What is a Rapid Response PR Program and How Can It Help Your Organization?

In public relations, rapid response readiness plans put PR teams and their clients in a position to quickly jump into developing or ongoing news cycles when the coverage aligns with a client’s area of expertise. Sometimes referred to as newsjacking, these strategies enable teams to capitalize on a current trending topic by sharing their perspectives and insights with reporters to help enrich the coverage. 

At REQ, our rapid response methodology is rooted in several foundational elements, including building a rapid response readiness playbook unique to our clients and their SMEs and closely and regularly monitoring news items in our clients’ areas of interest. 

What might those areas be? Let’s say one of our clients anticipates a new White House Executive Order that will impact its business to be issued on a particular date. We’ll have a strategy to reach out to reporters on day one and work with the client to ensure they have an SME lined up to offer expert commentary when the EO drops. 

We've found that the following best practices help our team ensure we're poised and ready to jump into action when the time comes.

REQ’s 8 Best Practices for Rapid Response Success:

1. Foster ongoing relationships with journalists. Establishing connections with relevant reporters can increase the odds of success when newsjacking opportunities arise. If the reporter already knows the proposed expert, that can give them a substantial leg up on their competition’s spokespeople.
2. Craft a flexible rapid response framework. Being prepared for various scenarios can allow for quickly tailoring outreach for a given opportunity. In addition to knowing ahead of time which spokespeople or SMEs are best suited for given topics, we ascertain SMEs’ preferred means of being interviewed, such as live on-air, video or phone calls, or email Q&As. We also create interview briefing documents to prepare spokespersons before they speak to a reporter.
3. Evaluate any potential risks before commenting on a story. While most businesspeople are often easily excited to pursue newsjacking opportunities, we also know when to pause and ask if there is any risk to doing so. For instance, in news events surrounding tragedies, nobody wants to be accused of being tone-deaf or ambulance-chasing, particularly if their insights could be a marketing ploy during a sensitive time.
4. Identify which topics, news items, or coverage areas a company may be inclined to discuss with the media.
5. Curate media lists of relevant journalists. Having the lists ready for when we want to begin conducting outreach allows us to move faster and better capitalize on opportunities.
6. Create repositories of pre-packaged quotes or pitches. These can be used as is or quickly modified to share with reporters immediately after a news item breaks.
7. Coordinate with clients ahead of time and identify media-ready SMEs. Properly prepare the SMEs with talking points, including their analysis and expert insights, and pinpoint topics or questions they may want to avoid.
8. Counsel clients on the importance of having pre-established internal review processes for approving SME quotes or media pitches. This helps us ensure too much time isn’t lost waiting to conduct outreach. Waiting five hours to reach out to a fast-moving reporter with a quote or pitch can easily result in a missed opportunity.

Many of the most influential reporters in the media move the fastest. They cover the breaking news that many people read, and they need sources quickly. Your SME can be one of those sources, but getting them quoted requires more than just a nice company story. It requires a rapid response program always vigilant, on-call, and ready to pounce on opportunities. 

That's what a rapid response plan is all about. It's one of the most effective and impactful ways to get your SMEs and company in the news when your current and potential customers are paying attention.

If you’d like to learn more about how REQ can help your organization develop a rapid response readiness plan, contact our team to schedule a quick discovery call.