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How to Build a PR Business Case and

Secure the Investment

A Strong Business Case May Be The Missing Key To Securing Your Company’s Investment In PR.

Whether you’re working for an organization big or small, you know that almost every initiative and project needs to be approved—and those that call for a significant business investment require the support of an executive team. To get their approval, it is often necessary to demonstrate why the project is needed and what benefits it will produce when completed. The reasons and benefits of PR initiatives may seem perfectly obvious to you and others on your team; however, it may not be so apparent to the decision-makers.

As a result, before you start working on a new strategy or a plan to execute it, you may first need to build a business case to get the ball rolling. A strong business case can help your proposal stand out amongst many competing priorities and may be the key to securing your brand’s investment in PR.

Unlike their colleagues in marketing, PR pros may not be familiar with writing a business case. If you’re a communicator tasked with getting budget approval for the PR department, we’re here to help. In this whitepaper, we’ve aimed to provide you with an essential business case guide—and a template—that you can use to get the resources and support you need to achieve your goals.

LOU HOFFMANCEO and President, The Hoffman Agency

PR has never been in a better position in terms of perception from senior management.

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• What Is a Business Case?

• Why Build a Business Case For PR

• PR Business Case Building Blocks

• Using Data & Technology To Support Your Business Case

• The Business Case Template

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What Is a Business Case?

A business case is one of the most powerful decision-making tools available to the C-suite.

A business case is a document that outlines the value or benefits your company will gain if you pursue a significant business investment or initiative. This initiative can be anything from a new product launch, to a proposal to increase spend on a branding campaign, or a significant investment with a new agency—to name a few.

A business case is developed during the early stages of ideation for a strategy, program or campaign, and outlines the why, what, how, and who is necessary to decide if it is worthwhile to invest in it. Think of it as a sales pitch with robust data and justification. An effective business case will inform the stakeholders about what will happen if they proceed with the investment by clearly explaining the expected benefits, costs and risks.

A business case and a business plan are not the same thing. A business case focuses on the benefits and alternatives of a solution to address a specific business need. A business plan typically maps a business strategy and how you’re planning on getting there.

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Why Build a Business Case For PR

Building stakeholder trust and brand reputation is more important than ever, and this requires a substantial PR budget and resources. At the same time, as companies strive to create business value, executive leadership teams are looking for data and solid justification to move forward with medium to large-size business investments.

Approaching executives and leaders to secure new resources can be intimidating, especially if they are not privy to your communications strategy and what makes it valuable to your company. This is the time to use your PR expertise and build a clear, straightforward and data-driven business case that helps the C-suite better understand your industry trends, your audience, your challenges and what’s required to overcome those in order to grow and strengthen your brand.

A business case is required when current challenges cannot be solved with existing resources, and you need to justify additional investment to develop and execute a solution. If you don’t have buy-in from the right decision-makers, it can make reaching your goal seem like an uphill battle.

Another argument for developing a PR business case is that it results in better informed strategies, which in turn help the executive team to make more confident decisions and increase the likelihood that your initiative will be well-supported and successful. A business case can also help you demonstrate the value of PR and communications for your brand.

Source: PRNews + Public Relay, The State of Data-Driven Communications in 2020

84.5% of communicators reported having, or preparing, to defend strategic PR decisions to the C-suite with data.

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As you’re contemplating developing your business case, the key question to ask is what do you need? Which resources will help you address the challenges that you have? Here are the key elements of a well-rounded communications budget to consider:

As an example, an increased budget may be necessary to develop new impactful content. Or, you may need to hire additional staff to prevent burnout or to help you be more effective and efficient in your role by freeing up your time. Alternatively, you could expand the scope of your existing agency retainer or hire a new agency to support you in executing new initiatives or penetrating new categories.

You may also need to invest in new technology tools such as Onclusive that offer comprehensive media monitoring, power media relations workflows, provide PR measurement and reporting, and automate other tasks and responsibilities. This is especially important because you must be able to demonstrate ROI to secure executive buy-in, which continues to be a challenge for PR pros. PR analytics, especially PR Attribution™, can be a real game-changer when it comes to proving the value of communications.

A strong business case is beneficial for everyone involved:

• Team headcount and salaries• Agency retainers, including media relations & crisis communications• Owned media and contributed content development• Technology tools, such as media monitoring, media database and

internal communication platforms for employee engagement

• It initiates the discussion about a potential PR investment.• It is a great tool for strategic planning and decision-making.• It aligns everyone’s expectations about the approach, outcomes

and benefits of the investment.• It increases the likelihood of your success and, therefore, overall

organizational success.

Source: Ragan Communications, Communications Benchmark Report 2021

Given the chance to increase departmental spending, 52% of communicators say they’d hire more full-time staff. Improved technology is on the wish list, as well.

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The “why” is the most important question of all, and it should be answered throughout the business case. However, this is not just about the purpose of the initiative and investment. The “why” must demonstrate how your proposal aligns with your company’s current business objectives and priorities. To learn more about aligning your strategies with corporate goals, check out The Executive’s Guide to Building and Leading an Impactful Communications Team.

You also need to fully understand how your challenge ties in with your company’s core business needs and how solving this problem will create value for your brand and key stakeholders. Your proposed solution will emerge from collecting and reviewing this information. In addition, you’ll want to consider alternative solutions and potential risks or downsides involved, and provide any data that can support your case for the investment.

You’ll find the detailed guide to completing each of these sections in The Business Case Template part of this whitepaper.

Here is our recommended business case outline for communications teams:

Business cases are designed to answer these four essential questions:

• Executive summary (elevator pitch)• The challenge (business need)• The solution (objectives, outcomes, supporting data, alternatives, risks)• The value to the business (brand & key stakeholders)• The investment (budget, resources, one-time / recurring)• The details (timeline, measurement & reporting)

• Why are we doing this?• What are the benefits?• How will we do it?• Who and what will we need to do it?

PR Business Case Building Blocks

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Five steps to develop a business case

Step 1: Confirm the opportunity

Step 3: Clarify the benefits

Step 2: Evaluate the alternatives

Step 5: Write the business case

Step 4: Work out the plan

Before moving forward, do all of the necessary research to confirm the challenge, the need and the opportunity that will impact your business in a positive way. Using a robust media monitoring and measurement solution can help you extract a lot of the data and insights that you need, such as the current industry trends, what has worked or not worked well for your audience, and what the competitors are doing.

Select your preferred option and clearly list the benefits of choosing this option, taking into account the value created and the risks involved.

Identify a few alternative solutions to the business need and challenge you outlined above, and weigh the pluses and minuses of each when it comes to achieving your goals, maximizing the benefits and minimizing the risks (or contingencies). This may include an option to do nothing—and the potential downsides of that, such as missing a chance to capitalize on an industry trend or falling behind the competition.

Using the template provided, add all of the information you’ve gathered so far into a written business case document. Consider running your proposal by your boss or your team for feedback before you finalize it and present it to the decision-makers for approval.

Draft the implementation plan for your proposal, including the timeline, the expected outcomes, the resources needed, who will be involved, and how you will measure success.

LOU HOFFMANCEO and President, The Hoffman Agency

One common theme is that the PR team doesn't just focus within PR. They look to talk to stakeholders across all the different business functions to understand their pain points... you start to get a feel for the business operation which allows you to build a business case in support of [the organization].

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Business case writing best practices

The purpose of the business case is communication. Therefore, one of the most important things to keep in mind is how to make it easy to understand and compelling to the C-suite.

Here’s what to focus on when writing your PR business case:

• Be brief and provide only the essential information• Make it interesting, clear, and concise• Minimize jargon and technical terms• Describe your vision of the future• Demonstrate the value and benefits to the business• Pay attention to the flow, style and readability

Develop your business case as a sales pitch for your PR investment, and make sure it speaks the language of your audience—the C-suite.

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Using Data & Technology To Support Your Business Case

The concept of analytics to prove ROI used to be foreign in PR and communications. However, it is essential for the modern communicator to embrace data and measurement not only to be able to secure PR budget and resources, but also to craft impactful strategies and prove their effectiveness to executive leadership so that this budget continues to grow.

The need for data and insights becomes obvious when you are building a business case. In order to justify significant business investment, you must have supporting evidence, which usually comes in the form of current statistics, future projections or proof of what worked and didn’t work in the past.

That’s why PR measurement and C-suite friendly reporting tools are a worthwhile addition to your communications function. As we mentioned earlier, technology in itself can be the subject of a business case for investment. Software platforms like Onclusive provide PR pros worldwide with the ability to capture important market shifts, prepare for and manage crises, anticipate customer needs and deliver communications strategies that drive real business outcomes.

For example, you can use Onclusive’s Media Monitoring to get a complete view of your brand activity across earned, owned and social media with the highest quality of coverage in the industry.

Our Media Measurement solutions can help you quantify the impact of your content at each crucial stage of the consumer journey, helping determine the quality, resonance, influence, and bottom line impact of every article.

Go a step further with Message Optimization to know which key soundbites had the highest pull-through, which were amplified the most across social media, which drove the greatest amount of website traffic, and which generated the most website actions and conversions.

Finally, our Automated Reporting capabilities can save you immense amounts of time by providing an executive set of metrics built into one-click, presentation ready reporting templates, which can be shared across your organization and beyond.

LOU HOFFMANPresident and CEO, The Hoffman Agency

Instead of depending on a third party tool, [Onclusive] used its engineering team to create its own sentiment engine. That sentiment engine is 85% accurate which is pretty high. Our clients will ask us to do this manually. It's really time consuming and it's not going to be nearly as accurate as when you have the technology in place to do it.

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The Business Case Template

Executive Summary

Provide a short summary of your business case, how your proposal will create value for your company, and why you need executive buy-in. Think about this as your “elevator pitch.” It should convey the most important information, peak the interest of your decision-makers and compel them to want to read on. It’s critical to get this part right!

Document Name

Company Name Date

Explain why existing resources are not sufficient to solve this challenge.

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The Challenge

What is the main challenge you’re aiming to solve with your proposal? This section should touch on the greater business need that your audience, stakeholders or company are currently experiencing. It could be an unmet customer need, a gap related to a key business objective, or a competitive challenge.

This is your chance to explain why your proposal is important to the business and why decision-makers should consider pursuing this opportunity.

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The Solution

What is your proposal? How will it solve the challenges and meet the business needs you described above? Make sure your solution is connected to key business objectives.

Include three key data points and insights that support your proposed solution. Insights that your executive team hasn’t seen before can make your business case even stronger.

Describe three alternative solutions that could address the challenge. This may include an option to do nothing—and the potential downsides of it.

Don’t forget to consider the risks or potential flaws associated with your proposed solution and the alternatives. List the top risks for each one, and how likely they are to happen. List any assumptions you are making. Think about and include answers to any other challenging questions you think your executive team might ask.

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The Value To The Business

What is the potential value and business impact of your proposed solution to your company and key stakeholders? This could include new revenue, increase in profits, time and cost savings, responding to unmet customer needs or entering new market categories.

How does the value / impact align with the key business objectives?

Why is this the best option for you and your brand?

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The Investment

What is the investment required to implement your proposed solution, and what return on investment (ROI) do you expect to get from it?

Is this a one-time investment or does it require ongoing monthly or annual expenditures, additional staff or training?

What specific resources do you need?

Budget (specify the purpose)

Additional full-time staff

Outsourced staff / agency

Technology and software

Other (be specific)

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The Details

Provide the timeline that you think your proposed solution will take to completion and beyond (be sure to build buffer time into your estimate).

How will you measure results? Be specific about your success metrics and how often you plan to track those.

How long will it take to realize the ROI?

Who needs to see progress reports, and how often will those be provided?

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Final Thoughts

Developing a solid business case doesn’t happen overnight. Building it over time and iterating as you go is an important part of the process. Once you have this document in place, you can choose to turn it into a visually impactful presentation. You’ll also want to practice your pitch on your own and present it to others for feedback before going in front of your C-suite.

If you need help building your business case, just ask! Onclusive’s dedicated account strategists can work with you to pull the data and insights you need to include in your business case and support you throughout the process.

Onclusive empowers the world’s leading brands and agencies to modernize communications, increase performance and demonstrate value. The inventors of PR Attribution™ and Power of Voice™, Onclusive measures the true impact of content on a company’s bottom line. Now you can manage your entire PR workflow and pitch, monitor and showcase your success with Onclusive’s integrated product suite.

Leading global brands and agencies including Airbnb, 23andMe, H&R Block, Experian, Monster, Edmunds, Sophos, Omnicom Public Relations Group and MSLGROUP partner with Onclusive to improve their communications. For more information, visit onclusive.com, email info@onclusive.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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