Building the Annual PR Plan

A tactic-selection matrix by goal, budget, funnel stage, and role, and a twelve-month plan on one page.

You now hold more than a hundred and seventy ideas from five books and a way to test each of them. The risk has flipped. Where you once had too little to try, you may now have too much, and a room that tries everything does nothing well. An annual plan is how you choose. It turns a long list of possible tactics into a short list of committed ones, spread across twelve months in a way your staff can carry, and tied to numbers you can check. The plan also protects the room from its own enthusiasm. Every owner, booker, bartender, and teacher has more good ideas than hours, and a written plan is how the best of them get done while the rest wait their turn.

The plan in this chapter isn’t a glossy strategy deck. It is one page, built from three earlier tools: the One-Page PR Plan from Chapter 4, the baseline from Chapter 23, and the scorecard from Chapter 34. You start with one goal, pick tactics from a matrix that sorts the whole series by funnel stage and cost, set a budget from the cost per regular you actually achieved, and lay it across the calendar around the events you already know are coming. Then you set the numbers that will tell you whether it worked. Each piece takes an afternoon or less if the earlier work is done. If it isn’t, the first quarter of the plan is doing that work.

A good plan is modest. It picks a few things and leaves the rest alone on purpose. It protects the people who must carry it, because a plan that burns out the staff has failed no matter what the numbers say. It also leaves room for the unexpected: a hit song, a flood, a sudden closure of the dancehall down the road. At the end you’ll fill in the Annual Plan on a Page, and you can redo it each January with one more year of evidence. Musicians, bartenders, and teachers can use the same page for their own work. The scale is smaller, and the logic is the same.

PR TACTIC: The Three-Tactic Year

What it is: Choose no more than three main tactics for the year, one aimed at each of the funnel’s first three stages, and say no to the rest until the year is over.

Why it works: Three tactics done every week beat twelve done when you remember, and they leave enough room to run a few tests.

Try this: Write your three on a card and put the rest on a “not this year” list, with the reason beside each.

36.1 Start With One Goal and a Baseline

A plan begins with a goal that can be counted. Not “grow the brand,” but “raise the number of regulars from 60 to 90 by the end of the year,” or “lift the second-visit rate on Thursdays above its swing,” or “get one act in ten to a rebook.” One goal is best, two is the limit. Each goal names a funnel stage from Chapter 3, so you know where to look for tactics. If the leak is at the second visit, you don’t need more discovery. If the room is empty on Tuesdays, you may. Use the baseline to decide, and be honest about where the funnel is thinnest. Picking one goal is hard because every stage of the funnel matters. The funnel snapshot from Chapter 3 settles most arguments. The stage with the biggest loss in people is the goal for this year, unless something else is clearly about to break, such as a reputation problem or a cash shortage. A room can have only one first priority.

Write the starting point next to the goal, with its swing, and a realistic target. Realistic means based on what you’ve achieved, not on what you hope. If your best quarter added 12 regulars, a plan for 60 more needs a very good reason. Then do the arithmetic backwards. If you want to end with 30 more regulars and expect to lose 15 to normal attrition, you must win 45. At an achieved cost of $50 each, that is $2,250. The plan is now a number you can check against cash, time, and capacity, instead of an aspiration. Attrition is the step most plans forget. Every room loses some regulars each year, through moves, life changes, and ordinary drift. A plan that ignores it will look like it failed even when it worked, because the gains were spent replacing people who left. Use your cohort sheet to estimate how many regulars you typically lose, and plan to replace them.

Write what you won’t do, too. The goal rules out most tactics in the series for this year, and saying so aloud saves arguments. A room aiming at regulars is not also launching a podcast, a merch line, and a festival. If someone proposes one, ask which goal it serves and which tactic it replaces. The answer is often that it serves the owner’s enthusiasm and replaces nothing, which is a fine reason for a hobby and a poor reason for a budget. Keep a “not this year” list on the plan, with names and dates for revisiting. Nothing is lost, only scheduled. It also helps to write the reason for each “not this year,” such as “no owner for it” or “doesn’t serve the goal.” Next January, some of those reasons will have changed. Show the goal, the arithmetic, and the “not this year” list to someone outside the room who will ask hard questions. Their questions are a cheap test of the plan.

36.2 The Tactic-Selection Matrix

The matrix on the next page sorts the series by the stage of the funnel it serves, with a typical cost and the number to watch. Use it to pick. For your goal’s stage, find the chapters that serve it, read their tactics, and choose the one or two that fit your room, your staff, and your money. The matrix doesn’t name every tactic, because Appendix A does that. It points to where they live. The right choice is usually the cheapest tactic that is also the one your people will enjoy doing, since a tactic done with energy outperforms a better one done with dread. Read Appendix A with the goal in mind. Sort the index by stage, mark the tactics that serve your goal’s stage, and cross out any you have no capacity for. What’s left is your shortlist. Most rooms end up with five to ten candidates, which is a manageable list to choose three from.

Weigh four things for each candidate. Fit: does it serve your goal’s stage? Cost: money and hours, using the cost-per-regular logic from Chapter 32. Evidence: has anything like it worked for you or a room like yours? Capacity: who will do it, every week, for a year? A tactic that is strong on three and weak on capacity is a tactic to postpone or to simplify. Many of the best choices cost little: welcome routines, lesson hand-offs, a short list of people to thank. The costly ones, such as paid promotion, should earn their place by passing tests first. Evidence is the weakest of the four for most rooms in the first year, because there is no history. That is a reason to choose low-cost tactics first, since a cheap mistake teaches as much as an expensive one. By year two, the quarterly reviews will have given you evidence of your own.

Match the tactic to the role that will own it. Each tactic in the series is written for a chair, and the plan should name one person for each. A tactic with no owner won’t happen, and one with two owners will be done by neither. Check, too, that the plan doesn’t overload one person. If the bartender owns content, the welcome script, and the debrief, something will slip by March. Spread the work, and where it can’t be spread, cut. Chapter 39 addresses stopping, and the annual plan is the best time to practice it, before the year begins. Ask each owner to estimate the hours their tactic will take per month, then compare with what they have. If the total doesn’t fit, the plan doesn’t fit, however good the ideas are. If two people want the same tactic, pick one owner and make the other the backup.

TACTIC-SELECTION MATRIX

• Get found (First-Timer). Look in: Ch 13 (findable), 14 (content), 15 (press), 16 (partners), 17 (promotion). Usual cost: Low to medium; paid ads cost most. Number to watch: First-timers by source (Ch 24).
• Win the first night (First Win). Look in: Ch 10 (onboarding), 11 (hospitality), 9 (identity). Usual cost: Low; mostly staff habits. Number to watch: Thirty-day return of first-timers (Ch 25).
• Make regulars (Regular). Look in: Ch 10 (retention), 6 (social proof), 8 (stories), 13 (owned audience). Usual cost: Low to medium. Number to watch: Regulars per month; active rate (Ch 25, 26).
• Grow Ambassadors. Look in: Ch 7 (word of mouth), 6 (proof), 16 (scene). Usual cost: Low; time and thanks. Number to watch: Friend share; Ambassadors (Ch 25).
• Protect the room. Look in: Ch 18 (reputation), 19 (trust, compliance), 35 (data ethics). Usual cost: Low; attention. Number to watch: Complaints; review tone (Ch 28, 33).
• Keep it going. Look in: Ch 20 (sustainability), 12 (relationships), 39 (when to stop). Usual cost: Low; time. Number to watch: Hours per month; margin (Ch 32).

Appendix A lists all 179 tactics from Books 1–5 by stage and chapter.

36.3 The Budget

Budget from the bottom up. Take the number of new regulars you need, multiply by the cost per regular you’ve achieved, and add a share for testing and a reserve. A sensible split for a small room is most of the money on tactics that have already paid back, about a tenth on tests of new ideas, and a small reserve for what comes up. These are starting points, not rules. If you have no cost-per-regular history yet, your first-year budget is partly a test: spend a modest amount, record everything, and treat the year as the baseline for the next. In a first year without a cost-per-regular history, set a modest budget and a clear rule: track every dollar and hour against first-timers and regulars, and set next year’s budget from what you learn. A first year with clean records is worth more than a first year with a bigger budget and no records.

Count your time as part of the budget, even if you don’t pay yourself for it. Add up the hours the plan needs from each person and set them against the hours they really have. A plan that needs eight hours a week from a bartender who has two is a plan for next year. Budget the hours first, because they run out before the money does. Give the plan a ceiling on hours per month, and treat the ceiling as seriously as the one on dollars. If the plan exceeds it, cut a tactic, not the ceiling. Hours are also where burnout starts. A plan that quietly assumes everyone will find extra time each week is a plan that will drain the people carrying it. Chapter 39 explains why that cost doesn’t show up in the numbers until it’s too late.

Plan the cash around your own seasons. Most Texas rooms have busy and slow stretches, with holidays, rodeo season, football, and summer heat shaping both. Spend toward the slow times when the lift is most valuable, and hold back when the room fills on its own. Don’t forget costs that arrive in lumps, such as signs, photography, printing, or a website update. And keep the reserve real. If a good opportunity arrives in October, such as a feature or a charity night, a reserve lets you say yes without wrecking the plan, and an unspent reserve can roll into next year’s tests. Write the budget as a short table with the quarter, the tactic or test, the money, the hours, and the person responsible, and review it at each quarterly meeting.

A PLAN FOR A MUSICIAN, A BARTENDER, OR A TEACHER

Musician: Goal, more rebooks from rooms that pay. Three tactics, a clean ask, a merch-table sign-up, and the goodbye loop. Budget, a few dollars for printing and the hours for pitching. Numbers, rebook rate by room, pay received, and list active rate.

Bartender: Goal, more guests who say content brought them. Three tactics, one six-week series idea, a clear location on every post, and the how’d-you-hear question at the rail. Budget, a ceiling of hours per week. Numbers, guests from content and hours.

Teacher: Goal, more students who reach the live floor. Three tactics, the quick-win lesson, the hand-off, and a graduation invitation. Budget, hours and a modest promotion amount. Numbers, second-lesson rate and floor rate.

36.4 The Twelve-Month Calendar

Lay the year out in quarters. Quarter one is for setting the baseline, running the first tests, and installing the habits that cost nothing: the weekly check, the debrief, the welcome. Quarter two is for the main push toward the goal while the weather is good for bringing people out. Quarter three, often the hottest and slowest in Texas, is for repair and learning: reviews, interviews, partnerships, and content that can be made indoors. Quarter four is for the holidays, gratitude, and the annual review, when you decide what to keep. Adapt these to your own calendar, but keep the rhythm of start, push, repair, review. Texas seasons vary by region, and so do local calendars. A room near a university feels the school year. A room in ranch country feels hunting season and the stock show. A room near the coast feels tourist months. Use your baseline sheets by season, from Chapter 23, to see your own pattern, and plan around it rather than around a generic calendar.

Mark the fixed points first: the festival, the rodeo, the anniversary, the big holiday weekends, the dates you’re closed. Then place tactics around them rather than on top. A promotion that lands on a big weekend can’t be measured cleanly, as Chapter 29 explained, and staff already stretched by a crowd won’t do a new routine well. Place the quarterly reviews and the monthly pages in the calendar too, as fixed events. And mark the dates when a test will end, so that decisions are scheduled before they’re needed. Also mark the dates staff are likely to be away, such as holidays, school breaks, and the teacher’s summer workshop. A tactic scheduled for a week when its owner is gone won’t happen.

Write it on one page with months across the top and rows for the goal, the main tactics, the tests, the reviews, and the events. Keep it where everyone can see it. Then use it. At each monthly review, ask whether the plan is still the plan: what was done, what slipped, what has changed. It is fine to change the plan, and much better to change it on purpose, with the reason written down, than to let it quietly decay. A plan that is updated four times a year with notes is more useful than a perfect one in a drawer. A plan that has been changed four times with reasons is a sign of a team paying attention. A plan that has never changed is usually a plan nobody has read since January. Share the calendar with partners and acts too, so they can plan around your fixed points and line up their own promotion with yours.

36.5 Keeping the Plan Honest

Decide in January how you’ll know the plan worked. Write the success numbers next to the goal: regulars at year end, the second-visit rate, the cost per regular, margin per night. Add a floor, the result below which you will change course, and a stretch. “Floor: 75 regulars by September 30. Target: 90 by December 31.” A floor gives you permission to adjust before the year is lost. Without it, a poor first half is explained away until the second half is gone. The floor is a promise to look hard at the evidence, not a prediction of failure. Floors also help with conversations about money. If the floor is missed, the first question is whether the tactics were done as planned, from the plan hit rate. If they were and the numbers didn’t move, the tactics are the problem. If they weren’t, the capacity is the problem. Those lead to very different fixes.

Take care to separate what you controlled from what you didn’t. A flood, a road closure, or a rival opening may swamp your tactics. Note them on the plan when they happen, and judge the tactics by the numbers they were meant to move, within the conditions. At year end, avoid two stories: “it all worked” and “nothing worked.” The truth is nearly always a mix, and the mix is the lesson. List what to keep, fix, and kill, and carry the list into the next plan. The plan after this one will be better because of the notes you leave. Write a one-paragraph summary at year end: what the goal was, where the numbers ended, what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d tell yourself last January. That paragraph is the first draft of next year’s plan.

Share the plan. A plan that lives in the owner’s head produces a room of people guessing at the owner’s wishes. Walk the staff through it in a short meeting, say why you chose these tactics and left others out, and ask what you’ve missed. They will have good ideas, and they’ll own the plan more if their ideas shaped it. Post the one-page version where people can see it. Then do it, week by week, and trust the rhythm from Chapter 34. Most of the value of an annual plan is delivered not in January but in the dull middle of the year, when the plan keeps you from chasing every new idea. Plans also work better when someone is responsible for keeping them current. Name that person in January.

TRY THIS WEEK

Write next year’s goal in one sentence with a baseline, a floor, and a target. Then list every idea anyone has mentioned this year and sort each into “serves the goal,” “doesn’t,” or “not sure.” The first column is your shortlist. Pick three, name an owner for each, and write the “not this year” list on the back.

THE CHAPTER IN SIX LINES

One counted goal, tied to the leakiest stage of the funnel.

The arithmetic backward: regulars needed, attrition, cost per regular.

Three tactics, each with one owner and an hours ceiling.

A budget for proven work, tests, and a reserve.

A calendar built around fixed events and seasons.

A floor, a target, and a review every quarter.

CASE STUDY

Thirty More Regulars

Josie owns a dancehall with 60 regulars. Her goal for the year is 90. Past regulars stay about eight months, and her achieved cost per new regular is $50.

Step 1 — Attrition. Regulars stay about eight months on average, so some will drift off during the year. She assumes, from her own records, that a quarter of the current group will leave by year end. 60 × 0.25 = 15 regulars to replace.

Step 2 — Gross need. To reach 90 she needs 30 net new plus 15 replacements: 30 + 15 = 45 new regulars.

Step 3 — Budget. 45 × $50 = $2,250 for proven tactics. She adds $270 for tests and $180 for a reserve, a total of $2,250 + $270 + $180 = $2,700. Tests are $270 ÷ $2,700 = 10% of the total, and the reserve is about 7%.

Step 4 — Tactics. She picks three: the welcome routine, the lesson hand-off, and a thank-you list for Ambassadors, all low-cost staff habits, and puts paid ads on the “not this year” list. She sets a floor of 75 regulars by September 30 and a target of 90 by December 31. If her regular rate is 30%, she needs 45 ÷ 0.30 = 150 first-timers, about 12.5 a month, which she compares with the 10 a month she gets now. Because that gap is real, she adds one discovery tactic, from Chapter 13, to her plan. All figures are illustrative.

REAL TALK

From the owner’s office:

Every January I used to write a list of thirty things. By March I was doing four of them badly. Now I pick three and put the rest on a shelf. The shelf is where good ideas wait without making me feel guilty.

HEADS UP

An annual plan often includes legal, tax, and compliance items: alcohol promotions, giveaways, sponsorships, contracts with acts and vendors, email and text programs, and staff arrangements. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission rules limit what you may offer and how you may promote on-premises (see 16 Texas Administrative Code § 45.103). Budgets and projections shared with lenders, sponsors, or buyers can create legal duties if they are misleading. This is general information, not legal, tax, or accounting advice. Ask a licensed Texas attorney and a CPA before committing to promotions, contracts, or projections, and see Appendix J.

ANNUAL PLAN ON A PAGE

Fill this in each January and revisit it at every quarterly review. Use the One-Page PR Plan from Chapter 4 as the first draft of the top box.

Fill in: Room or act, Year, Prepared with.

• 1. The goal One counted goal, its funnel stage, the baseline with swing, and the target. Add a floor and a stretch.
• 2. The arithmetic New regulars needed (net, plus attrition) and the achieved cost per regular. Show the multiplication.
• 3. The three tactics Name three, each with one owner and the hours per month it needs.
• 4. The tests One test per quarter, with the change, the number, and the comparison from Chapter 31.
• 5. The budget Proven tactics, tests, reserve, and the monthly ceiling on hours for each person.
• 6. The calendar Fixed events, closures, reviews, and the dates tests end. Write quarter by quarter: start, push, repair, review.
• 7. Not this year Ideas set aside, with the reason and the date to revisit. (Shared with staff on: ____)

MEASURE IT

The number: Plan hit rate: of the tactics and tests on the plan, the share that were done as scheduled and reviewed with a verdict.

By hand: Count the items on the plan: three tactics and four tests, seven in all. Count those done on time and reviewed with a keep, fix, kill, or unproven verdict. Example: 6 of 7 is about 86%. Also compare the goal number with its floor and target at each quarterly review.

Watch out: Don’t judge tactics on conditions they didn’t control. Note floods, closures, and rivals on the plan. Avoid both “it all worked” and “nothing worked.”

Go deeper: Chapter 4 (strategy before tactics), Chapter 32 (the money), Chapter 34 (the review rhythm), and Appendix A (the master tactic index).

ROLE BOX

• Owner: Choose one goal and three tactics, set the budget from your cost per regular, and share the page with staff.
• Booker: Plan the year’s calendar around fixed events, and set a target for rebooks and for new acts that draw.
• Musician: Pick three tactics for the year, such as your list, your best rooms, and one story, and put the rest on a shelf.
• Bartender: Choose one content habit and one welcome habit, and set an hours ceiling you can keep up.
• Dance Teacher: Plan the year in terms of cohorts and series, and set a target for second-lesson and floor-reaching rates.

TALK ABOUT IT

• What is the one goal for the coming year, and how would you count it?
• What are the three tactics you would choose, and what are you willing to say no to?
• What would make you change the plan in July, and who would you tell?