8/8/2019 Writing a Pr Paln

1/3

s p o t l i g h t o n > wri

W r i t i n g t h e P R p l a n :D e f in i n g s u c c e s s f o r y o u r o r g a n i z a t io nBy Doug Newsom, Ph.D.,AP R, FeUow PRSA , andJim Haynes, AP R, Fellow

Writing is the heart of publicrelations. Developing and sustainingrektionships demands consistentcommunications.

Whethe r your or^niza tion isdealing w ith a crisis situation, asliort-terni PR campaign or anongoing PR program, writingnrniains the basisft>rconve^'inginforma tion, establisliiiig and sus-taining credibility, aiid building abrand.

But before you begin w ritingany sort of PR communicatioasneeded b>' an oi^inization, your finitstep is preparing a written PR plan.A plan for strategic communicationis the foundation for PR action.

Like a map, a plan providesdirection towan i a desired destina-tion and e quips your or^janization towrite and speak with one coordinatedvoice.

Of coun e. a PR campaign or pro-gram Is a series of coordinated, unifiedactivities and messages, driven by a singlestrategy, delivered to relevant publics by avariety of mean s.These ;u:tivities and mes -sages are intended to infonti, educate orpersuade those publics to buy, use or sup-port something. So the PR plan should fitinto y our organ ization's overall strategicplan.

A PR plan defines first what is to bedone, second how it will be done , thirdwho will do It, and fourth when and/orhow often it will be done. Resources wha t it will cost are deployed in w hat Isbelieved to be the tTiost effective and effi-cient way to accomplish ^n organization'spurpose.

A plan s design is dictated by the orga-nization's strategic objective. Wh at th eorganization wants to achieve in a givensituation determines which constituenciesor publics have priority. Once the con-stituencies or publics are identified, thechannels needed to reach them beco meclearer,

A plan might involve mass and/o rspecialized media media that primarypublics hold especially credible. In publicrelations, any thing can be used as a chan-nel for comm unica tions, especially in acampaign. For cantpaigns and specialevents, the media list is iibnost endless dooricnob hangers, mayors'or gov ernors'proclamations, open houses,forums,

marathon races, pamdes and so on, withrelated supporting materials and publicity.Whatever the purpose of the comm uni-cation plan, the m ost effective programsencapsulate the individuals composing thesignificant publics in carefxilly selectedmessages delivered through credible chan-nels.

PR writing is vital because the writer,more than anyone, interprets the obje c-tives, goals and strategies to relevan tpublics. A wri ter mu st be fuUy aware ofthe campaign plan's goals and purpose toensure that the w riting supports the totaleffort.

Often the most workable planningstrategy is to develop numerous mini plans one for each aspect of the PR pro-gram. On e international corporation hasseparate plans tor employee co mmu nica-tions, marketing publicity, com munityrelations, meiiia reladoas^ud^an affairs,government afiain, investor relations andcustomer relations.

Let's take a look at a dozen stepsneeded to write a solid PR plan.1. Review the orgiuiization s missionstatement. Be sure yourplan is a goodfit. fthe mission statement hasn't been

reviewed ecendy, t may be dme for mod-ificadoas or revisions.

2 . Examine your oi^i iz ado n sstrengths and weaknesses; determine whatsupport you can expect for public rela-dons.

3 . Gather and analyze data abou t theorganizadon's compeddon.

4. Examine economicforecasts.

S.Write statements o fobjecd\x*s. No te that in som eor^nizado ns, the tenn goal isused to denote long-rangeoutcomes desired,whileobjecdve is used for short-term outcomes. Other oi^^n-izadonsreverse lie meaning,with objecdve meaning longrange and goal referring toshort term. Neither is incor-rect, but clearly idendfyingthe meaning of each as you gointo a planning acdvity isimportant.

6. Write goals (or objec-dves). Each sh ould an.swer tiiequesdons:What one end-result do you want to accom-plish? What happens after theevent OCCUR or the m essage issentPTo be measurable, eachshould contiin four co mpo -nents:

What is being m easured (awareness?attendance? contribudons?)

A starting point o r base agaiastwhich to measure

Qu andde s or pereentages to beachieved

" A deadline or amo unt o f time foraccomplishment

Ev~aluation of success is only as goodas the quality of the goals. By includingthese comp onents, you're setdng the stagefor measuring your success.

7. Develop strategies appnjachesto solving problems or capturing op por-tunides that answer the quesdons: Howshall we proceed? What approach willguide us?

8.Define,prioritize and analyzepublics. Each public is a group of peoplewith similar characterLsdcs (d emog raphicor psych ographic) that affect how wellyour organization operates or achieves theobjectK'es you have set.TTie basic q ues -dons are:Who can m ake the decision (ortake the acdon) that I want made? Whatare those people like?

Idendfying their characterisdcs andreladonsliips to the organizadon allowsthe PR professional to make comm unica-tions more personal and relevant,andtherefore, more memorable to the indi-viduals composing that public.

By fijrther dividing each public intohomc)genet)us segments and examiningtheir connecdons to each other,you candetermine wh o will respond in similarways to help make communicadoas more

targeted and effecdve.9.Write message strategies and s

ments. Nodce that deciding what tohow to say it and tlmnigh which jnedconvey the messa^;es is not done at thoutset of he planning prticess. Makinthose decisions before steps one t h meight have been com pleted would bea physician prescribing med icadoas examining the padent.

11). Develop media strategy and Media strategy and mix represent onthe most im portant areas of ;i PR plaAsk yourself,what type of media shoselect? Which specific media will besen for cost, credibility and deliverabwithin established time fnitnes? Howused?The strategy .Uso de;ils uath diand th e frequency of message deliver

11 . Develop a schedule, assign resibility for each task and establish a bu

12 . Devise monitoring and m e:iment systenis and related proceduresStaying on budget and on top of protion are cridcal.To be sure ev erytiiingplan happerLs as scheduled, prepare aline diat is flexible but functional.

C oordination w ithin ;ill or^nizadonal units and w ith suppliers is necto avoid problem s of delivery, duplicaof effort and, worst case, conflicts in msages or with acdons.such as policychanges.P u t t i n g t h e p l a n i n t o a c t io n

Wh en a pUn isfinishedand appit's dm e to set the elements in modonIS when the PR writer hegius to playmajor role. Assignments are mad e ftjrrange of asks. Co py super\isoni d o Creviews with the writers to nuike suknow what they are supposed to do iwhat dm e frames, what t he basic messtrategy is and how it can be interprepardcular w riting Lisks.

A key element, regardless of theing task, is to make sure that what yowrite is consistent with the strategic of the plan and with the oi^tanizadoncentral focus to prote ct credibility. Emessage must be w ritten so it will fitformat of h e medium ased to deliveand every message should be directeespecially to the target t)r priority p uM e a s u r e m e n t

How can we tell whethe r the pgram is working? Below is a sununarsome factors you can measure.The ftwo can help maintain quality in PRing and pnsducdon.

1. Inputs Th e w riter's access Conlimied on

1 6 F e b r u ar y 2 0 0 8 T A C T IC S

8/8/2019 Writing a Pr Paln

2/3

s p o t l i g h t o n > writ in

m o d e s t p r o p o s a l :x s e c r e t s t o p e r f e c t i n g a p r o p o s a lJoseph PriestIt may be the most important docu-Wh ethe r you work for an agency, a

a nonprofit, a proposal forbusiness, a new project or a ne wis a typical part of do in^ business.

But putting together a proposal can

a range oflities and experience infomiation,

colleagues to providea business challenge,

aJI this informa-zy booklets under tight dead-

Not surprisingly.many granimar-

F o r fu r t h e r r e a d i n g f r o m P R S A 'sa r c h i v e s :'I3Iog basics: W ritin g o niine ismuch easier than you nught imag-ine" February 2( H X y , PR lactia"Und erstanding the importance ofjob descriptions: How to put diemin writing," February 2005. PRTiaics"In style: A vetenm AP e ditor talksshop about the journalist s bible,"February 2005, PR Tactics"W hat d o editors think?T he craftof good writing," February 2004,PR'lactks

mem bers liave access to ftill-text PD Fs of these articles as wellas two-page outlines of Silver AnvilAward entries throajj i the PR CSearch under the Mem berNet areaat www.prsa.org. O

this much information u nder this kind oftimeline.

Mist;ikes on proposals are embarrass-ing, unacceptable and, of course, detri-mental to business. Regardless of howmuch time you have to pull together aprDpos,il, what's important is to alwayssweat the details and not settle for any-tlaing less than perfection.

Below are six cotnino n errors toavoid.l .W o u l d y o u o r w i l ly o u ?

Wh en you describe a proposedcourse of action, you can use the c ond i-tional verb tense (would) or the futuretense (will): Ou r team w ill start l y devel-oping an influencer piognun.T he condi-tional tense is less assuming while thefuttire tense expresses stronge r intent, buteither is OK . However, it s easy to ina d-vertently jum p back and forth betw eenthese two tenses and create a section thatreads sloppily. Rem em ber to keep thisverb choice consistent throughout thedocument .2 . M r . , M s . , l a s t n a m e o r f ir s t n a m e ?

When you describe the talents ofyour team in the bio section of proposals,its easy to alternate from a formal style(Mr.Joseph Gillis) to a casual one(Josepii) to one in-between (Gillis),depending on how a bio was originallywritten or what style seenis most appro-priate. The use of the first name tctids tobe the most common style nowadays.Wh icheve r you choose , stick with it in allthe bios.3 . A c o m p a n y is o n l y o n e

Wh en including case studies in aproposal, a com mon pitfall in describingpast work is to refer to a corporation witha plural pronoun:W hen Com pany XYZlaunched its program, they needed a wayto raise awareness.Tliis reflects the infor-mal conversationa l style of referring to aperson o r company in a plural form. Inwriting, however, remember a co rpora-

tion is a singular entity and should alwaysbe referred to with the singular pronou n"it."4 . P a r a l le l s t r u c t u r e

Proposals arc usually cho ck full ofbulleted lists, so rememb er the most co m-mon error with bulleted lists is a lack ofp.irallel co nstru ction . If the first bulleteditem is a noun , die a'st of the items shouldbe no uns . It the first iiem is a completesentence, the rest of the items shou ld be aswell. Eacii item should be consistent withthe intnidm tory sentence.5 . W a t c h y o u r E n g l is h

If you re uoi king on a proposal teamthat includes both B ritish- andAinerica n-Eny ^h speakers, be surc todesignate someone who can act as a finalauthority in proofing the use of EngUsli.Although British En ^s h and AmericanEnglish are generally i nte a hangeable,enougli diftea*nces exist to cause misun-derstandings. A few rem inders;

hi American English, periods andcomm as are always enclosed in closingquotation marks. In liritish En^ish, how-ever, only those pun ctuation marks tliat

appear in the originamaterial are enclosedin quotatii>n marks,American Etigjish:'*!won't go," Norma saBritish English;"lwon't gti". Nor m asaid.

Americans writhe abbreviations MrMrs.,St. and Dr. withperiod . B ritons usualbut not always, writethese as Mr. Mrs,St aDr. without a period

In BritishEnglish, collectivenouns that representgroups of people ge nerally take a plural ve

unlilw Americ an English. British EnglisTh e govem inent are on the rigjit coursAmerican Eny^ish:The government is othe right course.6 . O n e o r t w o ?

! inally,tliis may seem nitpick ybutinconsistent spacing following the end oa sentence d oes make a difference. For ta'cord, correc t spacing afiier a punctua-tion mark ending a sentence is t)ne spacnot two.

With the large number of peoplewho c ontribute to proposals,its likelythat this inconsistency will crop up.Try enfoa e the one-sp ace rule.To be sure, tis a minor style issue,but its the same as black text we re used in part of the pro -posal and gray text in ano ther part. It'ssmall but noticeable. Any inconsistenLyyou can eliminate will make the finalproduct better. O

n>iiiiiiiiiii,.:ih>ii.i ill Kcithiitn's^'tti'York I'lJicr ,uui ai'Wnii'i aiiumihly slytc-Mi(i-tisii_^e nni-xler. He (an if micbrii.

um. com.

Iwil i Page 16mely, complete and correct infbnnado n.

2.1 hniughputs A tiUIy of people

3. Outputs W hat information was4. Outtakes D id the target audience5. Results T his is of tiiost interest to

senior managers, but more costly than theabove. Res ults aiiswci" the question s. Did th etargeted publics' behavior change? In whatway. By how much? Did the outcomesmatch the objectives? What is the value tothe organization?

Your most daunting w riting task is like-ly to be a thorough report that summarizesth e esultsof the effort. Information in thesereports, tliough. can be usefU and easier to

understand when pieces are recast a s back-groun ders, position papers, letters a ndm e m o s i n suppor t o f forthcoming planningefforts. A n additionid benefit to making theinfonnatio n moa - accessible is gctdn g dieinformation to responsible managers in itsmost usable fonu. O

iu. /-(inn & Slylt; Sih tdilwn, 200X,voiii am i

D o u g N e w s o m , P h . D . , A P R ,Fdlow PRSA, J^ pn'IfiMtr li'ilulisiii iiiiil liifirtoTill {nuiuii

i a( lexas ChmiuiHityill I-im 11'onh,Iiwiu

Jim Harnes,APR.Feliow PRSAI* .1 imttilhi of PRSA's 200S-2009 }xian\ ofdimtim ,itiil is .iliiinriyr atui itnior cotuiiltaiH alQuukSihrrbtlentiiiw (imif),Itu: iti Diiltiif. li-niail:

T A C T T C S F e b f i J a f y 2 0 0 8 1

8/8/2019 Writing a Pr Paln

3/3