A simple PR plan to skyrocket your business into the media this year
In the spirit of the exciting new year vibes, I’m sharing a super simple template for you to step into the spotlight and get some media coverage this year.
You can use this now to set up some media wins for the new year or at any time through the year when you want a little PR-pick-me-up.
Kerri L Watt
Here’s how to put together a simple PR plan (that will help you land media coverage)
I’ve put together some prompts, from what I use regularly for clients, to pull together a PR plan of action.
This doesn’t need to be anything fancy.
Just collect your thoughts in a Google Doc, Trello card, notebook, anywhere you keep your business brainstorms. I like to print or write mine to refer back to, otherwise it gets forgotten in my computer.
Objectives
What do you want to gain from your PR activity? What are your business goals right now?
There are no right or wrong answers here but knowing your objective means that you can tailor your PR efforts to make sure you’re achieving your goals.
If your goal is simply “more clients” then maybe you’d focus your efforts on getting in the media outlets your dream clients are consuming.
Deliverables and deadlines
What results are you hoping to achieve? Again, there no set answers. Just realistic ‘things’ you can measure.
For instance, this could simply be a few bullet points like…
3 media placements or
1 PR win a month or
10 podcast interviews
And you can put some deadlines with them, so “3 magazine features this quarter” would be a great goal to focus on. It’s clear and gives you a timeline to work with.
Media outlets
Here we want to think about the media names we’d like to put ourselves in front of. Be specific and add the titles too, not just “newspapers”.
What media title is your ideal client reading, watching and listening to?
Which publications would you jump for joy around your kitchen if they featured you?
What industry magazines are a must-read that you could be in?
Have you appeared in the media before? Maybe you could approach them again.
PR activities
Have a think about the type of PR activities you would like to do. Perhaps what you are good at or what you would like to try…
Do you want to be on live TV?
Could you appear on local radio?
Can you not do live things but could write in your own time?
Is writing your strongpoint? Or is talking more your thing?
Could you share your ‘expert’ comment on topical news stories?
Are you able to travel or would you have to deliver them from home?
Topics you can talk or write about
Make a list of topics you are knowledgeable about and those you can speak to without much preparation. This can then be the topics you focus on for your PR activity.
Consider what you want to be known for? What expertise do you have over everyone else?
Evaluating
This is a key part of any plan. Be sure to keep an eye on all of your PR activity to see what is and is not working.
Check your output (how much time/effort you have spent) and then what the results were. Was it worth it? Do you maybe need to tweak your ‘pitching’ (the emails you send to journalists asking to be featured) to be more effective next time?
You can then use this reflection to plan your next batch of PR activity, focusing on what worked well or new ideas to try.
Celebrate and leverage each PR mention!
Remember to celebrate every win, it’s an amazing achievement. And also, LEVERAGE every media mention too to get even more eyeballs on it.
Here’s how to do just that…
Taking inspired action
I always say, the magic happens when you take action. It’s all very well putting together a plan, but the results will happen when we get started and actually do something.
So, draft a simple PR plan of action, and see what magic you can make happen this month.
Need some help putting together a PR plan of action?
I love helping companies pull out their news stories and find ways to get them exposure.
You can book me for just a one-hour call to walk you through your PR questions, train your team to land epic media coverage or I can create a full PR campaign strategy for you to then implement.
I’d love to hear from you 😀