Why some public relations campaigns succeed while others fizzle out before they even start is not an exact science. Books have been written on the subject, and people pay a lot of money to attend seminars that promise to reveal the secret. At Imperium, while we believe you can learn valuable information from those sources, we think the answer comes down to one thing: preparation. We are not talking about the effort you put in once you decide to have a PR campaign. Instead, your work actually begins months or even years before. The smart business owner will start preparing for their first PR campaign as soon as entrepreneurship even enters their mind.

Effective public relations is based on details, details, details.

To put this in perspective, let’s consider a job interview that Person A and Person B will attend. They both want the job, they both dress reasonably well, and they both have experience. So far, there is no real difference between them.

However, Person A does no prep work. They don’t review their resume, practice talking about what they did at their first job twenty years ago, and they stumble through the interview, giving vague answers to questions. They can’t tie anything they have done in the past to why they’re a good candidate for the position.

Person B, on the other hand, nails it. They refresh their memory about the details of that job at the pizza place back in high school. They are confident when speaking about the employment and volunteer history on their resume. They can tie all of that to the job they are interviewing for.

Naturally, Person B gets the job, and Person A goes home, wondering what went wrong.

In the end, preparing for PR is no different from preparing for an interview.

Person B wanted that job, they prepared for the interview, and they were able to convince the interviewer to hire them. You want customers, and you are going to need to put in just as much work, if not more, to succeed. So, here is how you do it.

Assign an employee to be your company’s historian.

Whether it’s your administrative assistant, an intern, you, or someone else, your first step is to make it someone’s duty to document your business’ history - every day. That person will be responsible for keeping track of everything remotely noteworthy that happens or your company accomplishes.

What is noteworthy? New ideas. Product launches. Employee birthdays. Company Christmas parties. A retooled website. A seminar you attend. Especially positive feedback you receive about your products/services. And, of course, dates for each one along with names (correctly spelled) of people. Even your failures can go in here, especially if you include how you recovered from them.

This all goes into a database, whether it’s online or in a notebook. One person keeps track of all of this. Why is it important? Well, when you decide to sit down and have a PR campaign, it will be very helpful to look back at your company’s detailed history and see the story of your successes and stumbles. It’s also hard to deny that as time passes, your memory fades, so this can remind you of what you may have forgotten.

Make it someone’s responsibility to monitor current events each day.

Successful PR will incorporate news events that relate to your industry and business. If the public’s eyes are on a piece of legislation that just got passed and it’s relevant to your company, it could be a great opportunity to comment and become a thought leader.

Along those lines, it’s also a good idea to take the first 15-20 minutes of each day to have a quick roundtable discussion about any news your employees have heard. You can brainstorm how it connects to your company and how you might use that in public relations. You may be surprised at how creative your employees can be.

Don’t be shy about taking photos and videos of your company’s products, services, and employees.

Photos and videos are a great way to document the history of your business. One thing to respect, of course, is a person’s right to privacy - some people really don’t like having their picture taken or appearing in a video, so don’t force it. Aside from that, we recommend capturing moments, big or small, in this way on the chance that they will be useful in future PR campaigns.

With this information, you can now sit down and start thinking about your next PR campaign.

To create PR strategies that differentiate you from your competitors, read through your company’s history. Look for trends and connections. As you revisit the past, you will better understand how each event built the foundation for what came next. This kind of information will be used to create public relations campaigns that are intriguing and make your customers feel compelled to learn more about your company. 

Imperium Group is an American public relations and marketing consultancy firm. Founded in 2016, it specializes in guaranteed placements, creating utmost transparency for its clients. Imperium Group generates over 15M impressions a month for its clients. Its team is based out of New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles.  

For more information about Imperium Group, please see https://navigator.imperiumgrouppr.com/.