The Public Relations Handbook

Every chapter in this book is important, but this one—about a disciplined program to tell your story—is absolutely crucial. The approach outlined here is at the core of delivering results and value to your client—internal (if you’re “in house”) or external (if you’re with an agency).

When an outside agency or consultant is used to deliver the desired results, this outline also provides a guide to evaluating the soundness of the plan or program presented to you.

The prerequisites to designing an effective program are defining and understanding your audience, and knowing what will move them to take a desired action. Because until and unless you do this, you risk wasting time, energy, and resources. Serious mistakes can ensue. Getting your target right from the outset is well worth the effort.

Over the course of my career, I have worked with many companies, nonprofit organizations, individual entrepreneurs, and other clients who try to reach everyone they possibly can. Such an approach may be the answer if you are aiming at retail consumers, but even consumer audiences can and should be segmented demographically to focus on likely buyers, those that can influence them, and ultimately on the decision makers themselves. Getting directly to the decision maker, if possible, is often the most efficient means of accomplishing the objective.

Let me offer an example of targeting decision makers. I am reminded of a short tale about Jay Pritzker, the man behind Hyatt Hotels, and a billionaire long before it became commonplace. Over the more than thirty-five years Bob Dilenschneider and I have worked together, I have heard him relate the story many times to clients, prospects, and staff. It is an object lesson in focusing on what and who is important.

As the story goes, it took place many years ago, during a taxi ride from Chicago’s Loop to O’Hare Airport. Bob is quick to classify Jay Pritzker as one of the smartest businessmen he ever met. On the way to O’Hare, they discussed an opportunity that was to net Pritzker a great deal of money. Bob says he started out “defining” the potential audience—many thousands of people—and talking about how he would go about reaching them.

Back then, on a good day with no traffic, getting to O’Hare could take about thirty-six minutes. By the end of the trip, Pritzker and Bob had narrowed the “audience” to three people. Pritzker did this by asking a series of questions. Who were the real decision makers? They were the target.

The two men mapped out a sophisticated plan to reach these three people and, in the next four months, relentlessly followed every step. Pritzker’s goal was achieved with almost no wasted effort or expense. Bob has always said that this episode taught him a very valuable lesson about focusing on who and what counts. He has shared the lesson with many.

NOW YOU’RE READY TO DESIGN YOUR PLAN

In preparing a communications program for a client, prospect, or a direct report in a corporate or organizational setting, I recommend that you use the tried-and-true approach that follows. Doing so will help ensure you touch all the bases.

We call the plan SO SMArTT, a simple acronym that will help you remember the seven primary elements of the program: Situation, Objectives, Strategies, Messages, Audiences, related Tactics, and Timeline.

There are other points, but these seven mutually supportive areas are the essential elements of any plan or program. I didn’t invent them. They have been at the heart of PR planning and execution for many, many decades.

Don’t use these elements solely as a crutch. Each element warrants careful thought and consideration. Each should be linked to the other six in a way that supports achieving one or more of the program’s objectives.

In the end, the communications program is all about achieving the plan’s objectives—a good reason to define these clearly at the outset. So, until the program links all seven elements with no loose ends, you still have work to do.

In the agency business, communications plans are the consultant’s stock in trade. Having spent my entire career on the agency side, I’ve encountered too many so-called communications programs—from competing agencies, I hasten to add—that amount to handing near identical plans to multiple clients/prospects with little more than the names changed.

Lots of agencies do this routinely. Be aware of it, and if you are on the receiving end, judge for yourself how much real thought and effort went into tailoring a proposed program to your organization’s specific needs. The program is usually an agency’s first opportunity to demonstrate the unique value, creative approach, and sound judgment the account team should bring to an assignment. Judge accordingly. If you are on the client side preparing a program for your direct report, be equally committed to providing a tailored product.

PUTTING THE PLAN TOGETHER USING SO SMArTT PRINCIPLES

Situation

Lead with a simple declarative statement about the overall aspirations of the client, prospect, or organization. This brief statement should capture how the target wants to be to be viewed, perceived, positioned, or distinguished in the minds of those important to its success. Helping achieve these goals is the purpose of your communications plan.

A client or prospect will always know their business far better than you do. That’s a given. But the client or prospect may not have a clear understanding of the situation they are facing, be it a challenge or an opportunity. You may have to help clarify the situation. On the whole, though, your role—your expertise—is to provide communications advice and offer solutions.

But to create the right professional impression and demonstrate a thoughtful approach to the assignment, use this section to showcase your grasp of what the client has told you about the situation they face. Replay it for them. Put it all in your objective, third-party perspective, focusing on the communications aspects of what needs to be done to achieve success. Let the client know you understand the desired goal and the issues they face. The client will find this reassuring and gain confidence in your team’s ability to get it done.

The same principles apply if you are an organization on the receiving end of a plan, or you are presenting your plan to your organization’s internal client. Use the Situation section of the plan to convey a clear understanding of what needs to be achieved and why.

Objectives

Objectives are the central element of any communications program. What do we want to achieve? If we are at point A, as described in the situation, the objectives define point B concisely. It is where we ultimately want to end up.

Program objectives are usually three to five simple declarative statements about what this communications program aims to accomplish. The objectives should be stated in terms of what success will look like. For example: Establish company/organization X as the premier source for expert commentary/advice on investing in renewable energy resources.

Program objectives should be measurable in a way that relates directly to the communications plan being executed. The chosen metric establishes the standard against which your efforts will be measured and judged. For example, this could be one of our metrics: Take a monthly count of news media mentions of company/organization X spokespersons providing advice or analysis on the topic of investing in renewable energy resources.

With a baseline established in month zero, you should be able to demonstrate a steady increase in media mentions over time. If you help your client—internal or external—select and deploy helpful, professional, and always available spokespersons, the reporter will call your spokesperson with little or no prodding from you.

Strategies

This is the conceptual framework that you will rely on to achieve the program’s objectives. Most plans have multiple strategies. There is some tendency to confuse strategies with tactics. Getting a client media exposure is a tactic. But noting that we will use management’s successful track record to position the company as a leader in its field—that’s a strategy.

Using our renewable energy example, here are some strategies to establish company/organization X as the premier source for expert commentary/advice on investing in renewable energy resources:

1.Mobilize high-profile spokespersons from major environmental groups to endorse company/organization X’s great success in directing investment funding to worthy renewable energy projects.

2.Highlight the positive environmental impact, success, and handsome investment returns achieved by renewable energy projects backed by company/organization X.

3.Ensure top management personnel of company/organization X are highly visible and invited to speak at the nation’s premier renewable energy conferences.

4.Seek a seat for a top company/organization X executive on the board of a prominent public company that develops major renewable energy projects for the electric utility industry.

5.Arrange for the CEO of company/organization X to attend the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) annual meeting and spend time with a number of the nation’s top electric utility executives.

This is by no means a complete list of strategies that could be aligned with the program’s objectives. The key to putting such strategies in place rests on ensuring the “ask” represents a sought-after benefit for all parties concerned.

Messages

These are brief, straightforward declarative statements that support the client’s positioning. These messages should be integrated consistently into all future communications with key audiences. Statements that do not support a core message dilute or undermine the overall impact of the communications program.

How often must your audience hear a message before they absorb and act upon it? This is often referred to as a message’s “effective frequency.” In terms of an absolute number, there is much debate on what works best. In researching this point, I found a variety of “rules of thumb,” including the “Rule of 7,” the “14 Times Rule,” and one oft-cited study on effective frequency, attributed to Microsoft, that concluded a message needed to be heard by the listener between six and twenty times before it was acted upon. There were many more iterations, but they all shared one common theme: frequent repetition of a message is essential, and it works.

Another crucial factor in constructing an effective message is the quality of the message itself. What characterizes an effective message? Here, too, a Google search will unearth various answers. In my experience, an effective message shares four traits:

■Short

Be respectful of your audience’s attention span. The rules of thumb just cited were written before the explosion of social media. A message needs to be short and written in plain, everyday language. If your message is about to run into a second sentence, think again. A longish message written to showcase your vocabulary skills has little hope of being readily absorbed by your audience. Attention spans have not only gotten shorter, but the volume of messages your audience is exposed to also has grown exponentially. Remember you are fighting for share of mind.

■Memorable

Crafting a truly memorable message is always a challenge. Start by avoiding clichés. Just because you’ve heard something roll off a spokesperson’s tongue countless times does not make it memorable. In time, it becomes background noise to be tuned out and ignored. Think about how your client’s work or mission serves the greater good. Challenge your spokesperson to always deliver the message on a personal level. In our renewable energy example, you would prompt your spokesperson to express the client’s deep personal determination to promote, finance, and accelerate the transition to renewable energy. Audiences can sense genuine sincerity and determination. Urge your spokesperson to encourage the audience to empathize with your client’s mission. Empathy links your message to an emotion, which helps make it memorable. While it’s not possible or appropriate in every instance, consider if there are ways to trigger an emotional response or connection to the message you want to deliver.

■Positive

There are always at least two ways to deliver any message—positive or negative. Given a choice, go with a positive message. This is not an exercise in spinning bad news. It is a way of stating what needs to be done in a positive way that brings focus, energy, and—importantly—the right attitude to the message.

Avoid the trap of telling your audience what you will not do. For example, “We will not ignore the tremendous damage fossil fuels do daily to our environment.” Compare that with, “We are determined to deliver renewable energy at a scale that is both clean and affordable.” In the first instance, we are taking something away from our audience. In the second example, we are providing a competitive clean-power alternative. Which message do you think stands a better chance of resonating with your audience?

■Relevant

When was the last time you bothered to read, watch, or listen to a message that wasn’t relevant to your needs? Have you sat through a presentation where the presenter was telling you all about watchmaking, when all you wanted was the time of day? I suppose we all have.

There is only one question to ask about a potential message: Is it relevant to the audience I am trying to reach and will it be well received and acted upon?

Forgive the cynicism, but we all live in the world of “what’s in it for me?” When you ask your audience to take even a small step to help validate a client’s positioning, be prepared to persuade the audience that whatever you are asking them to do also benefits them. In brief, answer the “what’s in it for me” question for your audience even before it is asked.

In the next section, we will look at the audiences our alternative energy client needs to reach. But for now, let me leave you with some thoughts about what it takes to create a compelling and relevant message:

1.Speak the truth: The truth, as they say, always comes out in the end, so why not start with the truth? If you have any doubts that your message will hold up to public scrutiny over time, avoid that embarrassment. If you have the wrong message, find one that inspires your own confidence. If it does not inspire you, it won’t inspire your audience.

2.Leverage multiple vehicles: With the explosion of social media, blogs, and the like, the opportunities for message repetition have multiplied. Will the same message fit all available outlets? Not likely. You will have to tailor the message to the medium, but you must preserve its underlying meaning and consistency.

3.Stick to your talking points: Do not allow the message to get lost in the medium. Always remember the thought, idea, or action you are trying to elicit, and stay on point. You must be consistent in your positions. Be clear and concise. Don’t compromise on key points.

4.Know your audience: Relevance is for the audience to judge, not the speaker. All messages must be compelling, timely, and relevant to their target audience. This does not mean you are pandering; your positions and opinions should not be compromised. Keep your focus on your audience and the messages they need to hear.

5.Consider your critics: You will not always be surrounded by friends and supporters. It is safe—and wise—to assume that every message you deliver will find its way back into the hands of your worst critics, who will then use your message against you. Proceed accordingly.

Audiences

Name the targets you identified when you started designing this program, in rough order of importance. Remember that, in most instances, the media is not in itself an audience, but rather an effective conduit to those audiences you hope to influence.

When considering your audiences, always keep your plan’s objectives top of mind. It is a question of who must receive, believe, share, and act on your message in order to achieve the objectives you initially identified. There certainly are times when your audience may number in the millions. More often, though, the number of decision makers or influencers you actually need to reach and persuade is far smaller. In the Jay Pritzker example, it turned out to be a mere handful.

CASE STUDY

Using our renewable energy example as a case study, our objective is to position our company/organization as the premier source for expert commentary and advice on investing in renewable energy resources. Compared with marketing a product or service to consumers, the major audiences we need to reach and influence are quite narrow.

Here are four significant audiences that will help us achieve our primary objective, and why:

1.Environmental news media

Concern about climate change, sustainability, and other related topics that fit under the heading of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues has fueled an explosion in related coverage, both traditional and social media.

It is a rare traditional news organization that doesn’t have a dedicated reporter, or even a whole news team, covering such issues. Coverage of developments in renewable energy is closely followed by those who invest in renewable energy projects, either outright or through their investments in electric utilities.

Reporters need knowledgeable, credible, and readily available resources to comment on developments in the field. Making your organization’s spokespersons a go-to source for comment on industry developments elevates the organization’s name recognition and positions it as the premier source for expert commentary/advice on investing in renewable energy resources.

2.Industry research analysts and portfolio managers

As with the news media, investment firms and institutional investors employ professional teams of research analysts and portfolio managers that specialize in particular industries, such as technology, airlines, or pharmaceuticals. Those who follow electric utilities are your target.

Globally, there is a societal push toward sustainability and ESG investing. Sometimes characterized as “doing well (financially) by doing good (environmentally),” this puts investments in renewable energy at the forefront of a powerful trend. Creating favorable awareness among those who make or influence these decisions goes hand in hand with positioning your organization as an expert source among investment decision makers.

Several prominent firms have emerged to provide ESG scores that rate and rank individual companies and investment funds against pertinent criteria, such as a company’s public progress in reducing its carbon footprint or making a firm commitment to becoming carbon neutral, or—in the case of electric utilities—replacing fossil fuel–fired generation with clean renewable fuels.

This powerful global trend in ESG investing makes your organization’s comments on this hot topic worth hearing. Therein lies the opportunity to further your organization’s reputation for renewable energy expertise with this key audience.

3.Utility industry leaders

Our client wants to be highly regarded by top decision makers in the renewable energy space. This includes those who design, build, and operate solar and wind facilities. The client wants to be seen as an expert advisor and preferred investment partner in financing the considerable cost of these new renewable energy projects.

Public, political, and financial pressures are moving the electric utility industry in the direction of renewable energy. Most major utility companies now accept that there is an important role for wind and solar in the overall energy mix. With a renewed focus on climate change, pressure to move in the direction of renewables will grow, and that represents an opportunity for our client.

This is where a laser focus on decision makers comes into play. The decision to pursue a renewable energy project, which can involve investments of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, rests with top management and boards of directors of the nation’s largest electric companies. These companies are invariably investor owned and publicly traded, which means the names and affiliations of each of the company’s top management team and board members are publicly available. In other words, it is possible to make an actual list of those you want to reach and influence.

Outside contractors will design and build the new wind or solar facility on the utility company’s timetable. Given the enormous size of the capital expenditure, utilities often partner with others to spread the risk and share the returns. That is where our client comes in. They want to be seen as industry experts and preferred partners. They are counting on you and the program you create to raise awareness and elevate their reputation as experts and highly successfully investors in renewable energy.

4.Environmental advocates

Today, every major utility company has a dedicated internal team devoted to working with environmental groups with an eye on eliminating conflicts and finding compromises that both sides can live with. Your client will want to cultivate a constructive relationship with environmental groups generally, but particularly those focused on renewable energy.

As an advocate for greater use of renewable alternatives, your client has a story that should align with the goals of these influential groups. Most are nonprofit organizations, and their leadership and members are very dedicated to the group’s cause. They aren’t in it for the money. The idea here is for your client to be seen as an ally, advocate, and positive influence on the utility sector for the greater use of renewable energy. In other words, your goals are aligned with their goals.

The way to look at environmental advocates is as a potentially favorable influence on your client’s reputation within the renewable energy industry. Where to begin identifying the most important of these groups? The US Environmental Protection Agency website has a series of web pages under the heading “Green Power Partnership” (https://www.epa.gov/greenpower). The website says, “As of the end of calendar year 2020, the more than 700 Partners on this list were collectively using nearly 70 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 6.6 million average American homes.” That list, therefore, is potentially a great resource.

Stepping away for a moment from our specific example, the lesson here with audiences is to look beyond the usual suspects in the news media to help your client tell its story directly to the audiences that can help them achieve their desired communications objectives. The news media can be an unguided missile: you tell them your story well and in earnest, but you never know with any certainty how they will choose to play it back to the audience you hope to reach.

Related Tactics

Tactics are the actual public relations, media relations, investor relations, and other activities you will employ to deliver the program’s core messages and achieve the plan’s objectives. Tactics relate back to the communications strategies developed earlier in the plan. If a given tactic does not align with one or more of the plan’s strategies, deliver a core message, and support an objective, it doesn’t belong here. Either take the tactic out of the plan or modify your objectives, strategies, and messages to accommodate it.

Always presume you will be presenting your plan to a skeptical audience. Any tactic you recommend must fit the plan’s internal rationale. Always be prepared to explain and defend how a recommended tactic will help achieve one or more of the plan’s objectives.

The success of any plan will depend on its imaginative execution. But in selling your ideas to a skeptical audience, your plan should represent the pieces of a fine watch, which, properly assembled and aligned, will clearly deliver the time of day.

CASE STUDY

Here are some examples of tactics that relate to the renewable energy example cited previously:

1.Expert commentary

Presenting your spokesperson as an expert begins with an analysis of what print, electronic, or social media outlets best reach your intended audience. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today all have sizable audiences, but which of these carries the greatest weight with those decision makers you are trying to influence? In the case of renewable energy, it may instead (or also) be a narrowly focused trade magazine or environmental news outlet focused on climate change. Create a thorough list of media contact points for all journalists that cover your space. Array them in order of the influence they have on your target audience and focus your outreach efforts accordingly.

When selecting your spokesperson, look for someone with a warm, outgoing personality who media contacts will find easy to like, talk to, admire, and respect. Experts by definition must have the proper credentials. Reporters and editors at high-profile media prefer sources with the right initials after their name (PhD, MD, MBA, etc.). Having the right “school tie” likewise opens doors. A graduate—or, better still, a current or former faculty member—from Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, and the like confers instant credibility. It depends on the discipline, but an affiliation with a big-name school carries added weight. Long government service—the voice of a former elected or appointed official—also confers recognition and adds greater instant authority to their remarks. Using a current or former industry heavyweight as a spokesperson can add extra value; they are very likely to already have the kind of media relationships you hope to develop.

Media outreach is tedious but necessary work. It takes persistence, and your spokesperson must offer something unique. Contrary opinions help a journalist tell both sides of a story. But what is even better is solid data on a subject of interest to a reporter’s audience—a study, an analysis, or a whitepaper, for instance.

There is one quality that can trump all others: simply being available when a reporter calls on deadline. A spokesperson may get one call back, but they won’t get two. If a reporter needs an expert quote to put a story to bed, they will call or text everyone in their contacts file until someone responds. Granted, except at the largest of organizations, spokespersons have other responsibilities, and reporters understand that they cannot always be reached. But reporters will remember who saved the day. So, emphasize for your client that members of the media will quickly learn which spokespersons they can count on—those are the ones they will call repeatedly.

2.Third-party endorsements

It is important for your renewable energy client to establish a reputation as a recognized expert in their field. Gaining endorsement for your spokesperson’s expertise and professional credentials, as just noted, is a basic starting point. But such an endorsement is infinitely more powerful and credible when recognition of their expertise comes from an independent third party. Therefore, look for a noted expert who is already a recognized source for specialty reporters or media that cover renewable energy.

Identify the most frequently cited sources, then help your client create a personal relationship with as many as possible. This might be as simple as sending periodic notes to the targeted expert to support their comments on the subject and offer your client’s input. Target an expert whose perspective differs from what your spokesperson brings to the subject. You will want them to view your spokesperson as an ally, not a competitor.

As the relationship deepens, have your spokesperson suggest to the targeted expert that he or she share the spokesperson’s contact points with the media. Ultimately, your spokesperson should seek introductions to others in the expert’s network of renewable energy supporters. Another way to leverage the relationship may be to ask the expert to let his or her media contacts know your spokesperson can offer a valuable perspective on renewable energy (e.g., its financial impact). To move things in that direction, your spokesperson can remind the targeted expert that increasing reliance on renewable energy is paramount, but the benefits will not be forthcoming unless investors see the financial benefit that flows from their backing a renewable energy project. That is the valuable added perspective your spokesperson brings to the renewable energy story, and it’s why the targeted expert should make the introductions.

Relationship building of this kind can take time. But it will help your spokesperson become part of the “club” of experts that media rely on. It will also create other opportunities, like those that follow, to expand your spokesperson’s personal network of industry contacts.

3.Speaking Opportunities

Assuming a return to pre-pandemic in-person business opportunities, consider the speaking and networking opportunities that industry and professional conferences can provide as effective program tactics.

Every industry used to (and, we hope, will again) host conferences that gathered industry leaders to discuss the issues and opportunities facing the industry in the period ahead. These meetings feature keynote speakers from the top ranks of their field, as well as speaking and panelist opportunities for you to explore on your spokesperson’s behalf. Smart public relations professionals know how to use such conferences as opportunities to create visibility for their client and enhance their spokespersons’ reputation as an important player in the space. These opportunities need good advance work, as conference organizers typically began accepting recommendations for panelists and roundtable participants six to twelve months in advance.

Industry media also typically attend these events. Ahead of time, you would have identified reporters your spokesperson has spoken with, singled them out for brief face-to-face meetings, and ensured that your spokesperson was armed with something of interest to reporters.

Another opportunity that in-person conferences present: many companies rent hospitality suites and invite important guests for dinner or drinks. There is plenty of competition here for the most high-profile participants. One way to increase your chances of getting your top invitees to attend your private gathering is to arrange for an industry “headliner” to be your dinner speaker and drawing card.

Let’s focus again on our renewable energy case study. For the electric utility industry, the premier event of every year has been the annual gathering of the EEI, which in a year of in-person events would typically host more than four thousand utility industry executives and industry suppliers. For those in the business of investing in and financing renewable energy facilities, it has been a must-attend, multiday event. With typically only a handful of keynote opportunities, EEI also included a number of special sections devoted to different major areas of the industry, with panel discussions, luncheon speakers, roundtables, and so forth on each area of emphasis—all ripe for showcasing your client spokesperson’s reputation.

4.Establishing a Web Presence

Saying someone “wrote the book on it” has long meant they were recognized as the foremost expert on a particular subject. Today, however, bound books have largely been replaced by interactive websites as the top information provider and expert resource. In our example, you want your client’s website to be the go-to site for information on the benefits—environmental and financial—and value of investing in renewable energy. The website would focus on the superior financial returns that your client’s investors have realized from wind and solar projects they helped to finance. As impressive as that is, the information available on the site should go further to support and highlight the environmental and other benefits of renewable energy as the fuel of the future. For instance, ESG concerns and sustainability have become focal points of impact investing, which concerned institutional investors look for as a must-have benchmark before committing capital to a project. To address this point, you might supplement the website with a more compact PDF brochure that makes the same compelling points about investing in the future of clean energy.

Other good programming tactics? Many universities and private institutions have speakers’ programs that can be explored for potential opportunities to get your client’s message out in a controlled environment. Speeches can be reproduced physically or electronically on the university’s or another institution’s letterhead or website. The speech, with the university’s imprimatur, can be circulated to your client spokesperson’s contact lists.

Editorial articles (“op-eds”) and letters to the editor represent two additional controlled opportunities to communicate your client’s message. Op-eds demand a compelling point of view, often on a matter of some controversy or disagreement, but they get noticed by decision makers. Letters to the editor can comment positively or negatively on a news story, editorial point of view, or position expressed by the publication. There is a lot of competition for space on the editorial page, so there is no guarantee of placement. But I have seen both methods used, even in unpublished form, to communicate with a specific audience (e.g., employees). All that is required is a prominent notation that reads, for example, “As Submitted to the New York Times.”

This is by no means an exhaustive list of potential communication tactics. Finding new and different ways to communicate your client’s message is limited only by your creativity and imagination. The only thing you need to ask is, will this new approach help achieve the program’s communications objectives?

Timeline

This section of the plan contains “next steps” to give the client a sense of the order and time frame in which you will execute the tactical elements. Steps can run the gamut from the approximate to the precise: anything from a general statement about timing, to a detailed Excel spreadsheet with a week-by-week schedule of activities.

Firmly stating to a client what steps come next is crucial to closing the sale and getting any program approved. As you present the plan to your client—internal or external—be prepared to tell your audience what you will do to kick this plan off to a fast start. List the first three to five things that will happen immediately after you get a green light to proceed. In terms of the time frame, these should be action steps that you can launch within the first ten days of an engagement.

The activities reflected in your plan should have a cadence. Successfully communicating your ideas is a building process. Allow your audience to visualize the timeline and the path your plan lays out to achieve success. Make sure there are some early milestones that your audience can relate to and look forward to achieving.

Likewise, clarify the order in which the plan should be executed. While many activities can be pursued concurrently and independently, others will need to build on a foundation established by the successful completion of earlier steps. Point out that achieving early success and then building on that success creates a sense of forward momentum that will propel the plan forward.

For instance, in our renewable energy example, before we can expect any prominent environmental groups to endorse the client, we must

■select a qualified, credentialed spokesperson;

■train them to deliver the client’s message effectively;

■document the client’s successful track record for investing in renewable energy;

■establish a mutuality of interest with the targeted group (e.g., reducing CO₂ emissions); and

■arrange for a suitable introduction to the group by a trusted environmental ally.

Look for ways to compress this process, if possible, but note that building relationships and trust, whether with customers, employees, regulations, media, or potential allies, will take some time.

AND DON’T FORGET

There are two final elements that you can’t shy away from if you want your communications plan to be accepted. Call them “brass tacks”—details of immediate practical importance, according to the dictionary definition.

Measurement

This section of the communications program outlines how progress will be measured against the plan’s objectives. For example, if the objective is to change perceptions, then measure progress directly, by surveying the target audience, or indirectly, by tracking changes in the views the target audience expresses. Avoid using arbitrary deliverables as a measuring stick. Knowing the number of media hits, completed interviews, program steps accomplished, and so forth is useful, but does not measure actual progress against a given objective.

The Quality of Your In-Person Presentation

Assuming you are presenting your program in person (which may mean via Zoom!), these details are key:

■Do not rely solely on your slide deck. What if it goes down? Rehearse until you know your presentation so well that you can convey the details without any visual aids.

■Plan the presentation and its timing carefully. Do not waste you audience’s time or your opportunity to sell your ideas. Factor in enough time for Q&A, a further opportunity to connect with your audience.

■Chemistry counts. If possible, know who will be in the room and the background of each person. Look for something that connects you personally to one or more of the decision makers. Assign speaking roles to all present. If someone on your team has nothing to add to the presentation, leave them home.

■Your audience will be weighing your ideas right along with your conviction and enthusiasm for them, as well as your and your team’s ability to achieve the plan’s objectives. A good presentation coach will tell you that every presentation is a performance. Keep that in mind as you and your team present your plan to deliver the solution your audience has been waiting for.

TAKEAWAYS

1.The first step in communications planning is to identify your audience. Know what people and groups make up that audience, and what you want them to do.

2.Memorize the simple acronym SO SMArTT so you can easily remember the seven primary elements of an effective program: Situation, Objectives, Strategies, Messages, Audiences, related Tactics, and Timeline.

3.Know the overall aspirations of the client, prospect, or organization. How do they want to be viewed, perceived, positioned, or distinguished in the minds of those important to their success? Helping them to achieve these goals is the purpose of your communications plan.

4.Communications program objectives should be stated in terms of what success will look like. They should be measurable in a way that relates directly to the communications plan being executed.

5.Strategy is the conceptual framework that you rely on to achieve your program’s objectives. Most plans have multiple strategies. Take care not to confuse strategies with tactics.

6.Messages are brief, straightforward declarative statements that support the client’s positioning. These messages should be integrated consistently into all communications with key audiences. Statements that do not support a core message will dilute or undermine the overall impact of the communications program. Messages should be short, memorable, positive, and relevant.

7.I’ll repeat the importance of audience here: all program elements should be frequently checked to make sure they are directed at the proper target.

8.Specific actions and a schedule round out the communications program, along with measurement metrics.