PR pros: How to get your CEO’s attention

Use market research to create meaningful PR plans

Do you want the CMO or CEO to pay attention when you share the results of your PR efforts? Would you like to increase the chances that your work is seen as a critical part of moving the business forward?

If yes, then I have a single, four-letter word that will help you do just that. It’s a word that is left out of most PR plans and certainly out of most PR results reports. The word is “data.”

I’m not talking about evaluating total impressions, number of placements or an increase in online mentions. I’m talking about planning your efforts against actual market research and tying your results back to that.

The bad news: Most PR and corporate communications budgets don’t provide enough money to do adequate market research.

The good news: Within most companies’ marketing departments is a rich reservoir of market research that you can use. You just have to ask for it.
Here are two ways you can use existing market research to create more meaningful PR plans by next week.

1. Better targeted geographies. Too many PR professionals have a knee-jerk reaction when it comes to planning, especially within media relations. They say things like, “We’ll target the top 50 markets, as well as online media and bloggers.”

Here’s the problem with that kind of thinking: If the CEO and CMO place the San Francisco market as a low priority based on results of the company’s market research, how excited do you think they’re going to be when you update them on the great placements you got in The San Francisco Chronicle and on the city’s local NBC station?

The leaders of the most well-run companies make decisions after considering a great deal of data. You should, too. Market research will help you better define the primary and secondary markets where you should place your focus. Spend more of your time—and your clients’ budgets—in those areas.

2. Better targeted messages. Market research can zero in on the cities, counties and states where your brand is the leader—and can show you where you fall behind the competition. Tailor your messages to these two kinds of markets, instead of creating a one-size-fits-all “editorial calendar” of what you’ll pitch across the board for the year.

For example, if your market research shows you own 85 percent of the Houston market, you don’t need to pitch stories to The Houston Chronicle as part of a mud-slinging battle against your foes. Use your time and energy there to tell a different story and act like the market leader.

On the other hand, if you’re targeting areas where you trail, you may want to focus all of your efforts on competitive claims, events with side-by-side comparisons, and so on.

These are just two ways I’ve found that market research and data can create PR efforts with more impact—both in the eyes of your customers and in the eyes of the C-suite. What other ways would you add?

David Mullen is an account supervisor at Mullen, where he focuses on developing and executing integrated marketing communications for clients.