What is This Guide About?

The Importance of Planning

If you had somewhere to go, you would not just get in your car and drive around until you happened to arrive where you wanted to be. You would first spend some time thinking about your route, what time you wanted to arrive, and what you might need to bring. You might even consider whether it is best to use your car at all, versus some other means of transportation. In other words, you would make a small initial investment so as not to waste time and energy later on.

This example may be absurdly simple, but the same concept holds when conducting awareness campaigns. A good plan is your first step on the road to success.

It can be tempting to minimize planning, or even skip it entirely in the belief that you already know what needs to be done. This can be a dangerous assumption, but it is completely understandable. Not only are awareness campaigns often interesting and fun to work on, they might be all that outsiders see or hear of your organization. Planning, on the other hand, is typically done behind closed doors with no one other than you and your co-workers aware of it. Since its benefits are only evident after things have gone smoothly, there can be a great temptation to move straight into action -- in order to produce immediate tangible results for outsiders such as funders, government, or reporters.

A Partial Plan is Better Than No Plan

Another common misperception is that it is necessary to complete the entire planning process as described in this guide, or it is not worth doing anything at all. In fact, any part of the process that you can complete will prove worthwhile. There is no need to think that you will prepare a complete, comprehensive plan in your first attempt. Rather, approach it as a progression over time. Whatever you can pull together initially is fine and it will help right away. Then, it can be expanded the next time around. With each cycle, your plan will become more complete and the process easier with familiarity. Eventually, you will have a thorough plan, but do not be concerned if it takes awhile. What is important is to start the process.

It is also important to recognize that your PR efforts will occur on a long term, continuous basis, and your planning ought to reflect this..Think of PR as an ongoing dialogue between your organization and its target groups. There may be a series of “conversations” (awareness campaigns) over time, but they should be planned and coordinated from a macro level for consistency. Working with a PR plan will also allow you the flexibility to react to changing conditions and make adjustments to campaigns  as you go without losing sight of your goals. Rather than something done once a year and then put away until next year, a good plan is a working document that provides guidance as you execute campaigns.

The benefits of planning are well worth the investment. With a well thought-out plan, you will make the most of your staffing and funding. The process described in the Getting Started section of this guide is designed to help you to produce a useable plan quickly -- so you can get on with your awareness-raising activities in confidence, knowing they are efficiently taking you where you want to go.