Business to Business Marketing
Public Relations
As a starting point, Ken MacKenzie will prepare a cost-effective proposal suited to the client’s specific requirements. In some cases, this may mean a complete communication strategy, in others a short-term outline.
Five Key Steps
The more strategic approach should be to look upon Public Relations as a complement to your business plan. Public Relations should be used as a real planning tool broken down into five steps:
Step 1 – Audit
Where are we? The first step is to use research to establish your organisation’s present position in terms of the way it is seen and understood by those who matter? What are the attitudes of customers, prospects, key influencers, and staff?
Step 2 – Objectives
Where do you need to be? The second step is to map out where the brand or organisation needs to be, in terms of its visibility and the perceptions that are held of it. Define your objectives. Are they clear, realistic, measurable and time specific? Define the messages that need to be communicated, the key targets and desired response. Pre-test these messages if possible. Are your messages credible? Does anyone care? Set these objectives, target audiences and messages into the context of an activities plan – which could be media contact, key influencer programs or even events.
Step 3 – Plan
How do we get there? A critical step is to select the right type of plan. What messages are getting out and their impact, exposure and audience reach ? Of course, this is not just limited to media relations and it can include the volume of literature requested for instance. Is the message coming through? To what extent are the key audiences receiving, understanding and retaining messages? What are their impressions and feelings? This can only be assessed by surveys and focus groups comparing the earlier benchmark with the new position, unless it is evident in the final measure – the positive degree of change in attitudes and behavior. If the campaign has really worked, this is often very obvious. People just talk. Sales figures climb. The sales force faces less resistance.
Step 4 – Taking Stock
Are we getting there? Why leave it to the end of the campaign? The ideal approach is to assess achievements at least half-way through the campaign and measure the degree to which targets are being reached. Assess the shape of media coverage and influence being achieved and map achievements against the benchmark set in Stage 1.Try to isolate PR effect from advertising.
Step 5 – Results & Evaluation
How did we do? This is the time to measure achievements. Take out the original benchmark and objectives and compare results and isolate the PR contribution.
Business to Business Market Intelligence:
Ken MacKenzie can gather market intelligence and background information, which will help your business decision-making.
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