Beyond investment: creating a PR Roadmap for growth
Changing a business from the inside out
As industries across the UK scramble to recover from a turbulent year it is not surprising that many investors are contemplating a change or two in strategic direction. Whether you are rethinking the future of a company or shifting gears due to the changing dynamics in a business or industry sector, creating a PR roadmap will help you navigate the unprecedented economic implications of the current health crisis.
In fact, investors and business leaders have the unique opportunity to make lasting, positive changes to re-interpret business challenges in a different way, acting as an agent for change, and to find a way forward so that companies do more than survive.
A PR Roadmap is needed now more than ever as the global pandemic has shone a spotlight of attention on the juxtaposition of the public voice of many companies in contrast to the actual functioning of those businesses, resulting in revised outlooks towards these organisations and their management teams.
Unlike marketing, PR straddles both internal and external audiences. Whilst these audiences do not expect you to know all the tactics underlying the execution of change resulting from the current health crisis and soon Brexit, they do want to see the big picture and your high level plan for getting from Point A to Point B. More importantly, they want to understand the opportunity and why you are making this change. They also want to know that you have thought through and done your due diligence to mitigate any risks involved and to control as much as possible the intended outcome.
And, this is where a roadmap comes into play. A roadmap tells the story of your PR strategy. Below is an illustration of how people and organisations communicate and build relationships with their stakeholders in a visual, easy to comprehend way. This provides a roadmap for companies to easily develop a holistic PR program with varying type of communication elements.
In a nutshell, a PR roadmap allows you to give a snapshot of your plan, its timeframe, key milestones, and ultimate objective. And it helps you to anticipate media questions and address them in ways that build confidence, brand value and how you are in control of the plan each step of the way. Don’t forget that it is essential to communicate your PR roadmap. You will need to have a plan in place to share important information with your audiences along the way.
This may sound obvious but failing to communicate a PR roadmap to target audiences is a common problem that we see frequently at Flourish PR. We often work with businesses that are backed by investors or private equity groups who are doing great work, but they just haven’t told anyone. Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting are also integral to this process.
So where to begin? Important aspects for investors to consider are: -
At Flourish PR we leverage a few different iterations of a PR roadmap to communicate initiatives across entire companies. PR roadmaps can be used, for instance, to show different pivots during a strategy alignment session or to get buy-in from the executive team. Project specific roadmaps may also be used to plan future releases or campaign launches, or to illustrate lightweight resource planning.
Whilst 2020 may not have been a growth year for many industries, investors and management teams should act now to put in place initiatives to help springboard recovery in 2021. It’s fair to say that 2021 will bring its share of change, but change does not have to be negative. It can provide a springboard for acceleration and growth or act as a catalyst for a much-needed strategic redirection. A PR Roadmap is a tool which can help investors and senior leadership teams to unite under a shared and common purpose.
If you are struggling to get started on a PR roadmap or would welcome a second pair of eyes to review your approach get in touch with the Flourish PR team. We would be delighted to help. Our team also has expertise in brand repositioning, thought leadership and executive profiling, plus developing strong brand narratives. In fact, opening your pitch to a journalist with your story is a great way to set the tone, draw discussion and raise your profile in a positive way.
