New Year’s Resolutions
I’m optimistic about 2009.  I’m encouraged by the number of clients, some of whom have been with us several years and others new, who are asking how they can best leverage PR moving into 2009. I don’t see PR budgets going away, but I do see those dollars having to work harder and smarter.
New Year’s Resolution #1: Know the full scope of marketing for your clients. If you’re not part of cross-functional planning already, ask what promotions are planned, what’s happening online, in the channel, etc.  What are the key periods Sales is focusing on and what are the potential pain points?
While agencies have talked a good “integrated marketing” game for years, PR still often seems to be siloed. CMOs can’t afford that right now - they need all marketing streams to come together and to amplify and leverage each other. I’m not suggesting that every promotion is PR-able, or that in every ad or SEO campaign lives a potentially broader campaign with implications for PR, but if you don’t ask you can’t add value - and opportunities could be missed.
New Year’s Resolution #2: Make PR actionable. Awareness has to convert to action at some point, immediately or as part of a stepped approach - driving traffic online or to retail, getting consumers to download a coupon or join a community or make a recommendation to a friend (just a few examples).
New Year’s Resolution #3: Be accountable. Now more than ever, there’s a need to measure PR’s impact, and there are a growing suite of tools to help. We’ve been very pleased with Radian6, for example, which enables us to measure social media activity (including the number of comments about a brand or topic in a given period). That’s just one example. Beyond the tools, the key is dedicating staffing resources at the start of a campaign to measure every step of the way - not just as a wind-up, when the campaign is wrapping.
It’s going to be some time before we see an economic turnaround. In the meantime, we can focus on what we can control - making sure PR operates smarter, asking the right questions, and is both actionable and accountable. Those are the three resolutions I’m starting with (the list of personal ones is much longer and I’m not sure as achievable). I’d love to hear others.
Great column, as usual. Re: accountable - with grass roots events, I have found that so many times we get caught up in make sure we have the resources to execute on the event, that we neglect to make to sure to capture the experiences (feedback from consumers, great photography, etc.) It is so worth it to make sure to have that one extra person devoted to photography (if budget doesn’t allow for a professional photographer, for example) rather then having them be just another sampler in order to get more products out in consumers’ hands faster. It almost was like having to slap myself and realize, we need to make sure we capture how great this event is, since the clients aren’t here to see it for themselves. Saying “we gave away 20,000 Xs” is powerful, but showing a 20 second clip captured of one person’s reaction going from negative to the brand to positive as we interacted with them while doing the sampling is even more powerful.
Not rocket science I know, but it was a small light bulb that went off in my head as I realized my video recaps of events actually showing customer reactions were more impactful during client presentations, than the previous powerpoints with numbers and quotes on slides.
Here’s to continued success for all of us in 2009!
Best regards,
Glen
You make a great point Glen - having a “captain” in charge of capturing the activity wiht photos, video, interviews, verbatims, etc., will help ensure qualitative results are documented, as well as the numbers. Those images can be used in sales presentations, online and in annual reports, too, adding value beyond the core PR activity. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the comment and link Steve. I’ve heard of Sysomos’ social media monitoring and will take a closer look.