PR Campaign Template
Managing relationships can sometimes be a volatile process — whether you’re trying to smooth the launch of a new product, improve the standing of a company or boost the reputation of an individual, you’re going to have to meet and overcome a variety of challenges along the way. No two PR campaigns are going to be the same, so it’s important that you have access to a flexible project format. You want to be able to lay your project out in a strong, reliable way but also have the flexibility to modify and customize it to suit the needs of the specific campaign. At Hive, we’ve worked hard to make that a reality — our tool offers a strong base for you to build your campaign from. Our PR Campaign Template will allow you to define every aspect of your campaign and fine tune it so that not only will this project be a hit, but your next one will be even easier. Properly utilizing this template will give you the ability to create a default campaign plan that can be easily customized in detail every time.
Because PR campaigns have a lot of moving parts and rely heavily on relationships with individuals, we’ve put together some specific tools to help you see at a glance who you have and have not been in contact with. Using the calendar you can map out individual pitches to journalists, bloggers, influencers and contributors to give you a sense of the timeline of your coverage. The PR Campaign Template we’re providing allows you to track the status of these pitches so you can easily tell how things are moving along, from “Pitched” to “Coverage Secured.” Not only does this help you plot your course, but it will be useful when you need to show your plans off, either to a client or any other invested party.
Additionally, because some projects are inevitably going to be more in-depth than others, our PR Campaign Template gives you the option of breaking those key calendar events down into even smaller pieces which you can map out as day to day and week to week activity. This means that not only will you get a sense of the overall picture, but you can also define every step on your road to a great PR campaign. These sub-events can be customized, defined and assigned to team members so you’ll be in control of every element of the plan from drafting it to implementation. Along the way, you can set firm deadlines and deliverables, or plot out cut off points for contributors. Ultimately, with the flexible nature of the template and the wide variety of tools we offer, you’re sure to meet and exceed your goals no matter how big or small they are.
It’s also important to get to familiarize yourself with Hives chat functionality. In a creative, personal project like a PR campaign, encouraging your team to be as creative as possible is a great idea. Having somewhere to discuss plans and throw ideas around is amazing, but all too often project commitments and meetings makes it so team members are separated, making collaboration difficult. When you’re working in Hive, you’ll have access to chat between team members no matter where they are, and the drag and drop functions make sharing ideas simple and effective. Combining this with the team viewer is a great way to talk directly about specific work, or request updates about projects as you can see quickly what each team member is assigned!
One of the keys to long term PR success is keeping pace with your timeline, so being able to keep tabs on your progress is important. Here are a few tips to make sure you’re making good use of the template and it’s tools to simplify that process:
- The Gantt Chart is going to be your favorite way of examining your PR campaign as a whole. With this view you’ll be able to plot your course and establish key long-term goals. Mapping your pitches and coverage, establishing deliverables and dependencies, and assigning specific due dates for long term success is the key function of this view. It’s the perfect way to get an overall sense of how you’re progressing.
- The Kanban Board will be your short and mid term view. It’s ideal for juggling pitch dates for journalists, bloggers and contributors. You’ll be able to see at a glance what you have lined up and how much coverage you’ve secured. This is the best way to tell what you’ve achieved, what is outstanding, and what placements you’ve secured in the future.
- The Table View is perfect for getting a daily and weekly overview of every aspect of your project. Sometimes in a busy campaign you’re going to be juggling a lot of individual content providers, and the table view is perfect when you want to see a simplified list of who is doing what, when they’re doing it, and where it’s being published.
Throughout the course of a long project, it’s very important to keep team morale and productivity high. Because a PR campaign revolves heavily around strict deadlines and dates, it’s vital to long term success that you’re sticking to the proposed timeline (or at least following closely). That’s why we’ve also developed Hive Analytics, allowing you to map and track your teams productivity and output, so you have a powerful, real time view of how well you’re keeping pace with your goals. From there it’s an easy process to spot and track down any potential problems before they even develop.
If you do spot any issues, don’t forget you can also bring up our team view to see at a glance who is assigned to what action. From there, you can discuss any concerns or issues directly using Hive chat, making what can otherwise be a painful process quick, easy and efficient. That way you can spend the majority of your time making sure you’re turning heads with an amazing PR campaign.
Check out some other project templates here:
Paid Marketing Campaign Template
