PR Tip #264: Use Scope

One of the key things to remember when you’re working with a public relations firm or consultant on a project is to agree on scope–and we don’t mean minty fresh breath (though that helps).

Scope is what you hire your PR pro to work on and deliver. Scope covers what’s most important to you, the client–and prevents “mission creep.” If scope is set at the beginning–and adhered to by the client and the consultant–it’s a huge factor in preventing failure of a project.

My colleague Sharon Kreher sums this up nicely;

Too often, we assume that our benchmark for success is the same as our client’s.  But how often have you found out at the end of the day that while you feel you’ve hit all the important targets, your client feels you’ve missed the one that he/she values the most. Talking about what success looks like at the beginning of the project allows you to incorporate the right measurement tools into the planning and everyone on the team knows what it will take to have a happy client.  It also gives you a chance to explain up-front why some expectations aren’t realistic – a much better time to have that conversation than at end of the program!

Simply: if TV coverage is your top priority, make sure that’s in the scope of work so your PR team doesn’t spend all their time trying to get you in the newspaper.

The mission creep aspect is also part of this equation–it happens when a client decides she wants to add something to the project midstream. That usually translates into the PR firm losing focus and/or doing work that wasn’t part of the agreed-upon compensation.

We build scope of the project into every contract. Why? Well, let’s just say that we learned the hard way. Human nature being what it is, a conversation is almost never remembered by two people in exactly the same way. Best to get it in writing from the get-go. This applies to process as well as “big picture” project work.

A process example: A client hires us to write and distribute a press release (yes, press releases still exist) for his new company. Since we’ve written press releases for a long time, we view it as a fairly simple process and say “you betcha.”

However, we fail to stipulate exactly what press release writing and distribution entails (generally the process is research, initial draft writing, edits by the client, presentation of the rewritten release draft and a final polish). The client feels that since she’s paying for a press release she can make tweaks to the press release ad infinitum, so she changes parts of the release draft on a daily basis and wants several rewrites “to see how it looks that way.”

Long story short, a job that should take four to six hours drags out to twice as long and we have to put our foot down. The client feels slighted and it’s our fault, not the client’s because we weren’t clear about the scope of work.

So, your PR tip for the day: be clear with your PR pro about your expectations from the get-go, and make sure the PR pro gets it. Never assume (our favorite take on making assumptions is covered in this previous post) anything unless you have it on paper and it’s signed off by both parties. Make sure you understand processes–large and small. You’re more likely to have a minty fresh experience if you do.