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How to Develop a Public Relations Plan
What goes into a media plan and successful PR campaign
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BY LAURA LAKE Updated October 07, 2019
A public relations, or PR, campaign allows you to control the spread of information about you and your business, creating a media narrative that positions you to attract customers without the expense of traditional advertising.
However, public relations doesn’t happen all on its own. To create and implement a PR campaign, you need a comprehensive plan that your business can follow, measure, and improve on.
What Goes Into a Media Plan?
To achieve your public relations objectives and reach your customers, you need to develop a media plan. This plan outlines:
Who you want to reach
What you want to achieve
What you are going to do
How you will evaluate your success
You can create a successful media plan, and structure your public relations campaign, in six steps.
Step 1: Define Your Objective
Define and write down your objectives. What will your public relations campaign be designed to achieve? Do you want to:
Establish your expertise?
Build goodwill with your customers, suppliers, or community?
Create and reinforce your brand and professional corporate image?
Create positive perceptions of your company and services?
Introduce a new service or product to your market?
Generate sales or leads?
Mitigate the impact of negative publicity or a corporate crisis?
Once you know what your public relations are trying to achieve, you can construct a media plan that is built around that objective.
Step 2: Establish Clear Goals
Articulate clear goals for your campaign. Unlike your objective, which is qualitative, your goals should be quantitative. These goals should be in line with your overall business, marketing, and sales objectives.
When establishing these goals, use the SMART method. Your goals should be:
Specific. What is the ideal outcome you are trying to create?
Measurable. How will you measure the success of the campaign?
Achievable. How can you accomplish your goals within the constraints of your resources, such as budget or staff hours?
Realistic. Are you setting a goal that makes sense for the scope of your public relations campaign?
Time-based. How long do you have to accomplish your goals and objectives?
Step 3: Identify Your Target Market
In marketing, everything is determined by your target customer. Identify who you are trying to reach, what those customers care about, and where they can be found, you can create a blueprint for your entire campaign, including:
Who you want to communicate with
What key message you will send
Which media platforms you will use
How you will gain consumer attention and trust
What language, images, or topics you should use
Once you know who makes up your target market, you can begin creating a plan for where and when your PR campaign will appear, as well as what it will say. It can be helpful to look at public relations outreach that your competitors have done, which will give you an idea of which media outlets to target, as well as what messages you should and should not send.
Step 4: Research Opportunities
Begin to research and plan opportunities for your media campaign. What communication vehicles will you use to get your message to the public? Examples may include:
Press releases and articles
Appearing as a source in media stories
Customer success stories
Letters to the editor
Press conferences, interviews, or media tours
Radio, television, or podcast appearances
Seminars, workshops, or speaking engagements
Event sponsorships
As you begin researching opportunities, reach out to contacts you already have in the media or explore opportunities for creating media relationships such as networking events or HARO queries.
Step 5: Create a Schedule
Once you have connected with your media contacts and know what opportunities are available, create a schedule for your public relations campaign that includes:
What outlets you will be appearing in
What sort of appearance you or your company will make
Any follow-up actions you will need to take afterward
A social media or email schedule for publicizing each appearance
As you create your schedule, consider what else will be happening with other marketing and sales efforts during or after your campaign. By coordinating your PR appearances with upcoming sales, for example, you create more incentive for those learning about your business to convert into customers. You can even create special landing pages, email onboarding, or discounts for those who learn about your business through your public relations campaign.
Step 6: Measure Your Progress
Finally, put measures in place to track the results of your public relations campaign. These can include:
Lead acquisition and conversion
Sales numbers
Additional media inquiries
Changes in social sentiment
Preorders for a new product or service
Attendance numbers at workshops or events
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