Are You Moving the Needle? How PR firms can drive meaningful business impact

Many say finding a great friend or partner is like finding a needle in a haystack. The same can be said when searching for the right public relations firm to help your company move the needle on business goals and objectives.

Whether you’re a small business, non-profit, government agency, political figure or a large corporation, all entities have a needle or needles they want to move. That could be increasing awareness of a campaign, receiving buy-in from community members on a project, securing a media interview to promote an upcoming event and more. No matter how big or small the project, a PR agency can use the art and science of PR to execute and measure the end goal desired by your company or organization.

But how is effectiveness measured? How do you know if the needle is moving in the right direction? As PR professionals, we use a certain method to gain that insight for you, which includes collecting data (research), discussing an effective strategy and tactics to reach the desired outcome or output (planning), putting those strategies and tactics into action (implementation) and finally assessing the outcome or outputs to determine if the end goal was met or needs to be adjusted for future projects or campaigns (evaluation). This method is known as the RPIE method.

Part of a successful PR campaign or event is ensuring your objectives follows the SMART approach (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound). An impactful objective helps determine what you want your target audience to think, feel and do when exposed to your messages.

Business leaders continually gauge ways to discover what’s working or what needs improvement in the overall business model. All sectors need to consider in brand reputation and effective messaging to your target audience in their business model. This where PR firms can help meet that need.

Here’s an example on how to move the needle. My firm, The Holliday Collaborative Agency, was hired by a governmental agency to develop a media relations campaign for a public event to help connect people to important resources. Prior to my arrival, the agency held a similar event with a goal of assisting 100 people, but only 49 individuals attended. After speaking with the event organizer, we came up with an effective media relations strategy to ensure the event was advertised. The agency had the same goal to assist 100 people. After executing our media relations strategy, we were able to connect 414 individuals to resource. That is a 314% increase from their goal, and a nearly 745% increase from the previous event.

That is how a PR agency can come and help you move the needle on your goals and objectives. While these are big numbers, success can come in the form of incremental movement.

There will be times when the needle does not move. That’s OK. Many people may consider this a failure, but without measurement, you will not be able to discover ways to achieve success.

Also, keep in mind that there are many tactics to reach your objectives. Sometimes, having a press conference is not the right method to use to get to your audience. There are social media, e-newsletters, billboards, community meetings, and more to engage with your audience and share your message. It might be worth looking in the mirror and re-evaluating how you connect with our clients and stakeholders to guarantee your team is keeping all options open to discover other ways to move the needle. There’s no such thing as a one-size fits all approach when it comes to public relations.