By Mary Nguyen

When there is no upper limit to PR spend, it’s easy to lose control of a campaign’s budget.

Avoid going in blind by having at least a little knowledge about all facets of the PR machine and enlisting professional help. A good PR operative will be upfront about what outcomes you can expect for your money and will help you make informed decisions about a campaign’s direction. Make every dollar count with these three tips for controlling PR spend:

Have Clearly Defined Parameters

Whether your overarching goal is to increase brand awareness for a new product or capture the attention of a key demographic, it helps to consider the who, what, when, where, and why. By determining the scope of the project, you’ll be able to strip away all non-essential activities from your budget.

Make sure your campaign is SMART enough:

• Specific – This is where you specify what goals you are hoping to achieve. Break down each goal to their smallest components and give each their own time-frame and metrics.

• Measurable – Consider what metrics will be used to track your progress e.g. PR services to track brand mentions, software to measure social media metrics, Google analytics data and so on.

• Attainable – Are your targets achievable? Evaluate whether you’re able to realistically achieve the targets with the available time and resources.

• Relevant – Does your PR campaign align with your business’ overall plan? How does PR fit within the greater marketing strategy and other areas of the business?

• Time-bound – Is this a short or long-term campaign? When do the outcomes need to be achieved?

A big part of setting a campaign’s limits includes some appraisal of the business’ capacity to carry out PR tasks. Does the business have the right expertise to perform these activities or will it need to retain professionals to fill the gap?

Setting parameters also means being honest about how to best spend limited time as well as resources. Making the decision to outsource to experts means you’re frere to apply your talents in other needed areas.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to developing a PR strategy, defining limits first will help reign in unnecessary spending further down the line.

Keep an eye on the metrics

PR is no longer the vague and unmeasurable beast it used to be. While there are no metrics to measure the act of winning hearts and minds, the realm of web analytics, subscriber numbers, SEO and sales conversions, media placements and more provide plenty of numbers with which to set targets against.

Whatever the particulars of your business or campaign there is data out there for collection that will help monitor performance and plot out campaigns of the future. PR professionals have access to media monitoring systems and will provide reports that identify the strengths and weaknesses of a campaign in real-time, taking much of the guesswork away.

By watching the numbers more closely, businesses will come to understand the nuances of the niche they occupy, gaining valuable insights that can give them a much-needed competitive edge.

Be open-minded and re-evaluate often

Market reports show that the media environment is more fragmented than ever and it’s becoming increasingly challenging to reach audiences. This change is driving many businesses to direct a larger proportion of their marketing budgets to PR over traditional media advertising. Online reach is heavily controlled by the algorithms of only a few conglomerates – Google and Facebook – which influences the attainability of organic reach.

One other driver of change lies with consumer habits moving away from traditional formats toward hand-held devices. Deloitte reports that mobile devices are so entrenched that at least 90% of the population in most developed countries own one. The potential of hand-held devices has not yet been fully realised and the technology of the future in the near future should be kept in mind today.

Emerging media outlets

PR is currently being driven by how people consume their media; brands ignore new developments at their own peril. One such example is the emergence of social media app TikTok and the increasing dominance of video content led by social media influencers.

Older social media formats are constantly disrupted by the new and novel - businesses needn’t be married to the strategies and tactics they’ve used in the past. Staying open-minded and well-informed will ensure that you always put your money towards the most effective channels.

Want to learn more?

Find out when to plan a media release, how to evaluate campaigns, or if working with an influencer is right for you on PR Insights.