Creating Your 12-Month Public Relations Plan

The following plan will show you how to set measurable goals and develop specific activities throughout the year.

Planning is a critical element of the public relations process--and the one most people skip. Why? Because it's hard, and it takes time.

A public relations plan can be detailed or very basic. At the minimum, it should include activities for a 12-month period.

Preparing to Write Your Plan
Before you start writing your plan, you'll need to answer the following questions:

• What is my budget?
• What are the business goals I’d like to achieve with this plan?
• Who is my target market?
• Who and what are my primary referral sources?
• How will this fit with my other marketing activities?
• How will I measure my success?

Let’s take each of these questions separately.

What is my budget? This varies depending on your industry and your growth plans. Generally, a marketing budget is 2 percent to 10 percent of projected annual gross sales. My recommendation would be to devote at least 5 percent of your projected annual gross sales to marketing efforts.

What are the business goals I’d like to achieve with this plan? Here are some typical business goals served by PR activities. You can have several goals for your PR plan:

• Launch a brand;
• Get a certain number of contacts or have a certain number of conversations per month;
• Launch a new product; and
• Change a perception in the marketplace.

Who is my target market? Your target market is the kind of people you think are qualified and interested in buying your products and services.

Who or what are my primary referral sources? Your referral sources are the lifeblood of your business. Whether they are current clients, colleagues in complementary businesses or discount travel websites, you must make sure you are initiating PR activities to constantly remind those sources about you, so they can refer more prospects to you.

How will this fit with my other marketing activities? Depending on your industry, you may choose other activities to supplement your public relations activities, such as advertising and direct mail. These other activities will have an effect on your overall budget.

How will I measure my success? That depends on your goals. Some goals are very specific, such as 40 contacts or conversations a month. It's pretty easy to measure whether your marketing activities lead you to that. Other goals, such as the perception of your business or your brand, can be measured through surveys.

Create your public relations plan.
Now it's time to create your plan. You can use the following example of a public relations plan for an interior designer as a guide:

Goals:

• Change public perception from generic interior design company to one that specializes in "green" interiors.
• Generate 30 conversations a month.

Target market:

• Moms, ages 30-50,
• With household incomes of $200,000 or more,
• Who own homes worth $500,000 or more, and
• Who live in Boca Raton, Florida.

Referral sources:

• Current and past clients;
• Realtors who sell $500,000 and higher-cost homes in Boca Raton;
• Remodelers who work on $500,000 and higher-cost homes in Boca Raton; and

Other interior designers who don’t focus on "green" design.

Monthly activities:

January:

• Read Do-It-Yourself Public Relations Kit.
• Create annual public relations plan.

February:

• Create fact sheet, backgrounder, biography and press release.
• Attend interior design industry conference.

March:

• Create template for, write and send out first monthly newsletter.
• Create a holiday called "National Green Home Day" to take place in October. Submit this to Chase’s Calendar.

April:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Pitch information included in press release about "How Moms Can Make Their Homes Safer for Kids By Going Green."

May:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Pitch yourself as a speaker on "How to Make Your Homes Safer" by going green.
• Follow up on press release pitch.

June:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Speak at local mommy & me group on "green" design.

July:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Create press release and pitch media on "My Participation in Show House Designing."

August:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Work on show house.

September:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Write and submit article on "green homes" to newsletter for local Realtors' association.

October:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Create press release and pitch media on "National Green Home Day."

November:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Field publicity for "National Green Home Day."

December:

• Monthly newsletter.
• Holiday party at your house.

A public relations plan will keep you focused on the right activities to achieve your business goals. And that will keep you on the path to business success.