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If your public relations and content marketing plan for next year is well underway, congratulations. If you are like most equipment manufacturers, there is still work to do. We are not talking about the long-range strategic plan that lives in a drawer. We are talking about a get-it-done action plan. Here are three steps to build one.
An action plan beats a strategic plan that lives in a drawer.
New product innovation. Sit down with your product specialists and find out what is being released in the next 12 to 18 months. Research and development is always a moving target, but you need an approximate calendar so you can spread announcements across the year instead of stacking them all at one trade show.
Customer-driven content. Spend time with the sales team. What questions do customers keep asking about your products and services? Write a detailed list. It becomes your editorial idea file for pitching editors and for your own channels. While you are there, ask for the names of happy customers using your equipment in interesting ways. Testimonials and job stories generate a lot of coverage and work hard on your website and in literature.
Company news. This one is hard to plan, but talk with the management team about the kinds of company events that would interest customers and the industry. When leaders understand what is newsworthy, they tell you sooner when news happens.
Media kits and editorial calendars. You already know which magazines your customers read. Collect their media kits and editorial calendars and build a master calendar of topics, pitch ideas, deadlines and guidelines for each publication. You will not remember the details in six months.
Trade shows. Editors go to shows to sell advertising and to find content for their readers. Plan to meet with them on both subjects.
Owned channels. A blog, a newsletter or a direct mail program gives your content a home you control. You already have the topic list from the sales team. Turn it into a calendar of what gets produced when, and who is responsible. If you need help from outside marketing, ask early and give a deadline well ahead of when you need it.
Establish goals that keep the team accountable, such as a number of editorial placements each quarter. If you fall short, figure out why and adjust the process or the goal. Set timing benchmarks too. If the newsletter is monthly, make it go out the same day every month. Good intentions fade fast without a schedule, and life will interrupt the plan, so leave room.
By all means review or write your long-term strategic marketing plan. Just do not spend so much time planning that you never take action, or you will wake up a year from now wondering where the time went.
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