In 25 years of working in PR, I’ve never seen an organisation with the perfect setup. Why?

Because PR is broad, often ill-defined, and interpreted differently across stakeholders. It spans functions but rarely has clear ownership, structure, or metrics.

Some see PR as a leadership tool, central to corporate governance and strategy. Others view it purely as publicity or brand marketing: valuable, but hard to measure.

It’s both, and more. PR is a strategic function designed to identify and engage external audiences critical to growth: customers, investors, partners, employees, regulators, and advocates.

Yet unlike finance, law, or engineering, PR lacks formal qualifications, standards, and benchmarks. There’s no “acid test” for reputational health.

Because PR often operates without definition, ownership, or accountability—making it difficult to scale or align with strategic goals.

As a student of business systems like EOS Worldwide, I believe PR needs its own structured methodology that better-aligns communications with growth objectives.

I call this approach Full Funnel PR: applying funnel-based thinking to all communications, using proven models from sales and marketing to build value-driven relationships.

That’s the focus of my upcoming book, Full Funnel PR, due in early 2026.

I’ll be sharing insights on my blog, LinkedIn, and through newsletters. If you’d like to stay in the loop, please subscribe.

Thanks for your support,

Matt Phillips

August 2025