. It doesn’t matter how long this list is, I find that getting the ideas out of my head and brainstorming a little bit is the best way to kick off a public relations plan.
Public relations is a marathon, not a sprint, so you’re going to need plenty of fresh ideas all year long, and next year, and the year after.
Don’t focus on getting the best pitch or waiting for the right story to pitch the media. You would be surprised how many “little” stories catch the interest of the media and how many “big” stories get ignored.
It’s more important to have a lot of pitches than perfect ones. Plus, you’ll get more creative if you just let the creative juices flow!
3. Think long term
This is a pro tip I’ll give away for free: think long term.
A lot of the media works in advance (this is called lead time) so they have enough time to get ready for print. This means that if you want to get in the glossy pages of a magazine, you have to start thinking ahead.
I’ve had a few new-to-PR clients that expect to get in the next issue of their fav magazine when it’s just not possible. The next issue was probably finalized last month.
Take a look at your list of story ideas and see what will be relevant in two, three, or even six months from now. Do you have ideas that extend that far in the future? These are the ones that have the potential to land the biggest and most reputable publications.
4. Think short term
The next piece of your public relations plan is all about the short term. Thanks to the internet and social media, there are a ton of media outlets that publish daily. Some daily publications will still have a short lead time and some will be able to publish the next day.
Look at your list of story ideas again to see what is (or could be) relevant now. Then match these stories with publications that are constantly putting out content.
Fortunately, the number of publications that can publish with a shorter lead time is only increasing. There are blogs, podcasts, and even the online version of magazines and newspapers are publishing additional content online to keep up with the demand for content.