Small business owners, startups, and even mid-size corporations are almost always looking for ways to boost their organization’s visibility without breaking the bank. And many companies, whether because of size or budget, simply don’t have a dedicated PR team as a part of their business structure. As it turns out, though, that may be a benefit, because it offers you the opportunity to hire a PR expert or firm that is experienced, knowledgeable, and ready to take your business to the next level. In this guide we’ll take you through some of the key information you need to know about hiring an external public relations firm or team, how doing so can benefit your organization, and what you can expect to get when you begin collaborating with a PR firm.
What Are PR Services?
The first and most obvious question most people will likely ask is, “what are public relations services?” And it is a fair place to start.
Perhaps most important to defining public relations services is explaining how they are different from marketing. Many guides online (and even some industry experts) conflate public relations agencies with marketing agencies, and a lot of organizations will have PR and marketing duties operated by the same firm or department. While this can sometimes work for established companies and big-time companies, it is not the best practice for small to midsize businesses or startups.
The difference between marketing and public relations is usually boiled down to this; marketing (and especially digital marketing) is all about generating buzz and promoting specific products or services to a specific set of target audiences. In contrast, public relations work is generally dedicated to building a company’s reputation and growing broader awareness of your core business across multiple spaces. Both functions are critical, of course, but obviously have different goals and methods that they lean on.
What Does a PR Firm Do?
Just like lawyers or doctors, there are a lot of different types of design, and just as many different types of agencies and companies that you could work with.
There are two main categories for companies you might choose to work with – a design firm or company, and a marketing (or digital) agency. Within each of those, there may be more specialization in terms of projects and clients, but generally, these are the two main options you will be faced with.
When Can You Benefit From Hiring a PR Expert?
Most companies can find benefits from working with a PR company or expert team members at any point in their evolution, but there are a handful of critical moments when PR duties and assistance are at their most valuable.
One such moment is right at the launch of a new business. You want to get the word out about your company, but you need help doing it. You want to build awareness not only with prospective customers and clients, but also with the entire industry at large in order to create a splash and open new doors to partnership opportunities, collaborations, and even investment (if desired).
Other important points in time when you should consider outsourcing to a PR firm include: planning for a large product or service launch; looking for in-depth tracking and performance information on competitors; or when your research reveals that you are not reaching the right audience for your organization and your marketing strategy is not hitting the mark.
There are, as you would guess, countless other examples of good times for your company to contract with an external public relations group. These are just a few good examples of moments that every business faces, and when you can benefit the most from a dedicated team that will work hard to make an impact for your organization.
What Best Practices Do PR Experts Follow?
Diving into more specific information, let’s next take a look at some of the best practices you can expect a PR firm to follow and use to benefit your business.
The first is developing a deep understanding of where your audience goes for information. Who are the trusted sources that your current or prospective customers turn to in order to learn about companies, products, and the like, and what media do they most often engage with? This kind of information may also be important for your marketing team, but the audience(s) can differ dramatically between the two. In fact, your chosen PR experts may be able to build a significant report detailing information about the who, when, and where that is relevant to your brand and company. This data can, in turn, be broken down further for targeted use by your marketing team with segmented customers, appropriate media and outlets, and so on.
Next, any good PR firm you work with should have a mechanism in place to monitor coverage and conversations about your business. Whether online or in print, this will be a key part of reputation management as well as building your company’s presence within your industry.
As a part of that process, your PR firm will review its existing network of media sources, journalists, and relevant industry contacts, all with the goal of identifying the best places for getting the word out about your company. And, since no firm can be expected to have every contact in their roster, this step will likely also involve working with you and your team to identify new contacts and avenues for effective PR.
Any PR firm you choose will also select the right public relations methods and tools for your goals, your company, and your industry. Similar to many other business operations, there is no one-size-fits-all approach that can be applied to public relations messaging or distribution. Your PR partners, then, will need to spend time learning as much as they can about your business and your audiences in order to select the appropriate tools, including message distribution, monitoring, reporting, and so on.
These are just some of the important PR best practices that a partner should include as a part of their plan for your company, but they are also great examples of what you can ask about and expect when working with a public relations organization.
Should I Choose PR Outsourcing or Handle Public Relations In-House?
Now that you understand a little bit more about the specific expertise, services, duties, and tools that a public relations firm or company will offer for your company, the next question is, should I hire one of these dedicated PR firms, or just bring those PR functions in house and handle them ourselves?
This may even be the question that led you to this hiring guide in the first place, and it is a natural one to ask. You are likely already handling a number of critical organizational functions with teams that are a part of your company, and so it is natural to consider bringing PR into the fold and taking care of your business’ PR needs yourself as well. While there are some strong points in favor of handling PR functions in-house, there are a number of upsides to contracting with a leading public relations organization for your needs. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of adding PR duties to your business duties.
The Pros and Cons of In-House Public Relations
Now that you understand a little bit more about the specific expertise, services, duties, and tools that a public relations firm or company will offer for your company, the next question is, should I hire one of these dedicated PR firms, or just bring those PR functions in house and handle them ourselves?
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Positives There are several pros to consider when it comes to managing your public relations duties in-house. The benefits include: |
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Knowledge and Access: Your in-house PR team will be directly in contact with other departments, including marketing and communications, executives, and so on. Singular Focus: Your in-house PR team will obviously be focused solely on your company. |
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Coordinated Messaging:: Your in-house team will have plenty of opportunities to collaborate across departments to coordinate and perfect messaging. |
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Negatives There are several pros to consider when it comes to managing your public relations duties in-house. The benefits include: |
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Limited Time or Resources:Your in-house PR expert(s), while no doubt knowledgeable, will not have the same time or breadth of industry and media contacts that a full-service PR firm will. Limited Experience or Knowledge of the Field: Following the point above, your in-house PR team may also not be as experienced in various public relations functions, or may not have as deep a knowledge of the field/industry as an external public relations company. |
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Expense: Finally, the cost of hiring experienced PR professionals and onboarding, training, and familiarizing them with your company can be exponentially higher than the fees associated with PR firms. |
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Why You Should Hire an External PR Firm
Based on the factors above, hiring an external PR firm for your company may very likely be the right choice. There are several benefits to working with a comprehensive public relations firm, and some of them include:
- New Perspectives: External PR firms work with numerous clients and across different industries, and the experience and knowledge gained from those projects will be available immediately to your company.
- More Brains for Better Results: PR firms will also have multiple people working on your PR needs, bringing additional brainpower to the projects and allowing for fresh, new ideas to rise to the top.
- Thousands of Media Contacts: This might be one of the most important benefits; PR firms are in the business of networking with media outlets and big names, which means your company will have access to an even larger megaphone by working with them.
Hiring External PR Experts for Your Business
As you can see, there is a case to be made for tackling the public relations needs of your company with an in-house representative or team of experts. But, for the majority of organizations of any size, contracting with a group of established PR experts is the right choice. So let’s take a more in-depth look at the PR hiring process, and how to go about putting this expertise to work for your business.
How Much Does PR Work Cost?
Unlike marketing, most public relations work doesn’t have a direct cost or list of expenses like menu options. For example, an email campaign from a marketing firm or design group may cost $X from your marketing budget, and a social media ad buy might be quoted to your company at $Y by a social media consultancy. Other marketing activities or marketing campaigns often have similar price structures, and you can find agencies that provide exact pricing for marketing efforts.
Public relations exposure for your brand, however, relies on a wide range of media outlets, network connections, and countless other methods to tell the story of your brand. While there can sometimes be costs associated with certain methods, on the whole, you are paying for connections and expertise—people who know the field well, and who will tell your organization’s story in the best, most engaging way possible.
As far as real costs, hiring just one in-house, full-time PR expert can run in excess of $100,000-$150,000 per year, including salary, equipment, benefits, and so on. In contrast, a dedicated public relations firm may charge anywhere from $150 to $500 per hour depending on the size of their company and your needs. Depending on your company’s goals and other factors, you can see that the $150,000/year figure you might spend on hiring just one in-house PR professional will go incredibly far when working with a PR firm. And will likely cost considerably less than that figure in both the short and long term.
Questions to Ask Before Hiring a PR Firm
In order to set yourself and your partner firm up for success, there are a few questions to ask, both internally and to ask a prospective PR agency. First, the questions to ask yourself and your team before contacting any PR firms include:
- What are our goals for this company and brand, specifically with regards to awareness?
- What do we want to learn about our industry and our competition?
- What do we currently know about our audiences and customers that may be important to our PR efforts?
These are just a few great examples to help you get your team thinking about your PR needs and goals before you go outbound and begin having conversations with public relations experts.
Next, consider some important questions to ask of your prospective partner agency, including:
- What is your level of experience within our industry?
- How do rates vary for short-term and long-term PR work?
- What kind of social media expertise do you have?
- Do you also provide media coaching for our leadership team (preparing for interviews, etc.)?
- What will we need to provide to you for this partnership to succeed?
Again, these are just a few examples of important questions, but they help to lay a foundation and give you an idea of the kinds of information that will help strengthen your relationship with a PR agency.
PR Firm Post-Hiring Expectations
Once you have selected the public relations company that you are going to work with, there are a few things you should expect as the process gets started.
First, you should expect your partner agency to ask a lot of questions. Even if they have extensive PR experience in your industry or field, a truly effective PR firm knows that there is much that they do not know. They should be prepared to fully understand your goals, your business, and the resources and information you are asking them to provide.
You should also expect research. Critical information about competitors’ approaches to PR, what has worked for similar organizations, and areas where your company stands out are part of the research phase. Additionally, you can expect to receive research information and key metrics on media outlets, potential impacts, audience reach, and more.
Above all else, you should expect to have an open line of communication between your company and your chosen PR firm. Establishing this open relationship upfront is a big way to ensure success, and to set expectations both for yourself and your PR firm. Let them know how often you want to hear from them, and also how open you want them to be to regular (or frequent) contact. Part of this process should also be setting the PR agency’s expectations in terms of who they will be talking to and working with most closely.
Putting the Power of PR to Work for Your Company
Public relations is an area that can have a tremendous impact on your company, bringing you much-needed notoriety and awareness with B2B partners, related companies, and prospective customers. Establishing your organization as a leader in any industry or field is a difficult project to undertake, and is perhaps even more difficult nowadays. But with assistance from public relations experts at a dedicated PR firm, that task is made easier, and the results are made even more powerful.
Do you have any questions about finding and hiring the best PR outsourcing team for your business? Check out our lists of the top Public Relations firms in the United States and in Canada for more information.