Planning your public relations campaign

Making a plan is probably the most important thing about public relations.  So start this year off as you mean to go on is the advice of PR expert Louise Wood. There is no doubt that having a plan gives a purpose and when you’re on a mission we all know that things happen.  Your team, your clients, consumer magazines, TV shows and film launches can all be a great source of ideas and inspiration.  But if you are stuck for ideas, we’ve broken it down to give you some great start up ideas to act as a framework for you. Weekly Week 1 Plan your Facebook for the month ahead – do a monthly plan and schedule your posts.  Do two posts a week and then think of at least one or two more ad hoc posts. Respond to what happens in the salon with pictures of makeovers and great before-and after-colours and try to be as interactive as possible.  Make sure you reply to messages and comments! Week 2 Suggest a top tip to your local press – how to…use a curling wand/braid hair or use dry shampoo.  Link this to something you have seen in the news with a celebrity or a national theme like Valentine's Day or Mothering Sunday. Week 3 Make contact with the trade press via social media. Comment on Facebook posts, Tweet a journalist and take part in #hairhour (Wednesday 8-9pm). Week 4 Raise your salon or personal profile by attending or running an event. Think about Clubstar, Hair Club Live and Fellowship Members Night or see what your manufacturer has going on that you can be involved with.  This is a way of creating news for local press, networking and creating social media contact. Monthly If you think you can only manage one thing a quarter, then plan who you want to target. Local press is a good focus for quarterly contact. Month 1 Do a press pack on Spring/Summer trends and hand deliver this to your local press with a hand-tied spring bouquet for example, or some cupcakes. Month 2 Focus on a new product or a new service around Mother’s Day; perhaps a special newspaper offer for mums and daughters or a makeover as an editorial competition. Month 3 April is the perfect month for a spring clean feature about detoxing hair.  Accompany this with a healthy kit including detox tea bags, a smoothie recipe book and natural products such as Schwarzkopf’s Essensity. Get the idea? Month 4 Invite a journalist in to the salon and offer them a complementary appointment (whatever service they like). Then, when they are in the salon take the time to show them around, introduce them to a couple of key team members and showcase something in the salon you are really proud of.  It won’t always results in instant coverage, but it really is the best way to relationship build so you get to a point where they are writing about hairdressing and think about you first. Follow up your personal drop-offs with a call and an invitation for the editorial contact to come in for a sample service or offer to give them further information or shots. Plunder your manufacturer for material if you don’t have your own photographic work. Schwarzkopf Professional, for example. have an amazing image library for their customers. Final tip: make the plan a realistic one!  If you start off by missing your targets, you’ll get demoralised. So start small, be consistent and your PR results will follow. Louise Wood is HJ’s PR expert and hairdressing has been a constant at the heart of her 30 year PR career.  Louise is co-director of LWPR, a creative agency specialising in PR, salon marketing, social media and events.