The PR Plan: Don’t start a campaign without one

Some may recall the American Express commercial with the slogan, “Don’t Leave Home Without It.”  The same holds true for PR and marketing campaigns.  It is foolish to launch one without a plan.

The challenge with marketing and PR plans is they run the risk of all looking the same.  There are standard issues to consider, standard steps to take, standard tasks to perform.  One can go online and find numerous templates for marketing/PR plans to download.  All you have to do is fill in the blanks.

But since the essence of marketing and PR is determining and then exploiting how your company or organization is different, why would you create the same plan that everybody else has?

Creating a plan is easy.  Creating a unique and effective one isn’t.

First it starts with in-depth research into the organization.  A self-analysis or a needs assessment is where to start.  Every organization must ask itself, “who are we,”  “what do we stand for,?”  “What makes us different,?” When these questions are answered, from a consensus of management, staff, volunteers, donors and so forth, only then can an organization begin to create a plan that will be truly effective and convey the right message to the right audiences.