As we start the 2012 planning process, it’s important to
remember what the goal is for the year and put programs in place that make it
accomplishable. The goal can be operational (demonstrate the value of a professional
services organization), geographical (show relevance of products in new
markets), financial (articulate revenue growth, vertical market relevance
and/or channel development), leadership (ensure the market understands how the
company is impacting the industry), or any one of a dozen other legitimate
goals that a company, and its marketing department, might develop.
Many times, these goals are set within a company, shared
internally and never spoken of again until December rolls around and executives
want to see how the company performed against these goals. It’s easy to get caught up in the next news
release, trade show, conference or webinar and forget that all of these items
should be vehicles to help your company achieve one or more of its
objectives.
For PR, the goals could be as simple as cultivating 10 new
“champions” within the press and analyst community. To us, a champion is a press
or analyst that follows the company regularly and understands what it’s trying
to achieve and, at some level, believes your company will be able to achieve
these goals. They understand how all the pieces of your company fit together
and how each part plays a role in your company’s ability to win. These are
reporters and analysts that don’t just write about your company when you have
announcements, but also include you in stories they create about market trends
and they view your company as an influencer in the industry.
Let’s take a look at that goal and break down how it can be
achieved.
·
Identify 15 press/analysts that you’d like to
convert from passive to active followers of your company.
·
Create a matrix of their recent coverage to
understand what they cover specifically and how they treat information about your
type of products and/or services within their coverage.
·
Invite them for a deep dive or “lunch and learn”
where they get access to company executives (CEO, CTO, COO) that normally
aren’t part of your briefing team.
·
Create pitches that are relevant to what they
are writing about, not just their beat.
·
When pitching or briefing, reference recent
articles to show that you’re paying attention to their work.
·
Create a six month story arch that gives them
unique access into how your company thinks and how it plans to win in the
marketplace, and then update them as you achieve these metrics.
·
Offer to become a technical resource on issues
they are covering, even if this potentially means interviews conducted don’t
result in immediate coverage.
·
Check in with them regularly to ask what they
are working on and make suggestions about topics they haven’t covered yet that
apply to their beat.
When identifying the 15 prospects, you’ll need to understand
which companies they are currently covering and if they have any existing
biases or favorites among your competitors. If they do, go ahead and include
them, but realize this is a harder objective to achieve but often much more
rewarding.
At the end of 2012, review how this program went and make
adjustments with certain press/analysts that you weren’t able to cultivate. If
some just aren’t interested, then pick others that you can begin to work with during
the following six months.
It’s important to remember that at the core of any press or
analyst relationship is trust. That they trust you to give them honest,
relevant information and that you’re willing to help them do their jobs more
effectively and efficiently. Break that trust and you can lose these
relationships forever.
No matter what category your 2012 goals lie in, developing a
step-by-step plan to actually achieve them is critical. Successful PR programs
require constant attention – once you’ve visualized where you want to be,
remember to actively revisit and evolve the track you’ve put in place to get there
and you’ll be closing a successful 2012 before you know it.
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