According to Ronn Torossian, when a company wants to develop a strategic public relations plan, aside from doing its mandatory research, it needs to define a handful of core elements that the plan needs to include. There are the goals and the target audience that the company needs to define and identify, and then it needs to create key PR messages, measure the results of its campaigns, and more.
Goals
The first step in developing a strategic public relations plan is for a company to define the goals that it wants to reach with its public relations efforts. Knowing the results that the company needs to achieve are going to guide all of the other steps of the planning process for a public relations plan. That’s because knowing the goals helps companies figure out which audiences need to be targeted, how to target those audiences, as well as how to reach them to achieve success with public relations efforts.
Audience
Since the core of public relations is all about developing a positive relationship with a target audience of a company, the next step that a company needs to take is to define its target audience for the public relations campaign it wants to execute. This means that the company can’t simply target the general public, and needs to focus on specific people that are going to be interested in what the business has to offer and are willing to make a purchase from the company.
Messages
Once a company fully understands what it wants to achieve with a public relations campaign, and who it needs to target, it’s time to develop key public relations messages that are going to be used to inform, educate, and influence the target audience. Every single public relations message needs to be short and concise and compel them to take action. It’s best for companies to develop separate key PR messages for each goal they want to achieve, and each segment of their target audience. The best way to develop these key messages is through data and insights, because they can be used to differentiate, and even shape and support the key messages from a company in a way that the target audience is going to find relatable.
Results
The only way for a company to know that its public relations plan and the overall campaign have been successful is by measuring the results. That means that before a company can start implementing its public relations plan, it needs to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) so that the business can measure the performance of its public relations efforts. It’s incredibly important that companies measure the performance of their public relations campaign, just as they measure any other business initiative or strategy. There are many different ways that companies can measure performance, which is why it’s important to define the key performance indicators at the beginning, and keep an eye on them throughout the campaign, not just at the very end.