The Strategic IR/PR Model
Both Investor Relations and PR depend on effective communication to achieve their goals. Thinking about communications as a strategic process can improve your chances of success.
Strategic communications is a proactive and interactive process in which important information is continually disseminated to an organization’s key constituencies to ensure that it will be properly understood and to enable the organization and its constituencies to mutually adapt to each other.
Think of strategic communications as a continuous cycle with inputs, outputs and feedback. The initial inputs for the organization are research and analysis which become the basis for developing an IR or PR plan. The output by the organization is action – usually communication – targeted at key constituencies or those who can influence them. Feedback is evaluated and becomes a new input. Results are measured against goals and objectives. If necessary, these lead to adjustments in the plan, or changes in strategy and tactics.
Research & Analysis
The most effective communication programs begin with an understanding of the attitudes, concerns and perceptions held by your key constituencies. You need to understand what they actually think of your company, product, issue, cause, etc. Often, what you think they think can be different from their reality. Sometimes a third party can be useful in improving your understanding. Whether the research is formal or informal, the information and insights gained can be very valuable and improve your likelihood of success.
Planning
This is the step in the process that answers "What should we do and why?"
Our IR and PR Plans are maps to get from where you are, to where you need to be. They are built on the intelligence and insights gained from the research phase. We work with you to define goals and objectives and then recommend appropriate strategies and tactics. We also include metrics to evaluate success.
Communicating
This is where the plan is put into action. It is vital that all of your audiences, from customers to shareholders, receive consistent core messages that support the goals and objectives of the plan. All of your messages need to be integrated and unified because they will influence how you are perceived.
Feedback
The process model is based on the understanding that to be effective over the long term, your communications efforts must be both proactive and interactive. That involves creating mechanisms for getting feedback from the your constituencies. This is an important component that too many companies leave out. It’s critical to have a mechanism for your target audiences to let you know how they’re responding to your messages. There are many ways to do this. It can be a structured monitoring system to track what is said in blogs, Tweets and other media. Or consider an interactive shareholder message board or forum on your website. The key is to listen to what they are saying and use that information as inputs for making adjustments to the plan if necessary.
Measurement and Evaluation
It also involves metrics to measure the success of the plan’s strategies and tactics against the defined goals and objectives. The feedback and metrics allow for timely adjustment, if needed, in the plan.
