September has a habit of feeling like the start of something new.
Summer holidays are over, diaries fill up again and conversations about next year’s budgets and plans start appearing in meetings. Before long, attention has shifted to what the business wants to achieve in 2027.
At this point there are still at least three months of the year left, and writing off Q4 too early could mean missing some valuable PR opportunities.
Don’t cram as much activity as possible into the final quarter, but make sure to look at what you wanted your communications to achieve this year, what’s happening within the business and where a focused push could still make a difference.
Go back to the objectives you set in January
Remember that PR strategy everyone was enthusiastic about at the beginning of the year? September is a good time to get it back out. Look at the objectives you agreed and where you are against them.
Perhaps brand awareness has increased, but you haven’t made as much progress with one particular audience. Maybe you wanted to establish several people within the business as expert spokespeople, but the same person has ended up taking every media opportunity. You might have secured plenty of coverage but struggled to generate the backlinks, website visits or enquiries you hoped would come with it.
Understanding where you are now gives you a much better idea of what the final quarter needs to deliver. And if something hasn’t worked, don’t keep doing it simply because it was written into the annual plan nine months ago.
Before creating something new, look at what you already have
The temptation when a campaign needs a boost is to start brainstorming something completely new.
Sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed. Often, there’s already plenty happening within the business that could give your PR team something to work with.
Look at the next few months. Are customer projects reaching completion? Has the sales team noticed a change in what customers are asking for? Is there useful data sitting within the business? Are your technical teams dealing with an issue that’s becoming more common across the industry?
The opportunity might be a bigger story hiding behind what initially looks like a fairly routine update.
Q4 can be a busy period for business news, which creates opportunities for companies with relevant expertise.
Get ready for the autumn news agenda
For manufacturers, construction businesses and organisations operating across the built environment, changes to policy, regulation and the economy can quickly create stories journalists need expert voices to help explain. The key is being ready before the story breaks.
If you know an important announcement is coming, work out whether your business has something useful to contribute. Speak to the relevant experts internally, agree your position and make sure the PR team understands what you can confidently talk about.
Trying to get a technical director to approve a comment at 4pm when a journalist needs it by 4.15pm rarely ends well.
Remember how quickly the end of the year disappears
September feels like there’s plenty of time left – then suddenly it’s November. If you want to make media impact before the end of the year, start those conversations now.
Trade publications often work well ahead, particularly for print editions and planned features. Research takes time to develop properly. Thought leadership needs writing, approval and pitching before it ever reaches publication.
Consumer brands need to be even further ahead for some seasonal opportunities. By the time customers are thinking about Christmas, many journalists have been working on festive content for months. Knowing how different media work and planning backwards from when you want coverage to appear can save a lot of frustration.
Use what you’ve learnt to make next year better
Planning for 2027 should absolutely be happening during Q4, but don’t start with a blank sheet of paper. By September, you already have months of useful evidence.
Which stories generated the strongest response? Which subjects did journalists want to discuss further? Did one spokesperson prove particularly effective? Perhaps a campaign you expected to fly struggled to gain traction, while an unplanned piece of reactive commentary opened doors you hadn’t anticipated.
Look at the media relationships you’ve developed too. There may be publications or sectors where you’ve started to build momentum that could become a bigger focus next year.
Your next PR strategy should be shaped by what you’ve learned, rather than being this year’s plan with a few new campaign ideas added.
There’s still time to make Q4 count
Three months is plenty of time to achieve something meaningful, but trying to do everything before Christmas isn’t the answer.
Work out what would genuinely make a difference to the business before the year ends. Focus the PR activity there and use what happens over the next few months to make smarter decisions about 2027.
Want to get more from your PR before the year is out? Refresh can help you identify where your communications can make the biggest difference in Q4, whether that means giving an existing campaign a fresh push or finding opportunities you haven’t explored yet. Get in touch with our team to talk about your plans.