The Easy Street PR Strategy: Keep It Simple To Win

I’m always on the lookout for an Easy Street PR Strategy.

I’ve been craft­ing PR strategies for organ­isa­tions since 2005.

This blog post will share my favour­ite approach to find­ing that power­ful strategy that will bene­fit a cli­ent for years.

Here we go:

The Mindset: Smooth Sailing is Sweet

When it comes to craft­ing power­ful strategies for dif­fer­ent types of organ­isa­tions, here’s what I’ve noticed:

For whatever reas­on, many freshly cre­ated strategies are chal­len­ging to imple­ment. Few new strategies are just “a breeze.”

But some new strategies work.

These breezy strategies are just smooth sail­ing from the start. They make every­one involved hap­pi­er. All you hear in every meet­ing or con­ver­sa­tion is “yes” and “of course.” 

While there might be lots of work involved, these easy-to-imple­ment strategies some­how attract good work as if they were magnets. 

And when you finally encounter untested or unex­pec­ted ter­rit­ory, these strategies keep mak­ing sense.

What kind of sor­cery is this?
I’ve come to call it the Easy Street PR Strategy.

How the Easy Street PR Strategy Works

I dis­covered the power of the Easy Street PR Strategy when I turned 40 years old. During some mid-life intro­spec­tion, I thought much about spend­ing my time bet­ter. Not just pro­fes­sion­ally but in my private life as well.

I real­ised I had oper­ated on a naïve assump­tion that any­thing worth­while must also be problematic.

I drew a dia­gram to illus­trate this mind shift:

I real­ised that I had spent two dec­ades in the imma­ture zone by focus­ing much of my energy where it was­n’t pos­sible to influ­ence the out­come. My accom­plish­ments were due to fix­ing quite a few tricky things to fix. But still.

I did waste quite a lot of energy on futile efforts.

Instead of tak­ing the mature route, I could still fix the same hard-to-tackle chal­lenges as before, but sud­denly, I had a sol­id base of easy wins to back everything up.

Maybe there’s a reas­on why some­thing comes easy to you or an organ­isa­tion. Perhaps it’s easy because it aligns with your or the organ­isa­tion’s nat­ur­al strengths and true Ikigai.

Going Easy Does Not Equal Weakness

As an example, I like the example of Apple’s mar­ket­ing philo­sophy as described below:

Apple’s mar­ket­ing philo­sophy is very clean and simple, almost basic and obvi­ous for Apple at first glance, but its clar­ity is a big part of what makes it so powerful.

How To Write an Easy Street PR Strategy

My insight about easy street strategies is that they tend to out­per­form oth­er strategies that tech­nic­ally ought to be super­i­or — but require lots of explain­ing, con­vin­cing, learn­ing, test­ing, coach­ing, etc. 

So, I’m always look­ing for an Easy Street PR Strategy.

Inspired by Richard Rumelt, here’s how to write your strategy on one single page:

“If you can­’t explain it simply, you don’t under­stand it well enough.”
— Albert Einstein

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How to Write a 1‑Page PR Strategy

My inspir­a­tion for writ­ing “no-bull­shit” strategies comes from the clas­sic “Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters” by Richard Rumelt. The 1‑Page PR Strategy focuses on how to win. ¹Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters. Crown Business.

“The most basic idea of strategy is the applic­a­tion of strength against weak­ness. Or, if you prefer, strength applied to the most prom­ising oppor­tun­ity.”
Source: Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters ²Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters. Crown Business.

Here’s how you can write a 1‑Page PR Strategy that fits one page — using the myth­ic­al battle between David and Goliath as an analogy:

1. Analysis

• David can­’t beat Goliath using his size or raw strength, but he has an advant­age in speed and accur­acy from a distance.

2. Guiding Principle

• David should­n’t engage in close com­bat but rather use tools that will allow him to strike from a distance.

3. Coherent Actions

• David should­n’t use any heavy armour because that would slow him down.
• David should use a sling­shot, a weapon he is famil­i­ar with and can strike from a distance.
• David should lever­age the sur­prise ele­ment and not advert­ise his advant­age beforehand.

If you write 1 – 2 clear sen­tences per bul­let, your strategy should fit nicely on one page.

Read also: The Easy Street PR Strategy: Keep It Simple To Win

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Put in anoth­er way: 

Sometimes, a new strategy might work fine but must be con­stantly rein­forced and encour­aged. Whenever that situ­ation occurs, it indic­ates that we’ve chosen the wrong strategy and should rethink our approach before we’re too deep in complexity.

PR Resource: More PR Strategies

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Doctor Spin’s PR School: Free Strategy PR Course

Unlock the power of stra­tegic pub­lic rela­tions with this free Strategy PR Course. Elevate your skills and boost your career today.

• The Bad PR Strategy
• The Magical PR Strategy Question
• The 1‑Page PR Strategy
• How to Create a PR Strategy That Actually Works

Public Relations Strategies

• The Thought Leadership PR Strategy: Rule Your Domain
• The Extra Mile PR Strategy: Wow Your Customers
• The Hidden Arena PR Strategy: Mobilising Change Agents
• The Superhero Solution PR Strategy: Be the Obvious Answer
• The Easy Street PR Strategy: Keep It Simple To Win
• The Surround Message PR Strategy: Make the Box Smaller
• The Stupid Majority PR Strategy: How Underdogs Dominate
• The Rebel Yell PR Strategy: Picking a Fight To Get Recognised
• The Wisdom Whisperer PR Strategy: Educate Your Industry
• The Deep Content PR Strategy: Win By Going Deeper
• The Evergreen Content PR Strategy: Forever Is a Long Time
• The Content Themes PR Strategy: Focused Birds Gets Worms
• The Honeymoon Outreach PR Strategy: Influencer Relations 2.0
• The Inbound Shift PR Strategy: The Beauty From Within

“The under­ly­ing prin­ciples of strategy are endur­ing, regard­less of tech­no­logy or the pace of change.”
— Michael Porter

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR ideas.

PR Resource: Checklist for Communicative Leadership

“The single biggest prob­lem in com­mu­nic­a­tion is the illu­sion that it has taken place.”
— George Bernard Shaw

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The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

How can you ensure your lead­er­ship is express­ive and pre­cise in prac­tic­al situations? 

As a rule of thumb:

• It’s gen­er­ally bet­ter to “over-com­mu­nic­ate” (tol­er­able added effort) than “under-com­mu­nic­ate” (sub­stan­tial added risk).

Make sure to pass these com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship checks:

• This is what we are doing.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is why we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is who will be doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is how we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is when we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is where we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is for whom we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?

Being a great lead­er can be a daunt­ing task. However, with effort (and atten­tion to detail), all lead­ers can prac­tice express­ive and pre­cise communication.

“Expressive and pre­cise com­mu­nic­a­tion styles have a stronger link to lead­er out­comes than per­son­al­ity traits extra­ver­sion and con­scien­tious­ness.”
Source: Human Performance ³Bakker-Pieper, A., & Vries, R. (2013). The Incremental Validity of Communication Styles Over Personality Traits for Leader Outcomes. Human Performance, 26, 1 – … Continue read­ing

Learn more: The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR ideas.