How To Write A Comprehensive Public Relations Plan: Part 2

By Craig Miyamoto, APR, Fellow PRSA

In Part 1, we talked about writing your transmittal letter, executive summary, and situation analysis. We also stressed the importance of identifying the correct problem, setting your campaign goal, identifying your audiences and selecting the proper messages, adopting specific and measurable objectives, and setting a strategic course of action.

COMMUNICATION TACTICS

This is the section in which you tell the client exactly what communications initiatives you propose. If you have conducted some creative brainstorming, you should have developed a "shopping list" of possible tactics that will achieve your previously stated objectives.

Look at each tactic from the standpoint of what it will do to achieve your objectives.

Your tactics will include:

• ACTION EVENTS: Non-written tactics such as special events, demonstrations, exhibits, parades, community contributions (manpower, talent, advice, money) and other non-verbal activities. Separate your action events into message tactics (which will be used to get your message across to the audience) and media tactics (how you will utilize the news media to publicize your action events).

• COMMUNICATIONS TACTICS: Verbal tactics (oral and written) that use words or pictures. These include newsletters, flyers, news releases, brochures, direct mail, advertising, themes, slogans, the World Wide Web (WWW), and other initiatives that use words and language as their basis. As with your action events, separate communications initiatives into message tactics (which will be used to get your message directly to the audience), and media tactics (how you will utilize the news media to communicate your messages).

When presenting your tactics in this section, be sure to provide a brief one- to three-paragraph description of each tactic, especially noting the audiences to which the tactic is directed, the message you expect the audience to receive, your reasons for selecting this particular tactic (cite your research, focus group results, etc.), and the anticipated results.

SCHEDULE

You must show that you have thought through the plan to the smallest details. In this section, present your planning calendar. Be specific and comprehensive. Include specific dates whenever possible.

Tell the client exactly when you're going to conduct the action events and communication tactics you noted earlier. Also, tell the client who will be doing the work.

List milestones and deadlines for each of the events and tactics. Plan writers always note when communication products and activities will culminate, but often forget milestones and deadlines.

For example, don't just say that a brochure will be delivered to the office on July 17. You must also include milestones and deadlines, and let the client know that initial copy drafts are due on May 2, that three days are required for initial editing, that second drafts are due on May 10, that two more days are required for editing, that the final draft is due on May 17, and that final copy approval is due on May 19.

The client also must know that final copy is due at the typesetter on May 21, that the graphic designer needs two weeks to work on the design, that the printer needs the camera-ready art and layout by July 1, and that a minimum of 10 days is required before the printed brochure can be placed on the client's desk.

Each of the dates above should be included in your schedule. Do this for each initiative. You may either present a separate calendar for each tactic, or combine them into a comprehensive timetable. Ideally, you should do both.

Don't forget to correlate once again the events with the audiences you expect to address, and what you expect to accomplish.

Finally, don't forget to include any research you will be conducting, as well as on-going and end-of-project evaluation dates.

BUDGET

An axiom: It is not easy to compile a budget.

Putting a budget together is especially difficult when you are working on a hypothetical case, or if you are not sure of the client's requirements ("Why don't you present three scenarios -- minimal, moderate and optimal -- and we'll pick the one we can afford").

This may seem incredible, but the client often has absolutely no idea how much is available for your campaign. More often than we suspect, the client may simply be "fishing" for a cheap way to obtain some publicity for the company. Or, the client may want to know how much a pet project would cost if it were done correctly.

That said, you must have a budget section. You must have an accurate representation of how much things are going to cost. The information may be close at hand (e.g., previous experience, other plans, informative co-workers), or ... you may have to make a lot of phone calls.

Separate your anticipated income from your proposed expenses, and present both totals. Finally, give the client a bottom-line figure. Tell the client exactly what the campaign is going to cost. An excess of income over expenses will result in a profit to the client; an excess of expenses over income will result in a cash outlay by the client.

Now . . . don't you wish you had taken accounting in college?

EVALUATION PLANS

If you have planned your campaign correctly, your communication and action tactics will have been performed according to schedule, and will have cost exactly (or pretty close to) what you said they would cost. You will have reached all of your identified audiences and persuaded them to do exactly what you wanted them to do.

You would have attained all of your objectives, which ultimately means that you have achieved your primary goal. And, if it is not too bold to say, you will have solved the client's public relations problem, and those dire consequences you predicted earlier will not come to pass.

But how do you know whether or not you've succeeded? You must measure your accomplishments. How do you measure those results?

You do it by measuring two phases of your campaign:

• IMPACT: Ask yourself what behavioral or attitudinal changes the campaign effected. Impact measurement documents the extent to which you achieved the outcomes spelled out in your objectives for each target public. It also tells you to what extent your overall program goal was achieved.

• OUTPUT (or implementation): In other words, what did you DO? How much effort went into carrying out the campaign? How many publications and releases were prepared and distributed? How many column inches and minutes of air-time coverage did you get? How many people were exposed to your message?

Emphasize impact -- impact is paramount. Emphasize output only if the communications "products" are central to your problem and contribute to solutions.

Tell the client exactly how you are going to measure the results of what you did, and how they relate to your objectives.

Remember, you cannot evaluate effectively unless you have good objectives. If you don't have good objectives, then you have nothing to measure against.

PERTINENT RESEARCH

Create a "Tab A" and submit your research results. In this section, include client, situational, and audience research results (clippings, polls, interviews, library research, or summaries of research found elsewhere -- with appropriate source identification). Include anything you deemed essential while compiling your situation analysis.

COMMUNICATION SAMPLES

Create a "Tab B" and include descriptions and/or rough layouts of recommended communications materials (i.e., news releases, public service announcements, speech outlines, statements, institutional ads, brochure dummies).

For each news release, list names of news organizations to which they will be delivered, and their deadlines. Be sure to use a wide variety of communication channels and methods, properly timed and coordinated.

Remember also that actions and events generally are more effective than written or oral communications alone. You should strive to keep verbal communications to a minimum, and make imaginative and creative actions and events a key part of your campaign.

A LAST WORD

Finally . . .

No typos. Bind all work neatly. Personalize the transmittal letters if you know the names of the selection committee members. No typos. Use a computer and laser printer. Meet deadlines. Use an easily readable font typeface (minimum 12-point font). Use good paper, don't skimp.

Remember: The "class" projected by your proposal is reflected in the perception that the client has on your "excellence" as a public relations professional.

Look professional, and you will be viewed as professional.