How to Create an Effective PR Strategy

Understand the story

Every publicity campaign should start with a story that tells a compelling narrative and consists of a beginning, middle and end. Of paramount importance, the story must align with key brand messaging in a clear and concise manner easily understood by the audience. 

Simply signing a deal with a customer, for example, is not a complete story. What about that deal makes it unique, significant, or a sign of future trends? Why should audiences care about your story or your brand?

If you think about storytelling in any form, the most compelling stories convey some level of friction and resolution. Those ingredients are what make a story engaging and capture and retain people’s attention.

Choose the right spokesperson

The person telling or contributing to the story is equally important to the story itself. If a director takes the lead in the narrative, that will inevitably be far less interesting than if the CEO or founder contributes, as they tend to have greater name and/or brand recognition. 

Authority and proximity to a story matter. Would you rather hear information from the President or a director of the NSA? Audiences invariably become more engaged with recognizable names or those perceived to be leaders. Thus, any PR-driven story will be much more effective if the storyteller occupies a prominent position, at least from the audience’s perspective.  

Decide on the optimal story format

Storytelling can be accomplished in a variety of formats, including, but not limited to, news items (which tend to complement press releases), longform stories which provide in-depth coverage, and visual stories driven by images and videos. With today’s readily accessible technologies, it’s becoming more and more common to combine formats in increasingly creative ways. 

It’s absolutely essential that the story format compliment the venue with which you’re trying to both pitch and tell it. Are you trying to pitch a television outlet? Then naturally a visual-driven story is the best, if not only, option. If you’re targeting a magazine, a longform story may be most appropriate, especially for a publication known for delivering in-depth stories to their readers.

The story itself also dictates how it should be told. If you’re trying to promote a news item, that wouldn’t fit for a longform story. 

Identify your audience

The target audience also serves as a guiding light for your publicity campaign. For example, if your goal is to reach decision-makers in a certain industry, focus on trade publications rather than mainstream business media. This is because the audience you covet is far more likely to be hyper-concentrated in a trade publication, and therefore the story will invariably have more impact than non-trades.

Determine the campaign objective

PR campaigns can be driven by numerous objectives: raising brand awareness, publicizing products, managing public perception of issues/problems, even educating broader audiences for long-term benefits. Because the objective determines the direction of your campaign, it’s critical to identify a clear objective immediately, formulate a realistic plan, and focus on delivering your objective-focused message.

Audiences today are bombarded with information from virtually endless sources. With so much exposure to agenda-driven media, audiences tend to overlook vague, unengaging stories that do not quickly drive home a message. If the objective is to raise brand awareness, give your audience a compelling story. Bottom line: never lose sight of your objective with respect to a PR campaign. The moment you drift from your core objective, the more your story and message will be lost in a sea of information.