If It Doesn't Meet A Business Objective, Don't Do It

PR can be a critical piece to any company's strategy. But it also should not be your only strategy to succeed. 

It may seem obvious, but in order to ensure you are not overwhelmed or taking on too much from a PR perspective, it is important to prioritize activities. You could easily say yes to all pitch ideas, interviews and press release suggestions. But you will most likely start irritating reporters with too many emails, start seeing a decline in press requests and spend way too much of your budget issuing press releases and media alerts without seeing much coverage.

So what can you do?

Follow a simple rule: If it doesn't meet a business objective, don't do it. 

• Identify your top 3 business priorities for the year.
• Determine the themes, messages and audiences that connect to those priorities.
• Circulate these priorities to leadership so everyone is on the same page.

If someone later comes to the team and asks for a press release or media blitz around an announcement or win that doesn't fit into one of those earlier defined buckets, you can just say no.

​Of course, there will be exceptions. But these should be just that -- exceptions and not the rule.

​Making sure everyone is on the same page with these priorities early on helps avoid frustration and conflict when they are told no.

​And more importantly, everyone is focused on moving the business in the right direction together.