Juggling press releases, social media campaigns, journalists, and building relationships with key influencers – sounds familiar?
💡 Read Productivity in PR: Benefits, Tips, Best Tools & Books
Fortunately, several strategies can help you boost your PR team’s productivity and efficiency. These strategies allow you and your PR team to achieve your goals with greater ease and optimal results.
But where to start?
In this blog, you will learn five key strategies to help your PR team work smarter, minimize wasted time, and maximize their output. These strategies will enhance their overall effectiveness and significantly contribute to the success of your organization.
The Importance of Productivity in PR
As a member of a PR team, you know how important it is to achieve the best possible results. Whether you’re looking to build a stronger brand reputation, increase media coverage, or improve your crisis management skills, you need to be working as efficiently as possible. That’s why productivity is key.
When you’re working at your highest levels of productivity, you can achieve more in less time. You can prioritize your tasks and collaborate effectively with your colleagues. This means you can achieve your goals more quickly and effectively. Plus, you can deliver better results for your clients.
Key Strategies for Boosting PR Team Productivity
Communicate Effectively
One of the most important things you can do is to establish good communication with your PR team. Effective communication can increase a team’s productivity by 20% to 25%. Your team members should feel comfortable talking to you and each other about any problems they may be facing.
Here are some specific ways you can improve communication within your PR team:
- Keep Everyone in the Loop: Ensure your PR team members are always up-to-date on the latest news and developments related to your business. This is particularly important if you have remote team members who may not be as plugged into the day-to-day workings of your company.
- Practice Active Listening and Show Empathy: When your PR team members come to you with concerns or suggestions, be sure to listen to what they have to say. This shows that you value their input. Plus, they can help you identify areas where you can make improvements.
- Choose Your Communication Tools Carefully: The right communication medium or tool will go a long way in ensuring cooperation and a healthy work culture. There are different tools you can use to communicate with your team.
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Delegate Reasonably
Trying to tackle everything yourself can lead to reduced productivity and eventually cause burnout. As a PR professional, you can transform your productivity by learning when and how to delegate tasks effectively.
Here’s how you can do it:
- Identify Delegatable Tasks: Start by recognizing which tasks can be delegated. These can be ones that don’t require your unique expertise or immediate attention. These tasks include data gathering, research, or routine administrative work. Make sure to delegate strategically.
- Select the Right Team Members: Choose colleagues with the skills and capabilities to handle the delegated tasks. Consider their strengths, workload, and availability.
- Communicate Clearly: When delegating, provide crystal-clear instructions. Outline the task’s objectives, expectations, deadlines, and any specific guidelines clearly. Encourage questions and open communication.
- Trust Your Team: Trust is at the core of delegation. Empower your PR team to take ownership of the tasks. Micromanaging defeats the purpose of delegation and wastes your time.
- Set Checkpoints: Establish checkpoints or milestones for ongoing progress checks. This ensures that the task is on track and allows for timely adjustments if needed.
- Offer Support: Be available for guidance and support, but avoid taking control of the task. You need to facilitate, not do the work for them.
- Review and Feedback: Once the task is completed, review the results and provide constructive feedback. Acknowledge their efforts and give kudos.
- Learn from Experience: Delegation is a skill that improves with practice. Reflect on each delegation experience to refine your approach and identify areas for improvement.
Delegation not only lightens your workload but also empowers your PR team. It fosters collaboration and frees you to focus on high-value tasks that demand your expertise. By following these steps, you can delegate tasks effectively. This will boost productivity in the fast-paced PR landscape.
Set SMART Goals
A common cause of low productivity in PR teams is a lack of focus and direction. Your PR team may work on everything and nothing simultaneously without clear milestones. It leads to burnout, decreased motivation, and poor results.
You can set SMART goals to direct focus on the right PR activities. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. These goals help your PR team members identify where their skills will be most helpful in contributing creative ideas. It will improve team collaboration, foster better engagement, and boost PR productivity.
“Having smaller, more manageable goals allows them to see their progress on a more regular basis and they won’t be overwhelmed with the amount of work they still have to do.” – Olivia Tan, CocoFax.
Breaking down larger objectives into smaller, manageable tasks. This will help your teams stay focused and track their progress more effectively. This approach fosters a sense of accountability and motivation within the team.
Leverage Technology
If you work in a PR team, you know that collaboration and project management are key to success. However, without the right tools, productivity can suffer. Make sure your PR team has access to the necessary technology. You should also regularly check in with your team to see if they require any additional resources.
To streamline your workflows and organize tasks, you can use various tools. For instance, you can use a centralized project management system like ProofHub to keep track of your projects. Or you can use a PR tool like Determ to monitor brand performance and automate your marketing tasks. Additionally, a file-sharing system like Dropbox will make it easier for your PR team to find, share, and collaborate on documents, and a dedicated dialing system will keep all communication workflows in check.
Using a PR CRM saves you time compared to using a spreadsheet to manage contacts. The research found that using a spreadsheet would take 5.4 hours a week, while a PR CRM would only take 3.4 hours.
Track Results and Improve
If you’re looking to achieve long-term success with your PR efforts, you need to focus on continuous improvement. You need to assess your PR team’s performance, collect feedback, and identify areas for improvement. And according to research, PR professionals spend up to 5 hours per week on data entry.
One way to do this is to use a media monitoring software like Determ. With Determ, you can track key metrics like website traffic, social media engagement, and media mentions. By analyzing these metrics, you can identify which strategies are working well and which ones need improvement.
Once you’ve identified areas for improvement, it’s important to adjust your strategies accordingly. For example, if you notice low social media engagement, you can post more frequently. Plus, you can experiment with different types of content.
By consistently refining your approach and adapting to new challenges, you can achieve even greater results over time. So, don’t be afraid to try new things, gather feedback, and make changes as needed.
Final Thoughts
As a PR professional, it is important to boost your PR team’s productivity and efficiency. This will help you and your team to stay ahead in today’s competitive business world. The above strategies will help you streamline your processes and maximize your output. You can deliver impactful results for your clients or organizations.
Author Vartika Kashyap is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at ProofHub, a scalable alternative to Paymo with flat pricing and no-per-user fee. She is a renowned B2B SaaS marketer with 17+ years of experience. She’s a prolific writer with 200+ articles on productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Vartika is a three-time LinkedIn Top Voice recipient and a thought leader in people management. Her work is featured on various top-tier publication platforms such as Muck Rack, Medium, eLearning Industry, Business2Community, DZone, Social Media Today, G2., and TweakYourBiz.
