Trying to figure out how to successfully manage your PR on a tight budget?
No matter the size of your company – or your budget – it’s always a good idea to think carefully about your PR strategy.
You want to make the most of every pound you spend, so understanding exactly what you want to achieve – and how to get there – is a crucial first step.
Why do you need a PR budget?
Your company can’t properly plan its PR activity without a clear budget. You should allocate funds for PR in the same way that you do for everyday business expenses, to help your company draw in more clients.
Once you know the budget, you can plan your activity and priorities around this. It will also enable you to set realistic timeframes on objectives and goals.
Without a budget, your PR activities can become less focused, which can lead to the money you spend not working as hard as you need or want it to. PR doesn’t have to be expensive – it’s about designing a strategy that suits your business, whatever stage of growth you’re in.
Considerations for your budget planning
As you consider your PR budget, it’s important to think about the shape of modern PR:
- There are more channels than ever where your audience is active, and you need to be there too. Set aside a portion of your budget to ‘test and measure’ your content strategy on each channel, so you can be certain that your brand message is getting to your audience in as many ways as possible, along with the customised material they want to view.
- Audiences are attentive and hold businesses responsible. Companies are increasingly investing in environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts in response to consumer and investor demands for businesses to be more socially and environmentally responsible. It’s important that your PR gets this message across clearly and concisely, in a way that matters to your audience. It’s also important to consider the resources required to make this happen effectively.
- The PR landscape is evolving due to social listening. Social listening may not have been on PR’s radar a few years ago, but it’s now an essential component of PR strategy, as it allows PR teams to gain a better understanding of target audience viewpoints. This should form a key part of your PR budget and strategy.
What should be included in your budget?
Don’t worry if you don’t know where to start when making a budget for PR.
In reality, the procedure is very similar to preparing any other form of budget for your company, which you have undoubtedly done before.
Choosing the essential public relations tools and resources you’ll employ all year long is the first step in creating a PR budget. You can then rank these in order of priorities.
Your individual requirements will depend on your objectives. However, you may wish to include the costs associated with the following activities, for example:
- Blogs
- Social media – creation and curation
- Media relations
- Website copy
- Case studies and testimonials
- Email marketing.
What should you budget for PR then?
Every organisation has a different strategic plan for its PR and communications budget, but the sooner you start tracking the results of your PR activity, the better position you’ll be in to budget effectively.
Budgeting for PR is never a simple process. Although PR has historically been challenging to quantify, more advanced tools and technology have recently been available, making it simpler for PR and communications teams to gather crucial metrics that link PR to business objectives and demonstrate its value.
If you would like some guidance on how to achieve successful PR results on a budget, book your free communications review here.
Alternatively, simply fill out the form below and a member of the team will be in touch.
