PR Strategy
Deciding what you want to be known for, who needs to hear it, and which stories are genuinely worth a journalist's time. Usually fewer announcements, better placed.
Overview
Most PR programmes are an announcement calendar. Product releases, hires, funding, awards, each pushed to the same list of journalists, each achieving very little because none of them is news to anyone outside the company.
A strategy replaces that with a position: what you want to be the company that is asked about, and what evidence you can offer that makes you worth asking. That narrows the target list and raises the hit rate, and it usually means announcing less and commenting more.
Who this is for
- Companies issuing regular announcements with little coverage to show
- Businesses entering a market where nobody knows them
- Teams whose PR activity has no stated objective
How we approach pr strategy
The specific pieces of work a typical engagement covers. Scope is agreed up front — nothing here is a surprise line item later.
Positioning for media
What you want to be known for and be asked about, which is a narrower claim than what you sell.
Audience and outlet mapping
Who actually influences your buyers, which is frequently trade press and specialist newsletters rather than the national titles clients ask for.
Story development
Finding the angles that are genuinely of interest to someone outside the company. Most internal news is not one.
Spokesperson strategy
Who speaks on what, and preparing them properly. A credible practitioner beats a senior title in most coverage.
Editorial calendar alignment
Planning against what publications are already going to cover, which is a far easier route in than a cold pitch.
Measurement
Share of voice, message penetration and referral traffic. Advertising value equivalence is not a measure and we do not report it.
From first call to measured result
The same sequence every time, so you always know what happens next.
Assess
Current coverage, competitor coverage and what your market's journalists actually write about.
Position
Agree the narrow territory you want to own and the evidence that supports the claim.
Plan
Target outlets, story angles, spokespeople and a realistic cadence.
Review
Quarterly assessment against the agreed measures, adjusting territory and targets on the evidence.
Outcomes, not deliverables
A pile of artefacts isn't progress. These are the changes the work is meant to produce — and what we report against.
Fewer announcements, more coverage
A narrow, well-evidenced position gets journalists calling you, which no volume of press releases achieves.
The right outlets
Trade and specialist coverage usually reaches buyers more effectively than a national mention nobody in your market reads.
Spokespeople who perform
Prepared practitioners give better interviews and get invited back.
Honest measurement
Share of voice and message penetration can be acted on. Equivalent advertising value cannot.
Common questions about PR Strategy
The things people ask before they get in touch. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Can you guarantee coverage?
No, and anyone who does is either buying it or misleading you. Earned coverage depends on an editor's judgement. What can be committed to is the quality of the story, the accuracy of the targeting and the volume of outreach.
How long before PR produces results?
Three to six months to build the relationships and establish the position. The first months are largely groundwork, and programmes cancelled at month two never reach the point where the investment pays.
Should we aim for national coverage?
Usually not first. A trade publication your buyers actually read is worth more than a national mention they never see. National coverage tends to follow trade credibility rather than precede it.
How do you measure PR?
Share of voice against competitors, whether your key messages appear in coverage, referral traffic and branded search lift. We do not report advertising value equivalence, which the industry's own bodies have discouraged for years.
Thinking about PR Strategy?
Tell us what you are trying to change. If we are not the right fit we will say so, and point you somewhere better.
Looking at the wider picture?
PR Strategy usually sits alongside other work in Public Relations & Communications. Browse the full area to see what it connects to.