Let’s face it, the UK has two seasons now: Wet and Less Wet. Goodbye former, welcome the latter!
Even though comms and PR teams at ambitious global tech firms are still amid executing plans for the all-important Q4, it’s useful as we consider 2025 to take stock of where you are in terms of execution.
After all, as past British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once said about the need to flex plans, things always happen you hadn’t expected: ‘Events, dear boy, events.’ You’re delivering on assumptions that could have been made months back, so it will help your business to refine your approach for next year.
As ever, your drivers are to build reputation, strengthen brand awareness, shorten sales cycles and ensure your share of competitive voice is where it should be. Given how important these goals are, how can you craft the most awesome 2025 PR strategy that will carry you through?
Use this time to its maximum effect
As Autumn sets in, now is the time to get your internal and your external comms partner teams aligned and energised about pipeline, product roadmap, innovation and direction. So, focus the teams on brainstorming, messaging and planning meetings to refine your thinking.
Annual PR Plan health check
Like cars, and indeed people, that benefit from an annual health check, it’s also important to do a performance check on your PR programme. Be as objective as you can: What worked well, what didn’t? What can be improved next year? Speak with relevant stakeholders to assess where are how the PR is adding value. Be constructively critical to create that optimal 2025 plan.
Programme development and scrutiny
Once this has kicked off, you should now be in a better position to define the annual plan, to include objectives (SMART ones), audience, strategy, tactics, resources (more below on this) and how you’re going to measure and define success. Importantly, get buy in from budget holders, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and agency partners. Be bold and ambitious but practical.
Get those messages fighting-fit again
Once you’ve re-identified your key audiences, do you need to check (perhaps with a mini-audit) if your corporate and product messaging still work? Do they need a tweak, upgrade or total overhaul? Are they still communicating the value proposition and key thematic narratives in a relevant, impactful way? Message development is a collaborative endeavour, so get the key people onboard to provide input–but it’s one thing to create the messages: are your spokespeople trained to deliver them with passion and competence?
Ending up with the right budget
It’s great to get an ambitious 2025 plan in place, but having the team resources, aka budget, signed off and actionable is critical. You need to clearly understand what team and agency support is available to deliver the plan, and where the skills gaps are. To do that, have honest conversations with the finance teams, senior leaders and your team and agencies, so everyone is clear on what is both possible and expected with the resource available.
So, to make this a successful PR year ahead for you, your business and your teams, think
- preparation
- annual health check
- programme development
- messaging refresh and
- budget realism.
While you’re at it, maybe check you still fit into the Santa Suit for the Office Party. That’s not far off either!