Many communications professionals today are facing a re-selling or re-justification process to prove our value to the organizations we serve. Clients we have been engaged with for years, even the most savvy clients, are suddenly requesting a new pitch to understand why their organization should continue to invest in our services in the current climate of cutbacks.
A recent panel discussion held by PRSA’s National Capital Chapter identified three key steps to showing your value in 2009. Panelists at the event, held at the U.S. Navy Memorial and Heritage Center, included (left to right in the photo above) Steve Grant, APR, of the National Education Association; Dave Groobert of Environics Communications; and, Lucien Salvant of the National Association of Realtors. The panel, hosted by the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, brought together professionals from agencies, associations, nonprofits, the government sector and solo practitioners. Heathere Evans-Keenan, APR, president of Keenan PR, Inc., second from right, moderated the session and she provided us with the following report.
The first step in showing your value in 2009 is gathering the right stakeholders and decision-makers in your organization. By targeting the right people - the influencers and power brokers - your message reaches the highest levels of the organization.
Step two involves defining value, and ensuring you and your organization’s influencers are in agreement about that definition. The key here is to build consensus and establish metrics for evaluating progress. Like beauty, value is in the eye of the beholder, as our panelist Dave Groobert of Environics Communications, noted. So you must know how your decision-makers measure value and then set up metrics and agree to key intervals to measure it.
If your organization values media coverage, for example, set up a scoring mechanism for coverage, establishing point values for the organizations name being mentioned in a headline, for the CEO being quoted in an article, for the organizations key message being included. If driving site traffic is one of the goals of your PR program, devise a chart to show the correlation between the two and provide the information as one of your metrics.
Step three boils down to doing PR for PR, an important point made by panelist Steve Grant, APR, of the National Education Association. This means using simple but creative tactics to get the word out about what PR is doing for your organization. It does not have to be expensive. It could be as simple as visiting key offices for a mini road show or convening an all-hands conference call to continually update employees or organization members about the PR campaign’s focus for the year.
A crucial aspect of this step is owning the messaging for your organization, since this will provide the most value add. The role of public relations is to constantly survey the environment and know what’s on the horizon, and to constantly report that intelligence back to the organization. Again, this does not have to be costly. Attending industry conferences and pulling aside prospects for dinner can be turned into impromptu focus groups. As PR counsel you should always be providing recommendations as to how the organization can refine and shape its message.
Measuring outputs like the number of press releases distributed or number of clips received is a poor indicator of success in PR. The key to adding value is changing the perception of your organization, helping to soften the market for sales, attracting new members to your group and meeting the organization’s larger goals.
For more tips from this panel and a podcast of the panel discussion, visit www.prsa-ncc.org