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 various strategies for many organisations since 2005.

This blog article 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 naive 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.

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

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:

How to Write a 1-Page Strategy

My inspiration for writing no-bullshit strategies comes from the classic Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt. The 1-page strategy focuses on how to win.

Here’s how you can write a 1-page 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

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: Checklist for Leadership Clarity