How site visits can enhance your PR
What are site visits?
Site visits have the potential to be useful implements in the toolkits of those looking to build support for a net-zero and nature-positive world. In this piece, we explore why they’re important when engaging with political and media stakeholders and how they should be coordinated to maximise impact. But first: what are they?
Defining a ‘site visit’ may seem an unnecessary exercise. Yet, as a term that often evokes images of hard-hat wearing politicians on building sites, there’s a common misconception to address.
Whilst this image isn’t an entirely inaccurate representation of site visits, they are also much more varied and meaningful than this. A site visit is any event that involves a business or individual hosting influential stakeholders at a location relevant to the purpose and/or operations of both groups. They are more than just photo opportunities: used effectively, site visits can help to build support for, and awareness of, important projects and solutions in the fight to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss.
Why are they useful?
Bringing solutions to life
Site visits bring issues and solutions to life in a way that even the most detailed of briefings can’t. Communicating through a screen can be limiting and often leads to a sense of disconnection. Inviting journalists and policymakers to see something in person makes the issue or solution at hand ‘real’ and tangible. Site visits help to provoke strong emotions, from awe and admiration to outrage and disgust, that can be channelled into a desire to act. Whether this action comes in the form of writing a compelling article or sponsoring a Westminster Hall debate, it has the potential to set in motion a broader movement of support or at the very least raise awareness of the project.
One recent example of site visits bringing issues to life is our work with nature restoration company Nattergal, who invited The Times’ Environment Correspondent Ben Cooke to their site in Lincolnshire, Boothby Wildland. Having been granted a license to release beavers in an enclosed pen, Nattergal gave Ben a tour of the site to explain how the animals will bolster ecosystem recovery while mitigating the risk of flooding for local communities. By going to Boothby and witnessing its natural beauty, Ben could get a sense of how important these efforts to restore nature are, and the resultant article was a strong endorsement of Nattergal’s beaver plans.
Forging deeper understanding of complex issues
Site visits also offer the opportunity to enlighten attendees on complicated issues. This is particularly the case for new technologies, as political and media stakeholders can feel inundated with the next ‘quick fixes’ for tackling climate change and nature degradation. The climate tech world is fast moving and difficult to navigate for those not in the weeds of it, so clear communication with key audiences on the benefits of new initiatives is crucial to building support.
Experiencing projects firsthand fosters deeper understanding: by seeing a product where it is made, journalists and policymakers can grasp how the technology works in practice and why it’s so important. One example of this was when we coordinated a visit from former Environment Secretary George Eustice MP to a plant owned by our client CCm Technologies, whose carbon capture technology was much easier to understand in real life. Another option is to take the product to the stakeholder. We recently organised a very different type of site visit, bringing a 40-tonne electric HGV into Parliament for Transport & Environment’s drop-in session. This gave parliamentarians the chance to see for themselves the huge potential of transport electrification.
Building relationships
Face-to-face interaction is vital when trying to secure champions for solutions or projects and site visits are a useful way to strengthen personal relationships with influential stakeholders. In an increasingly virtual world, in-person meetings are far more effective in building rapport than Zoom or Teams calls.
Whilst site visits are much more than just photo opportunities, pictures are useful relationship-building tools nonetheless. They’re a lasting reminder of the day, can be shared far and wide on social media, and – crucially – MPs love them! This was evidenced by a recent site visit we organised for Sustainability Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) with Anna McMorrin MP, who was captured with Welsh primary school students in the process of constructing hedgehog boxes as part of their rewilding work.
How to make them work
1) First, decide: What are your objectives? What might the attendee’s objectives be? Why are you organising this site visit? Journalists and parliamentarians are time poor, so it’s important to think about what they (and you) will gain from it.
2) Make the visit relevant to the attendee’s brief. Do your research into the attendee and ascertain which angles will be most effective. If it’s a local MP, how does the visit relate to the lives or concerns of their constituents? For ministers, will the visit shed light on a specific policy area? For journalists, how can you make it relevant to their readers?
3) Maximise time efficiency. This could simply be getting the best spokespeople onsite and ensuring they’re well briefed, but could also involve inviting other local stakeholders to get as broad a perspective as possible and allow the attendee to “kill two birds with one stone”.
4) Follow up effectively. Go back to your objectives – was this a relationship-building exercise, a press opportunity or part of a political campaign? With that in mind, follow up immediately to provide the attendee with all the information and support they need to help you share your story.