BLACK paPR Report

Guest Contributor: Jonnice Slaughter, Principal, Chatterbox Publicity LLC (Atlanta, GA)

2009 Business New Year Strategy: PR Examination

It’s that time of the year to reflect on 2008’s PR strategy and determine what should be implemented or abandoned in 2009.  In order to do so, you should ask yourself the following:

1.      Did I accomplish conveying a key message or fulfill my business’ mission with every PR opportunity?

2.      Did I fully take advantage of all PR opportunities?

3.      Did I miss any key PR opportunities?  And if so, how did that affect my business?  What were the gains and the losses?

4.      Did I accomplish these goals in the proposed time allotted?

5.      Did I accomplish these objectives within the proposed budget?

6.      If no, to either question #4 or #5, what were the factors that affected the end results?

7.      What tools were used to accomplish PR goals?

8.      Based on all of the above, what was the year end ROI (return on investment) for your Public Relations strategy?

9.      Is there a competitor that did a better job of gaining publicity and raising their visibility?  If yes, what can be replicated in your own PR strategy for 2009?

10.  Do I now have a better understanding of an effective PR strategy than I did heading into 2008?

Now that you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to use the answers to construct a 2009 PR strategy.  Based on the above questions, let’s examine further what should be considered in your new plan.

1.      Key Message/ Fulfill Business Mission

a.      Key message-  This should be your positioning in the marketplace among your competition.  For example, if your product is a hair product and you were the first to create this product, “the first” should be included in every piece of PR collateral or PR opportunity.

b.      Fulfill Business Mission-  If your hair product is supposed to help increase hair growth for a certain segment of the market, then whether you participated in hair shows, gift bag or product placement opportunities, each opportunity should target that particular segment of the market.

2.      Maximizing PR opportunity-  If you participated in a cross promotion or event that was designed to give you maximum exposure, did you capitalize on it.  Were you the exclusive vendor or business at that event?  Was your business included in press releases and if so, did it include links to your site, quotes from you and / or images of your product?  Did you receive copies of any press placements surrounding the cross promotion or event?

3.      Missed PR opportunities-  Were there any PR opportunities that could have provided a human interest appeal surrounding your business’ brand?  Was there any major news story that would have been a perfect fit for your brand?  Were there any invitations to participate in a bigger project or collaborate with a business where you may have benefitted from a partnership?  If so, is there still a way to salvage or create a relationship so that you don’t miss another opportunity?

4.      Timeline-  If examined by quarters, was each PR goal accomplished?  For missed deadlines, would bringing on additional support have allowed you to make the due date?  Did the budget affect the timeline?  Was the timeline realistic?  By how much were deadlines missed per quarter?

5.      Budget-  If the budget was increased or decreased by $500 to $1,500, how much would that have affected the outcome.  Was every penny in the budget accounted for?  If you went over budget on any particular PR exercise, in hindsight, was it necessary.  What areas could have been cut or reallocated to a different area?

6.      Answers should be addressed in questions #4 and #5.

7.      PR tools-  Would utilizing new or additional tools or software improve the outcome?  How successful was the existing press kit for creating exposure opportunities?  Are you happy with your current means for building a media list?  Are you happy with your online media impressions and the tools used to gain online publicity?  What SEO tools were used and how successful were they?  What new tools could have been used to accomplish maximum exposure and are these tools affordable?

8.      ROI evaluation-  You’ve already reviewed your budget and timeline, other areas to evaluate include a accuracy, news worthiness, relationships with media, etc.  In all the press coverage that you received in 2008, was it all accurate and if not, what areas were missed?  Was each PR exercise worth the investment, time and manpower?  Has your relationship and reputation improved among your targeted media pool?

9.      The competition-  Analyze your competition’s PR strategy by taking a closer look at the following areas:  their PR team and/ or publicist, their press releases, their media exposure (press placements), their internet presence, and what their public perception is (chat rooms, social media activity, etc.).  Did they make any mistakes that you can capitalize on?  Were there any gaps in their execution that leave room for their competition (you)? Did they benefit from strategic partners and if so, how could you benefit from similar alliances?

10.   Overall reflection-  Do you now understand the value of Public Relations?  Do you know the difference between Public Relations, media relations and publicity?  Were your goals to grand and unrealistic or did you underestimate your effectiveness and execution?  Should you scrap everything that you did and go back to the drawing board?  What can be carried over or fine tuned for better results moving into 2009?  On a scale of 1-10 how would you grade your results?  How would others grade your results?

Hopefully, a thorough analysis of your PR strategy, utilizing the above, will help you generate a highly effective PR campaign that should enhance overall Marketing objectives while working in tandem with any advertising and / or promotional strategies.  Good Luck.

ChatterBox Publicity, LLC (CBP) is the industry leading minority-owned PR boutique, specializing in digital publicity, emerging and social media public relations for small businesses and entrepreneurs. CBP’s clients represent the restaurant, fashion, lifestyle, music, entertainment, new media and technology industries.