Create a Great Public Relations Campaign 

You must know how to create an effective public relations campaign plan. The plan must be written and executed thoroughly.

Before you can create your plan, you must be informed about the company you are helping. Conduct interviews with people who work there. Visit their web site. Read articles pertaining to the business.

The beginning of your plan should discuss the organization's history. Your overview should include information pertaining to the organization's main goal.

The purpose of the plan I devised as a class assignment for The United Way of Greater St. Louis in 1999 was to help persuade their African-American contributors to donate more money while gaining more recognition. I mentioned that more than 400 African-Americans donated more than $715,000 in the St. Louis area in 1998.

The second part must include a summary of the original campaign. Summarize everything the plan includes.

The third part must include a justification of the original campaign. Reiterate the overall purpose of the campaign proposal. Discuss why your proposals are necessary.

The fourth part should include a bibliography. The bibliography should include your interviews. Do research on how to format a bibliography.

The fifth part should be the main body. The main part must consist of an outline of five important components.

The first part of your outline must cover the goals. List every goal your campaign focuses on achieving.

The second part must list the objectives. Include at least one objective for each goal. The objectives must explain what that portion of the project will focus on.

The third part must list the strategies. Discuss what the corporation should do to achieve each particular goal.

The fourth part must include an evaluation plan. List ways the organization can measure the results for each strategy that is used. My plan focused heavily on creating an outreach program in a targeted community that would provide a mechanism that enables African-American families to contribute to United Way agencies regularly; therefore, I proposed holding fund-raisers and other special events to encourage current minority donors to join the African-American Leadership Giving Initiative. I suggested the organization can determine if the events are successful by counting all the current minority donors in attendance who join the initiative.

The fifth part must include the schedule of action. This component should be a timeline. Offer dates for every strategy to be implemented. Offer flexibility; for example, you could write, "The frequency of the events you hold should be determined by your level of success. If the events are very successful, they should be held every six to eight weeks."

You must be proficient with graphic design and know graphic design software applications because a good campaign plan requires good promotional pieces and many public relations and marketing employers require good graphic design skills and knowledge of graphic design software applications such as Quark, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Practice creating flyers, press releases and newsletters with the materials you find in your newspaper or other publications. Learn Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator through books and practice. You can also use Microsoft Word to create certain graphics such as text boxes.

Your plan should include a press release, audio news release, flyer, billboard ad, business cards for volunteers and a pledge letter. The pledge letter should urge contributors to donate more money.

Related articles: an overview of public relations planning, public relations campaign preparation, public relations campaign research and public relations campaign examples.