Look before your leap. How many times were you told that as a child? It’s the same when it comes to marketing and PR. In the rush to achieve quick sales or launch a product, it’s all too easy to leap straight into the doing – posting on social media, sending out press releases, publishing blogs without having a clear understanding of what’s going to land.
Having a clear and easy-to-implement plan that connects PR and marketing activity with sales targets and business goals gives you the best opportunity to avoid tripping up.
Pushing the odd press release or posting the occasional LinkedIn post when you remember won’t cut it. People want to be part of a conversation, to feel part of your story and understand your purpose.
Spending time understanding what it is you want to achieve from your PR and marketing activity, what you want to say and more importantly, how to say it in a way that’s meaningful to your customers, will maximise engagement and reduce wasted effort.
When it comes to PR and marketing two of the biggest pitfalls are not connecting your business goals to your PR and marketing activity and not aligning the different elements of your communications campaigns.
That’s why we’re published a six-step pocket guide to help you not make those mistakes and make the most of your marketing spend covering the following topics:
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Decide who you need to reach and why
If you’re about to say ‘everyone’ then stop right there. In the world of hyper personalization, a bland generic message will say nothing to no-one. Take time to understand exactly who you need to reach and what you need to say to grab their attention and gain their trust.
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Define your campaign theme
Now that you know who you’re targeting and what challenges you can solve, it’s time to distil that into a campaign theme.
It’s easy for a campaign to get off track. The temptation to squeeze in more messages or product mentions is never far away. Having one clear overarching theme that is the beacon for your campaign is crucial.
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Stay on message
It might sound clichéd but it’s true.
Agreeing four simple, core messages will anchor your campaign and ensure your messages are understood and remembered by your target audiences.
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Develop your story arcs
Now that you have your overall theme it’s time to think about the stories that will bring the campaign to life.
These will showcase the people your product or service is helping and the people behind the company. It could provide technical insights and demonstrate past successes. Finding a mix of different angles will give your campaign greater depth and help your story resonate with your audiences.
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Telling your story
We know, it’s about time we got to this part.
All too often businesses jump straight into the telling part but trust us, all that hard work you’ve already done will pay off! A bit like the cha-cha this is a two-step, step…
How are you going to tell your story? Will it be a thought leadership article, feature, blog, video, brochure, email, report… or a mix of these and more?
Where will you share your story? Mainstream media, trade press, social media, website, paid promotion, in-person? Hint… as many places as possible. But remember to rework your content to fit across multiple channels, what works for LinkedIn might not work for Facebook, so be sure to tailor your content to who you are speaking to.
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Don’t go it alone
If you’re feeling exhausted just reading the above, don’t worry. You don’t have to do it on your own.
Having people on your side to help identify campaign stories and amplify them can make the difference between success and failure. Find people in your organisation and the sectors that you’re targeting to help you get the word out.
Ready to put these six steps into practice?
To get you started we’ve created a template that you can use to get your next campaign down onto one page. There’s also a pocket-sized guide that you can also download.
We’re here to help.
If you need support to develop and deliver your PR and marketing programme get in touch at hello@korero.co.uk