Strategic planning for long- and short-term goals and objectives help practitioners manage campaigns and situations by creating effective rules and procedures for internal and external public relations activities of organizations. In public relations, as it is in many other fields, having a plan of action in place is half the battle. Efforts that are constantly reactive to the environment may be successful but, in the end, they always entail correcting problems after they have already occurred. By employing proper planning, practitioners can anticipate communicative needs and design proactive programs, policies and rules that lead to successful business environments rather than being reactive to problems and/or crises through efforts that are always put in place after damage is done.

While there may be no way to completely eliminate the possibility of unexpected events triggering the need for reactive efforts, many of the potential problems that organizations may face can be anticipated and thus prepared for. Research, as discussed in the previous chapter, allows for predicting communicative needs and often serves as the foundation of strategic planning. By monitoring the business environment and stakeholders, practitioners can design the best possible means of reaching organizational objectives. With a grasp of the business setting in place, practitioners can progress through the following steps of planning: establish goals, outline the communicative setting, determine threats and opportunities, select target audiences, develop a theme, set objectives, create strategy, develop tactics, outline evaluation, devise a budget and timetable, and assign personnel.

One of the popular approaches to strategic planning is through Management By Objectives (MBO). This management approach establishes organizational structure and responses that meet the mission, goals and objectives of an organization.

With these considerations made before the actual programming begins, practitioners can feel more confident that obstacles have been accounted for and that public relations efforts will succeed.