Crazy as it sounds, the best chess players can see the consequences of the next eight moves in a game. They know something that is fundamental to chess (and to public relations): nothing happens in isolation. They cannot move the pawn, for example, without setting off a new chain of events that may, or may not, lead to their victory. Every move matters and sets the foundation for what happens next.

It is the same in PR. While many companies tend to see public relations as a series of isolated campaigns, this is a mistake. The reality is that the best results will be achieved when each campaign is seen as the foundation for the one that comes next. In other words, your holiday season PR campaign is not something that happens once a year. Instead, it is meant to build momentum for Valentine’s Day, which sets the stage for Mother’s Day, which sets the scene for the summer, which leads to back-to-school, which leads to, you guessed it, the holiday season once again.

Below, we’ll help you to understand how to make each campaign connect to the next so that you can build momentum and scale up your company even faster.

First, visualize the next few years as a chess board.

You ideally will already know the optimal times of the year for sales of your products and services. It’s possible, though, that you may also want to address a month when you historically have weaker sales for some reason. For this part, we recommend identifying 5-6 times during each year when you plan to have a major campaign. The weeks in between each campaign will be deemphasized, though they will eventually be addressed.

Next, write down your sales goals for each major campaign.

Along with this, jot down what you know about who typically buys during this time, including their gender, age, income levels, etc. Include what they buy as well. The more specific you get here, the easier it will be to see patterns and opportunities to connect campaigns together.

Now, look for commonalities between PR campaigns.

To make one campaign flow into the next, it’s useful to pinpoint similarities. Who is buying during the holiday season, and is there an opportunity for them to buy from you during Valentine’s Day? Your products may sell well during the summer but then lag until Christmas time. Can you use that summer momentum to create a PR campaign for the fall and increase sales?

The biggest PR problem startups in particular have is that they see public relations campaigns as “one and done.” They forget to look a few chess moves down the line and connect one campaign to the next. By seeing commonalities, you can avoid having this happen and can create more sales power.

What happens in between campaigns is important, too.

Another way to see PR is as a series of hills: the top of each one is a major campaign, and in between are the mini-campaigns that build to the next big push. What you do in the valleys, so to speak, matters just as much as the big moments. It can include getting more involved in your community, blogging consistently, having free classes, or speaking on podcasts. Each smaller thing you do keeps your company’s name out there and makes it easier for the bigger PR campaigns to succeed.

Remember: public relations is a never-ending series of big and small campaigns.   

If it all sounds complicated, it’s because it is. It’s why major corporations have entire PR departments that live and breathe campaigns every day of the year. It can be tempting for startups to create PR campaigns in isolation because they have too much to do to be chess players. If that’s you, we completely understand, as we were once a startup ourselves. Slowing down, however, and really visualizing how each PR campaign will connect to the next can optimize your business. And that, as we say in public relations, will be magic.

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/.