E TOP PR CAMPAIGN. By Meg Wildrick and Elizabeth Sosnow

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Ellen Weaver
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1 E TOP H T 10 W AY S T O D R I V E A S U C C E S S F U L PR CAMPAIGN By Meg Wildrick and Elizabeth Sosnow

There s often disagreement about where to start in PR.

2 1 DECIDE WHERE YOU RE GOING Define business goals and objectives up front. Most PR programs fail because they don t solve business problems. There s often disagreement about where to start in PR. Develop a discussion questionnaire that forces different stakeholders to agree on PR priorities.

After you determine your top audiences, create several personas that help you

3 2 RESEARCH THE BEST WAY TO GET THERE Pinpoint campaign audience(s) and gather insights about their needs, values and behaviors. After you determine your top audiences, create several personas that help you think about them as real people with likes and dislikes. You ll be surprised at how this can bolster your storytelling.

4 3 SET YOUR ITINERARY Create one to three core stories that support campaign goals and engage target audiences. Evaluate your story concepts for both freshness (competitive differentiation) and authenticity (internal fit with capabilities/values).

The winning story doesn t just matter to you and your target it matters to the broader

5 4 BUILD THE GPS Test stories, then frame them in a sticky wrapper that creates a sense of urgency. The winning story doesn t just matter to you and your target it matters to the broader world. Make sure your wrapper ties into what s happening now from presidential elections, to helping your child prepare for college, to the latest economic developments in the U.S.

Avoid the trap of thinking in old-school formats, like press releases and media

6 5 MAP ROUTES Develop an editorial strategy to bring the story to life, using multiple formats and channels. Humanize it with faces, stories and emotive content. Avoid the trap of thinking in old-school formats, like press releases and media pitches. Reimagine your story as an ebook or animated video. In 2017, visuals rule the marketing roost.

Your employees and partners can be the human faces of your story

7 6 DESIGNATE DRIVERS Pinpoint campaign audience(s) and gather insights about their needs, values and behaviors. Your employees and partners can be the human faces of your story and bring your concept to life. Why wouldn t you make them a key part of your PR campaign?

7 FILL THE PASSENGER SEATS Enlist outside voices, influencers and partners to carry the story forward. Your PR idea won t catch fire until you can convince outsiders it matters.

8 7 FILL THE PASSENGER SEATS Enlist outside voices, influencers and partners to carry the story forward. Your PR idea won t catch fire until you can convince outsiders it matters. Why not start smart by planning for some of those outsiders to demonstrate buy-in from the start? The resulting credibility often makes the difference in generating early awareness.

9 8 ROAD TRIP! Roll out the first wave of campaign activities. Make sure your first wave includes a healthy dose of paid activity. While PR is an earned medium, it s almost impossible to achieve all you want without at least a small paid boost on social or adding some dollars for an influencer partnership.

Smart starting points include evaluating web analytics are people traveling from a Forbes article

10 9 REACH YOUR FIRST MILESTONE Gather data/analytics and refine program elements for the second wave. Your job in PR is to continually evaluate how the story is matching audience needs and desires. Smart starting points include evaluating web analytics are people traveling from a Forbes article to your site for more information? If not, how do you change your campaign to fuel the behavior you want?

You can get some great clues about what s next in your story by playing with Google Trends, which

11 10 PICK UP SPEED Accelerate campaign results by linking themes to breaking news, emerging audience preferences and priorities. You can get some great clues about what s next in your story by playing with Google Trends, which tracks information about what people are searching for. If you know what they want to read, you are much closer to designing a media pitch that a journalist will want to read.

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