‘Why should we incorporate PR into our budget? How can we ensure a return on such an investment?’. These are questions that many business leaders ask when planning budgets for the year ahead and 2025 will be no different.
What does make a difference in terms of driving business value through, and ensuring a return on your investment in, PR is an effective PR campaign or plan. Having one enables you build brand awareness, communicate with your target audience, and grow your business.
The public perception of PR is that it’s all about managing crisis or protecting reputation. It is that, but it’s so much more. It’s a means of bridging the gap between businesses and customers – both existing and prospective. It’s a way of establishing credibility as a brand and standing out from the competition. It’s a vehicle to achieve business objectives.
Whether you want to attract the best talent, drive business growth, or launch a new service, here are 7 steps on how to plan a PR campaign for 2025 so that it delivers impact and success for your business.
1. Define your campaign objectives
Setting out clear objectives for the year ahead is one of the most important aspects of running a business. When working with a PR agency, it is important to convey what you are looking to achieve so the most effective PR tactics can be put in place to help meet these goals. For instance, if you want to attract the best tech talent, your company needs to be visible to IT professionals. That might be best achieved with an interview in a relevant publication. One of the most effective ways to develop your goals is using the SMART method by setting out Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based objectives – which can be supported by consistent PR activities and communications.
2. Identify your target audience
Another core element to consider when planning a PR campaign is who you want to deliver your message to. That could be existing employees or potential recruits. It could be small businesses, large enterprises, or consumers. That’s not to mention what markets or sectors you want to focus on. Understanding who you want to get in front of will help to shape your PR plan in terms of what messages you put out there and which channels you use to communicate. This is a pivotal part which will determine the impact and success of your campaign.
3. Tell your story
Storytelling is key in effective communication – including PR campaigns. Crafting a compelling story and choosing the right angle will make a difference not only in terms of generating coverage by engaging journalists but also in terms of whether a customer cares enough to click on a LinkedIn post or read a news article and visit your website. You have to create stories which are relatable and relevant. Telling a story is what keeps people engaged, and it’s crucial to find the balance between what you want to say about your company and what will appeal to your target audience.
4. Choose your tactics
Once you have decided on who your target audience are and what narrative you want to use, your next step is to decide what tactics will make up your PR plan. That includes what channels will best support your objectives and appeal to your target demographics. For some, engaging traditional or trade media with press releases or interviews will work. For others, digital and social media content might be more suitable. It all comes down to doing your research and implementing tactics that deliver value. That means if your company is in the tech industry and is announcing an investment, you need to engage journalists who write on such topics and publications that cover stories like that.
5. Getting the timing right
Timing is everything, and PR campaigns are no exception. As well as choosing the right moment to make a big splash, consistent communication is crucial. When it comes to how to plan a PR campaign, having a long-term strategy is incredibly important. PR agencies can be invaluable in terms of knowing the media landscape and when to land an announcement. They can also help to develop a pipeline of activities to maintain regular communication around and coverage of your brand throughout the year.
6. Measure success
As well as how to plan a PR campaign, you also need to know how to measure the success of one. That can be viewed in light of the goals you had initially set out. Things to consider might be how much coverage you generated in relevant publications or how much traffic was sent to your website following the distribution of a press release. Alternatively, it might be quality over quantity that matters with a high-profile piece in a national newspaper or what sentiment is being depicted across the coverage. Evaluating media coverage and social media metrics are excellent indicators of what factors worked well through a campaign and what ones didn’t – you can then use this when coming to plan your next PR campaign.
7. Think long-term
One big splash or a short PR campaign needs to be backed up with more activity if you want to drive long-term value for your business. The organisations who continually get their message out through PR are the ones who build trust, become leaders, and thrive in business – they don’t simply disappear. They also adapt with new ideas for engaging target audiences and new ways of delivering their message.
There has never been a better time to invest in PR. Building your brand through a PR campaign helps to create opportunities, support sales efforts, and drive growth for your company. Of course, if you don’t quite know where to start, finding out how to plan a PR campaign for 2025 can be made simple with the right agency. Not only can they help to define your goals and identify the most effective tactics, but they also have experience which helps to maximise impact and success.
If your company would like to learn more about how to plan a PR campaign for next year or would like to know how PR can benefit your organisation, feel free to reach out and contact us.