Pippa Goulden (00:07)
Hello and welcome back to PR Made Simple. Right, today we're going to jump straight into it. We're talking about 2025 and what you can be doing and thinking about now in order to get PR set into the new year. So I know that we're hopefully on the wind down towards Christmas or if you are still going for it, the end is nearly in sight. But just doing this little bit of prep from now and into the new year.

will really help you to hit the ground running to nail your PR next year. And I want you to be starting to get into that zone of thinking about the amazing PR that you're gonna be generating for your business next year, how you're gonna be stepping into PR. So 2025 for you is gonna be the year of the PR for you. So how you approach this is gonna be slightly different than if you have a business at the moment,

You're heavily focused on Q4 Christmas sales. Right now you're in that rabbit in the headlights. You're not gonna be doing much apart from focusing on the next couple of weeks. So take this advice and implement it when you can. If however, you're slightly on the wind down, you know, you're starting to think about next year, the next few weeks for you are really just about strategy and starting to plan, then this is the perfect time for you.

So we're going to jump straight into the things that I think you should be doing now to get yourself PR set for 2025. First off, let's just do a little bit of reflection. So I want you to do an audit, have a think about 2024. When it comes to your PR, what has gone well this year for you? What have you enjoyed doing? What's worked well? What's met your business objectives?

What can you see taking into next year? What do you need to dial up for 2025? What could you do more of? What did you want to do, but you didn't quite get round to? And what were the reasons for why you didn't get to that? So you tried pitching to journalists, but you didn't get any results. Did you send enough emails? Did you give up too soon? Did you get your pitch right? Did you do research before you sent the pitch out?

Has your mindset held you back? Have you been overthinking rather than actually taking action? The more aware you are of what's kind of stopped you or held you back from getting those results, the more we can really fix that as we go into 2025. And I think it's a really important thing that none of us do enough is actually celebrating what we've achieved and how far we've come. And often,

the time when you're kind of in the middle of doing things it feels like you're wading through treacle but if you do take that moment to step back have a look at what you've achieved this year you will realize that you have come so much further than you thought and also even if you haven't really made PR a focus for this year that's totally fine I bet you've done some things this year that actually do fall into the PR banner you know you have probably

done things, collaborated with other small businesses. You've probably done a bit of networking in various different communities or groups. know, have a think about what has worked for you out of the activity that you've done. And let's just take a moment to celebrate that and then use that as kind of impetus and momentum for next year. And then I want you to start visualizing what you want to achieve in 2025. You know, what is that key thing that you would love to achieve?

It might be a speaking opportunity. It might be writing an article for a magazine you've always wanted to be in. It might be a guest on a podcast. It might be starting to build your profile to get known for what you do. I want you to start believing that these things will happen for you because the more we do believe in them, the more we can visualize seeing ourselves in the right places, the more likely we are to take that action to make them happen.

So the next thing we're gonna talk about is a plan. And if you've been around me for a while, you will know that I am hot on having a PR strategy. There are previous episodes where we go into this in a bit more detail, but PR works best when it's done strategically to a plan that helps you to achieve your business goals. So I would love it if for 2025, you can start as you mean to go on with a plan.

Now it doesn't need to be long and mega detailed, it just needs to be thought through. So what are your business objectives for next year? Have you actually thought about that? Who's your target audience? What PR routes are right for you to reach that audience? And what trends, topics can you talk about that's going to be of interest to them? I find it really useful to break my year down into quarters, but you might do it in halves or seasons depending on the setup in your business or months.

So I then give myself objectives. So I want to achieve in the first quarter, say three speaking opportunities, a quarter, two podcast interviews and one piece of press coverage, just for example. Now, if you're in my DIY PR membership, this is something we do in our 2025 goal setting and strategy session in January. It's also something that I do automatically with my one-to-one accelerator clients. And of course, if you're a delivery client where I do it all for you, then I put that strategy together for you.

but it's really important to spend a bit of time on this so you don't waste time in the long run. Think about your business objectives for 2025. What are you going to achieve in your business next year? Are you going to be going for investment? Are you launching a new business? Do you want to raise your profile as a founder and get known for what you do? In which case, check out my new course, Get Known, that's launching at the end of Jan. Do you want to launch a new range of products or services?

And then I want you to think about that audience who I know we come back to time and time again, but there's a reason for it. Who are they? What are they reading? What are they listening to? What are they watching? What brands do they like? What influencers are they following? The more work you can do on this to understand them, the easier you'll find it to make sure you're targeting the right places with your PR. And from there, you can put your PR plan together. Now, as I said, in my DIY PR membership,

we have a session on this in January. So if you think that you want support doing this, come on into the membership and come and be part of that session because it's really valuable to have that plan, to look forward, to set those goals. Setting yourself goals for the year or breaking it down, as I said, into quarters or months is really key to knowing what success looks like for you for 2025. You know, as I said, I've got my...

speaking opportunities that I focus on, so I've got podcasts, I've got them scheduled in already for January and February because I've kind of been proactive on making sure that I can hit the ground running when it comes to 2025, but this year I proactively set myself targets for speaking opportunities and for in-person networking especially and it's really paid off.

in terms of helping me to get known for what I'm doing, meeting the right people in the right places, being talked about by the right people in the right places. So, you know, let's have a think about what you want to achieve next year and work out a plan to help you to go and do that. The other thing I want you to have a look at is your calendar for 2025 and I want you to start mapping your PR against that. So what do you have?

coming up in the way of launches or new news. You know, it might be that actually this key seasonal activity that works for your business, you what conversations can you be part of? And also this is really important for integrating your PR with the rest of your marketing, because that's when PR is most effective, when you can use the PR that you're generating throughout those marketing conversations. Think about the timings of your PR activity.

The long lead glossy magazines work about four months in advance. So this is December. They'll be working on their kind of March-ish issues now. Not all of them, but that's a general rule of thumb. So starting to think about that plan, about who you're gonna be pitching to, what you're gonna be pitching them, and trying to get ahead of your year now is a great thing to do. And I'm...

sorry to mention Christmas 25 already, I promise you I won't mention it again for a very long time, but if Christmas is something that you will be focusing on next year I want you to put a note in your diary right now that you want to start thinking about it from about early June in order to give yourself the best run at it. We're not going to worry too much about that now, we will be doing a lot of that in the PR set, in the membership with my one-to-one clients.

and I will be covering it in future podcast episodes. So don't worry too much, but I just want you to have it on your radar for next year as you're starting to think ahead that June time is really in order to give yourself the best run at it, June's when you want to start thinking about it and we'll move on quickly. The other thing that's really helpful at this time of year is to start looking ahead to what trends and insight you'll be able to use to kind of show your expertise

or generate PR opportunities for your business. Keeping an eye on emerging trends, whatever industry you're in is a great idea. So whether that's say colors and styles from fashion weeks that are gonna be influencing the products that we're buying for the next 12 months, the hot topics in your industry. So say the impact of AI, that conversation is not going anywhere. It might be changes to the way we're working, themes that you're seeing with your clients.

It's really great way of generating PR opportunities and staying ahead of where the magazines are gonna be having those conversations. The other thing that is a really good thing to be doing now is to be doing the research. Read the magazines that you want to be in, listen to the podcasts, use some of your downtime over Christmas if you actually get some to buy the publications or listen to the radio stations, watch the TV. This is your license to...

sit and watch this morning, for example, get a feel for the types of places you want to be featured. How are they covering things? What are they talking about? It's a really good way to immerse yourself in the publications that your audience is reading or listening to or watching. Just because you don't read them does not mean that your audience isn't. So I want you to step into those shoes of your audience and start kind of absorbing their world.

Another thing that's really useful to do is to do an audit of your imagery. So all of you ideally need to have headshots as a founder. So do you need to get a new shoot booked in? I know I do need to get that booked in as a reminder to myself. Do your media lists need updating? Could your bio do with a spring clean? Can you update a press release or do you need to write a new press release?

Do your cutout images need labeling? This could be a really good time to just kind of get that admin done for you so you can hit the ground running in 2025 and you don't really need to worry about it. The next thing I want you to do is to commit. Set yourself some goals for 2025. Is this gonna be the year that you get that industry stage or is it the year you're going to be able to walk to that newsagents and pick up?

that glossy magazine that you've always wanted to be in with your face staring back at you? Is it that year that you're gonna get that podcast interview that you've always wanted to do? And the other thing I want you to do is to work out how you're going to fit your PR in. It's one thing saying, I want to do PR next year, but in order to make it happen, I want you to think about how are you going to do your PR next year? Would you be joining my DIY PR membership?

to be the thing you need to spur you on? Would finding an accountability partner work for you? Or is there a team member that you could delegate this to? Or do you want to outsource it and get someone to do it for you and hi, yes, I can do that too. But being proactive and thinking about how you're going to fit your PR in is really important. I don't just want you to sit back and wait for it to happen to you because it does not work like that. Visualize yourself this time next year.

how would you be feeling about the effort you've made? Will you be proud of yourself or will you be frustrated that you didn't do the work to make it happen? You know, I can hand on heart say this year I am really proud of what I've done to build my reputation, to position myself as a go-to expert in my industry, to get those key PR opportunities and it's because I have chipped away and chipped away and chipped away at it and I know that's easy for me to say because

you know, I'm a PR and kind of know what I'm doing. But I could equally say the same thing for my DIY PR members. You know, I've been doing a bit of a review about all the things that they've been achieving. You know, we've had somebody get themselves a TED talk. We've had two TEDx talks. We've had people get front covers of magazines. We've had somebody get a six page feature in a magazine. We've had people's talking on industry stages. We've had people being interviewed on the most amazing podcasts.

We've had people generate huge amount of sales from a wholesale order that they got through a trade press article. And the people who are getting these results and they're building, they are doing the PR over and over again. They're not just doing one thing, sitting back and saying, I've done it now. I don't need to do anything else. They're chipping away at it. And I promise you, you can do this for your business yourself. It is very doable.

consistency is going to pay off and I'm not saying you need to do it every day but if you commit to your PR to make it happen whether that's fortnightly or on Thursday afternoons or in our monthly accountability sessions in my membership it will make such a difference when you commit to it and yes it might ebb and flow throughout the year depending on what else you've got going on within the business and you know that's happened to me this year there's been a few months where I've taken my foot off the PR pedal and I've actually felt the impact of it.

kind of three or four months down the line. But you know, we have to be realistic, don't we? Especially if you're running your business as a solo founder, or you know, you've got a small team. But making that commitment is really going to help you dial it up and focus on it as a goal for 2025. So, hopefully this has inspired you to hit the ground running as we go into the new year, to get your PR set, to get known for what you do.

As you know, I have a DIY PR membership. You can use the code POD50 to get 50 % off your first month in the membership. I also have my one-to-one accelerator, which I have probably at the moment one or two spots left for kind of January, February, but they are filling fast. I also have my brand new course called Get Known that is launching in the end of January, we'll be kicking off.

So if you really want to focus just specifically on building your reputation as a founder then that will be a brilliant thing for you to do. I'm really excited about this course, I've done lots of work to kind of make sure it's really going to deliver. It's part course but it's mainly action taking, focusing on taking the action that are going to get you the results.

You can find more at theprset.com and follow me on Insta, Pippa the PR Set or Pippa Goulden on LinkedIn. And here is to a very exciting 2025 for you. I can't wait to see what you do with your PR and I will be back again soon for another episode of PR Made Simple. See you soon.