Clear Communications Start with Clear Business Goals
“You can’t hit a target if you don’t know what it is.”
—Tony Robbins
Truer words were never spoken. When many architects get excited about public relations, their minds gravitate to features in the big design magazines and blogs, like Architectural Record, Metropolis, ArchDaily, Dezeen—all fantastic publications, and worth their weight in gold to an architect.
But when deciding how to position your firm to the public, practitioners must resist this myopic view of the opportunities that are available to them. After all, peer recognition can only take you so far.
If you don’t have a lot of time to spend on public relations outreach (and let’s face it, who does?), you want to be strategic about your efforts. That is why defining and reviewing your business goals before developing your communications strategy is critical to a successful public relations campaign. To begin, practitioners must analyze their revenue streams and ask themselves important questions:
- What markets are we strongest in?
- Where do we see opportunities to grow?
- Which markets are no longer worth pursing?
Once you have identified your targets, you can begin to define and refine an effective outreach strategy. Start by asking yourself:
- What are our audiences reading and watching?
- Where are influencers in these fields engaging?
- Where should we be generating our own content?
Asking—and answering—these questions will open your eyes to opportunities outside of the architectural press and inform how and where you should be spending your time. So the next time you sit down to create a communications strategy, by all means, DREAM BIG, but remember to focus your energy and work smarter, not harder.