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Good PR is actions that have a defined business goal, a clearly defined target audience, and can be measured after completion: you compare the result with the period before the campaign. It is not evaluated by the number of publications or by whether the company „looks good in the media”. Below you will find the criteria, a list of questions for the agency, and a simple way to assess whether your PR is actually working.

What does „good PR” mean and how is it different from poor PR?

Public relations (in short PR) is the systematic building of a company’s relationships with the people from whom its success depends: customers, journalists, employees, investors and authorities. We described the basics in the text. what is good PR. Here we address another question: how to know that PR is being conducted well, and what to do when it is not.

Good PR supports marketing, but it is not synonymous with it. Marketing sells a product. PR builds trust in a company, and that trust then facilitates sales, conversations with investors, and attracting people to work. Poorly managed PR can harm: promises without follow-through, publications in random websites, or a lack of response to criticism undermine credibility faster than it was built.

Seven qualities of good PR

The list below is a control tool. If your PR lacks three or more points, the problem lies in the foundation, not in the next campaign.

1. Business-related goal. The PR goal is aligned with the company’s goal. If a company wants to enter a new market, PR works on recognition in that market, not on overall „image positivity.”.
2. The recipients described. For each group, you know what they are interested in, where they read and whom they trust. You talk to a trade journalist differently than you talk to a job candidate.
3. The real message. Every piece of information for the media contains a change that can be described by fact: a new product, the result of a study, a decision, an investment. A general overview of „dynamic development” is not news.
4. Evidence. A quote has a source and a date. A quote provides an opinion, not repeats the content of the message. A claim that cannot be verified weakens the entire message.
5. Lasting relationships. The journalist knows someone from the company and knows that he will receive an answer the same day. Relationships cannot be bought once and for all.
6. Cohesion. The website, social media profile, sales conversation, and press release all say the same thing.
7. Measurement. Before the campaign begins, it is known what number it will be evaluated against and with what comparison.

PR strategy step by step: where to start

Actions without a plan usually end in disappointment. A plan doesn’t have to be a hundred pages long, but it should answer seven questions. Below is a version that can be completed in one afternoon.

1. Short-term goal (up to 6 months) and long-term goal (12–24 months). Example of a short one: „five publications in industry media about the new service”. Example of a long one: „the company is listed among the suppliers of solution X”.
2. Groups of recipients. Maximum three. For each one, write down the decision they have to make after interacting with your message.
3. Main message and three proofs. One sentence that you want people to remember, and three facts that support it.
4. Canals. Industry media, your own website, a press office, speeches, LinkedIn. Choose the ones that your audience reads, not the ones that are trendy.
5. Schedule. Calendar with dates: when the material is created, when it is sent, who approves it. Take into account periods when editorial staff have less time (holidays, end of the year).
6. Budget. Separately, fixed costs (staff, tools) and variable costs (research, events). Check the results in relation to how much it cost to obtain them.
7. Method of measurement. One main number and two auxiliary numbers, with the date of the initial measurement.

A good complement to the plan is an overview of the tools available to the PR department. We described them in the text about instruments of public relations.

Quality instead of quantity: media worth choosing

Many entrepreneurs count on publications. Meanwhile, one mention on a website read by your customers is worth more than ten mentions on websites that publish everything they get. Such mass publication does not build trust and sometimes harms: the recipient sees the same text as a hundred others.

How to choose the media? Create a simple table: title name, who reads it, who writes about your industry in the last three months, and who is the author of such texts. Send the information only to those who meet the first two conditions. We write more about working with editorial teams in an article. media relations and PR expert.

How do the press releases that reach the editorial office look today? In the Commplace Press Release Barometer (1796 information from 74 companies, as of September 22, 2026), 86.6% of materials include an expert’s statement, and 49.8% include the number in percentages. Since almost everyone does this, the quote and the number have ceased to stand out. What stands out is that the quote adds an opinion that is not present in the rest of the text, and the number has a source and a date. In the same set, the median length of information in 2026 is 740 words, so a short, concise text is not a disadvantage. We describe the writing technique in the guide on Press release.

Relationships that work beyond the campaign

In PR, relationships matter, and relationships are built through repeated, honest behavior. Here are a few practices that yield results without any additional costs:

• respond to the journalist within a few hours, even if the answer is „I’ll check and get back to you tomorrow”,
• indicate one contact person who knows the subject and answers the phone,
• do not send „unsolicited” messages that do not concern anyone,
• when the topic doesn’t concern you, say it directly and suggest someone who can help,
• Thank the publication for publishing the short message and add details if the journalist asked for them.

A PR agency can take on part of this work because it knows the editorial teams and knows how to talk about difficult topics. However, it does not replace the company’s decisions: it is the management that decides what the company wants to say, and the agency helps to say it effectively. We write about what the agency helps with in the article. PR agency – what it can help with.

Criticism and mistakes: how to react so as not to lose trust

Every company sooner or later faces criticism. Some of it will be unfair. Nevertheless, it is worth reading every opinion and asking: is there anything we can check? If the company made a mistake, the best response is a brief, concrete admission of it and an explanation of what was changed.

A simple scheme for responding to criticism has four steps:

1. Check the facts before you write anything. Establish what really happened.
2. Answer where the accusation was made, and not elsewhere. The comment under the post requires a response under the post.
3. Write down what you are doing in this matter. Just „apologizing” without action seems like a formula.
4. Save the applications and check in a month from now to see if the problem is still there.

When the allegation is serious and concerns the safety, rights, or money of clients, an emergency plan is needed. We describe the available solutions in our offer. crisis management. A particular threat is the communications prepared by artificial intelligence without human verification. We write about this in the article a message written by AI and the risk of reputational damage.

How to assess whether PR is good: measurement consistent with the standard

Measurement is the weakest link in many companies. What is easy to measure (the number of publications) is measured, not what is important (the change in the behavior of the audience). The AMEC standard, an international association that deals with measuring communication, helps with this. Its principles are collected in the Barcelona Principles V4.0 (June 2025). It contains seven principles. Three of them are worth knowing right away:

• Principle 1: The goals must be clear and measurable before planning begins,
• Principle 5: It is not allowed to use incorrect metrics such as the advertising equivalent (AVE), i.e., the conversion of publications at the cost of advertising of the same size. Instead, the result and the impact of the communication are measured.,
• Principle 6: the report shows three levels: products (outputs), results (outcomes) and impact (impact).

In practice, this means that the PR assessment has three levels. In the table you will find an example for a company that is launching a new service.

Two rules that protect against erroneous conclusions. First, compare the result with the baseline period, and if possible – with a control group (for example, a region where the campaign was not conducted). Second, a coincidence in time is not evidence of influence: sales could have increased for other reasons, such as the season or a change in price. You can find ready-made examples of indicators in the article about examples of KPIs, And about the measurements that should not be used, we write in the text about PR reports and advertising equivalency. Commplace does not use advertising equivalency as a measure of value.

Example: a plan for good PR for 90 days

The example below is fictitious and is only intended to illustrate the system. A service company in the industrial sector is launching a new service and wants merchants in three provinces to be interested in it.

Pay attention to two things. The initial measurement is made before the first action, and the final report includes an observation about other factors that may have influenced the result. This makes the conclusion fair, even if the result is less than what was expected.

Questions to a PR agency before signing the contract

If you choose an agency, ask them to answer the following questions. A lack of specific answers is a warning sign.

1. What business goal do you set in the contract and how will you measure it?
2. Who specifically will be working on my project and what experience do they have in my industry?
3. What kind of media do you have relations with and how will I know that these are titles being read by my audience?
4. What does the report look like and does it include a comparison with the period before the actions were taken?
5. What are you not promising? (An honest agency does not promise a specific number of publications or a guaranteed increase in sales.)
6. What do you do when criticism appears in the media or online?
7. Who approves the content and how long does the approval process take?
8. What are the conditions for terminating the contract?

We write more about the choice of the contractor and about what the quote consists of in the price list: PR agency price list.

The most common mistakes in PR and how to avoid them

• Lack of purpose. Actions „for the image” are difficult to evaluate and easy to stop after the first quarter.
• The language of advertising in messages. The words „leader”, „breakthrough” and „unique” make the editorials either delete the entire text or postpone it.
• Shipping to everyone. The same message to the automotive and culinary press lowers your credibility.
• No available spokesperson. A number that no one answers cuts off even a good conversation.
• Measurement at the end. If the measurements were not determined at the beginning, after the campaign it remains to choose numbers that fit the request.
• Lack of consistency. The company's website promises something different from the press release.
• Too short a horizon. Trust is built over months. Evaluation after two weeks leads to bad decisions.

Good PR is an excellent support for marketing activities:

• helps to attract key investors,
• negotiate attractive terms of cooperation,
•  build a positive image of the company on the market.

How Commplace helps

Commplace conducts public relations activities for companies and institutions: from setting the goal and plan, through the preparation of materials and contact with the media, to measurement. We start every project with a discussion about what needs to change in your company and what we will measure it by. See, How we conduct public relations. If you need support in a difficult situation, we describe it in our offer. crisis management.

We collect the results of the activities in the cockpit. Commwork®AIThe publications, page entries, and inquiries are all displayed in one place, next to tasks and deadlines. The analyses are supported by artificial intelligence, but the conclusions and decisions are always made by humans.

It is also worth reading about PR in another dimension: good product PR, i.e. what kind? and Corporate PR – what is it.

Sources: AMEC, Barcelona Principles V4.0, June 2025 (seven principles, including principle 5 on advertising equivalence); Commplace, Press information barometer 2019–2026, 1796 press releases from 74 companies, as of 22.09.2026.