Preparing Your PR Team for 2013

We are a franchise public relations firm that never stops planning.  2013 may already be here, but we are still strategizing, planning and preparing for this upcoming year.  We are striving to have our best year and hope that we will be able to help our clients have a successful year as well.  In order to have a great year, we need to keep planning and our franchise public relations team here at All Points PR must prepare. 2013 is just beginning, so what are you doing as a franchise public relations firm or really, a PR firm in general, to better prepare your team for 2013? Here are a few things to keep in mind to help your PR team prepare for 2013:

1- Increase your outreach efforts: Let the beginning of the year be a good time to increase your outreach efforts as a PR team.  Have your team reach out to reporters that they worked with in 2012.  Remind reporters that you still have experts that are available to add to breaking stories.  Depending on which publications your PR team typically works with it never hurts to send out a quick "Happy New Year note" and re-introduce yourself a bit, which will serve as a reminder of how you can be of service to them.  Remember, journalists get pitched to by numerous PR professionals, so you have to do your part as a PR team to stick out in their minds and increasing your outreach efforts could help you and your team do just that.

2- Spend more time researching: Let your PR team know how vital researching is when it comes to PR.  Have your team make a list of all the publications that are of interest and review their editorial calendars for 2013.  Create a master calendar for all of the publications you selected so that you don't miss any of the important dates or topics.  This master calendar will help you and your team stay ahead of schedule and know when dates are coming up so that you can pitch in advance.

3- Do some training drills: Preparing for a crisis is just a part of the PR game, so help your team get prepared for 2013 by doing some practice crisis drills.  Give them a crisis scenario and have them act out how they would go about solving the crisis.  If their solutions are less than desirable, let them know what you would do to better address the situation.  Training drills are another great way to strengthen your team for 2013.

4- Check out associations: Is your franchise PR firm looking to land a client or two in a specific industry?  Have your PR team review the target list of your potential clients and have them take a look at the associations in which they participate in.  This gives your a team a great way to get their foot in the door and learn more about the client's industry.

5- Review your contacts: Have your team go through all of their contacts and do some updates.  All of your PR team members probably have long lists of reporters in their contacts, so go through their contact information first and verify that it is correct.  Reporters have a tendency to change their role quite often by moving to a new beat or even working for a different publication.  You could have your team go through each publication's website and review their staff list to ensure you have the correct contact information.  Reviewing contacts will ensure that you have the right information so that when you go to pitch a story you'll be pitching it to the right reporter.

Looking for more tips on preparing your PR team for 2013?  Feel free to comment below or contact us.