If you've heard the phrase, which I'm sure everyone has: "know your audience" is the first step in every successful Public Relations campaign. Why? Your audience is important as they are the ones to impress and their needs, interests and pain points are where you are actually selling your product to. Yes, it might seem as if we just want people to gain exposure or buy a product; however, it's the appeal to their daily life and world that is what is going to equate to a success.
The Two Stages
"The first step in any public relations plan or marketing communication program is to carefully and accurately identify the situation facing you organization" (Smith, 33).
Identification
It is important to take the time to get inside your audience's head as well as really know and understand the key factors of what your are promoting. This step seems trivial and unimportant and can easily be glossed over for the fun things such as brand, colors, fonts, logos etc. However, the slow, research side is what is going to create the best room for success. Failure to properly identify the audience can result in not addressing the right people or not interacting with the right publics.
Analysis
We must carefully examine each public in order to develop a strategy to communicate effectively.
There are five steps to help us with this process.
Is the public distinguishable? can you easily identify and differentiate them from sillier publics
Are they homogenous? we want to find a group with common traits and features
Are they important? are they of interest? do they have a significant impact on the orgs bottom line.
Are they large enough? or are they small enough. "Corporate workers," would be too broad but "police officers or "fire fighters" might be more appropriate. (Smith, 45).
Are they accessible? Are they able to interact and communicate with them?
More questions you can ask include:
Demographics: Who are they (age, gender, marital status, income)?
Psychographics: Why are they involved?
Motivating Self-Interest: What's in it for them?
Other Questions:
What's their relationship to the organization or issue?
Are they an influencer or intervenor within the community?
What objective can they help you accomplish?
What are the viable communication channels for reaching them? (Pavilion, n.d).
The Four Types of Publics
Source: (Building Effective Creativity, 2015)
There are four key publics we need to identify: Customers, Producers, Limiters, Enablers. In the video it talks about customers, employees, suppliers, the banks and community.
Some publics we can identify for The 5 Bridges might include the following:
Customers: We want to appeal to group of professionals who would benefit from mental health services. Some would include, PR professionals, Trauma Response, Teachers, Police Officers, Firefighters etc.
Limiters: Other people in the health and wellness space, COVID, low budget due to Covid, therapists.
Producers:Donors, WOM, Nonprofits, Schools
Enablers: Media, Influencers, Opinion leaders, Allies, Regulators
This is only scratching the surface of the research. Taking the time to know, understand and implement these strategies will be the start of a good-standing and successful relationship with the 5 bridges and their audience.
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