It might sound like the boring part of PR but planning can have a huge impact on the health of your relationships with clients. I have recently met with two clients both of whom were working with big national consultancies but were unhappy with the relationship. When I asked about their concerns they mentioned that they never knew what their PR consultancy was going to be delivering to them and what targets had been set. One however did comment that their agency was never shy in saying that they were currently overservicing and needed to cut back on the amount of time spent on the account. Surprisingly, said the client, they never let me know when I was being underserviced. Not the best sign of a healthy relationship.
Some PROs shy away from plans and targets perhaps believing that they will set themselves up for a fall, or that you cannot give targets as you work to the journalists' agenda. But these are lame excuses - without structured plans you cannot measure the true effectiveness of the campaign and whether you have met your objectives. Crucially, expectations will never be met - or exceeded - and when it comes to budget reevaluation you will be lucky to argue the case.
In this industry we spend a lot of time talking about measurement, but perhaps it is putting the cart before the horse. If professional PR companies are not doing the basic planning we will never be able to effectively measure and clients will not be able to gauge whether they are getting the campaign they were initially promised.
PR Planning - back to basics - To learn more about this author, visit Veronica Hannon's Website.
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Veronica Hannon
(Visit Veronica's Website)
Vereronica Hannon (www.vmhassociates.co.uk/)is a
successful PR consultant. She has over 10
years experience in public relations
working in both the B2B and B2C
environment. She delivers strategic
campaigns, backed by strong planning and
evaluation.
Prior to her public relations career,
Veronica spent 6 years as a journalist
working some of the UK's leading business
and consumer publishers.
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