Not Getting PR Results You Want?

The reason might be this simple: as a business, non-profit or association manager, you’re too focused on communi- cations tactics and not on a workable blueprint for dealing with those important outside audiences whose behaviors most affect your department, division or subsidiary.

If this sounds familiar, blueprint I refer to provides tools required to persuade those key external stakeholders to your way of thinking. Then, hopefully, move them to take actions that lead to your success.

A blueprint, say, like this one: people act on their own perception of facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action very people whose behaviors affect organization most, public relations mission is accomplished.

And, by way, this is a blueprint that can produce behaviors such as more prospects interested in your services or products, more proposals for joint ventures and strategic alliances, more frequent repeat purchases, or fresh, new capital contributions and membership applications.

If this is something you wish to pursue, next move is yours. For example, take time to enlist those public relations people assigned to your unit in a brand-new push to find out once and for all what those outside audiences – those with behaviors that actually affect your organization – really think about you.

That’s where rubber meets road because target audience perceptions inevitably lead to behaviors that will either hinder or help you in reaching your objectives.

So, let’s assume you and your PR team decide to prioritize your outside audiences, then monitor perceptions of members of #1 target audience on your list.

Here’s first “fork in road.” You can use your PR professionals – who after all are in perception and behavior business – to interact with target audience members by asking a lot of questions. For instance, “What do you know about us? Have you ever had dealings with our organization? Was it, or they, satisfactory?”

Or, if you have access to an ample budget, you can engage services of a professional survey firm to handle perception monitoring chore for you. Keep in mind, however, that this activity is central to success of a public relations effort.

Either way, data assembled by this drill is raw material used to create your public relations goal. And that goal might call for clearing up a troublesome misconception, fixing a serious inaccuracy or killing that budding rumor dead as a doornail.