A poor choice when hiring a PR firm is not only a waste of time and money on fees, but can also affect the success of your marketing and sales efforts and your company’s image. The choice of an agency is a decision that should be made only after careful research and deliberation.
This is part one of a two-part blog post to provide input on the process of hiring a PR firm and factors to consider.
A quick online search will provide you with many public relations firms that either have experience related to your industry or are located in your region, or both. You’ll have a choice of small, medium and large PR agencies; and independently owned firms as well as agencies owned by big communications conglomerates. How do you begin the process of narrowing down all these options?
- How to start your search: first cast a wide net. Ask friends in your industry for recommendations. There are also ways to find out online which agencies have experience related to your industry and/or in your region.
- Search on BusinessWire.com (under “News” on the menu) for companies you respect in your industry but that don’t compete with you (since you’ll probably want to avoid hiring a PR firm that already represents a competitor). You’ll find news releases from some of these companies, and at the bottom of the releases you may find a PR agency contact for journalists instead of, or in addition to a company contact person.
- Another way to find out which PR agency represents a particular company is using the database of PR firms on Odwyerpr.com. The database is searchable by client company name, by industry and by region. O’Dwyer also ranks privately owned agencies by size.
- Search on the websites of PR agency associations such as Public Relations Boutiques International (PRBI). PRBI is a non-profit association that has agency members both in the United States and around the world, in Europe, South America and Asia. In the U.S. you can also visit The PR Council and the Public Relations Society of America.
- Scrutinize the websites of each agency on your list. Eliminate any firms that don’t have high quality websites or aren’t a good fit for you.
- Consider what size agency you need. If your company or your budget is small, your business will not be of much interest to a large agency. As the saying goes, it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond – your business will be much more meaningful and you’re likely to get more attention at a smaller agency.
- The next step is to narrow down your list to no more than 10 firms. More than this will be too time-consuming and unwieldy to vet. Contact those firms by email and tell them briefly what you are looking for in an agency (what industry experience would be helpful, the kind of services you have in mind, etc.). Also state what your approximate budget is. Ask them to contact you if they would be interested in your business.
Why tell them your budget? First, it’s a way to narrow down your list. Some agencies have minimum fee levels for potential clients. You’ll be wasting your time and theirs if you won’t tell them what you can afford. Other agencies don’t have the resources for some large-budget accounts and don’t want to spend time courting a potential client that’s out of reach for them. Don’t refuse to reveal your budget for fear that the agencies will ask for higher than necessary fees just because they know what you can afford. Many PR firms will decline to participate in a competition for new business unless they know your budget.
- Call each firm that respond to you and speak to the CEO or, depending on the size of the agency, another senior-level executive at the firm. Tell them a little more about your organization and ask them about their credentials for working with a client like your company. The conversations you have will give you a better picture of these agencies and help you narrow down your list further. Ask the firms you’re impressed with to provide a document that outlines their capabilities.
- Narrow your list to no more than five agencies after you receive the agencies’ capabilities documents.
Think carefully about what skills and background are important to you when narrowing your list. Mary Shank Rockman, MSR Communications in San Francisco, suggests that when hiring a PR firm you consider all relevant skills and what kind of team expertise a firm may offer, including agencies with client experience that may be in an adjacent industry or market space. “Don’t disregard a firm just because they haven’t represented a client in the exact same category as yours,” she advises. “Experienced, successful PR practitioners should be able to apply their knowledge and transfer skills effectively across related industries and market spaces. PR firms’ understanding of the media landscape and how to solve similar client challenges should enable relevant ideas, strategic thinking, and creative solutions.”
- Let the firms on your short list know they have made the first cut. Tell them how many agencies you have on your list. PR agencies don’t like being part of a large pool of candidates – it gives a signal that you don’t know what you want, and no agency wants to participate in what would be considered a “cattle call.” If the agencies are within a reasonable distance from you, arrange an in-person first meeting with each of them. If not, arrange a teleconference. The purpose of this meeting is to allow the agencies a chance to discuss their capabilities, and for you to brief each agency about why you’re seeking a PR firm, what your needs are and what your situation is. You obviously don’t want to give away confidential information, but you should be able to paint a general picture of your situation without doing that.
- This first meeting will give you an idea of whether there’s good chemistry between you and the agency. Eliminate any firms that you just don’t click with. This may narrow down your list to two or three agencies, which is fine.
- Call the agencies you met with. Ask the finalists to prepare a proposal. Let the others know that they aren’t finalists. It’s rude to leave them hanging, wondering when they’re going to hear from you! The finalists’ proposals should include general ideas about how they will approach your public relations.
- Don’t ask for proposals that include strategies and detailed plans for the work you need. This is unfair to the PR firms unless you plan on paying them for preparing a proposal. They deserve to be paid for their ideas and creative work. “Creativity is an important part of securing impactful PR results,” Rockman says. “Be sure to learn as much as you can about agencies’ creative processes and examples of what they believe to be their most successful case studies.” Even though they’ve been given a short briefing about your company, the agencies don’t really know your company well enough to provide you with solid strategies and plans.
- Arrange for the finalists to meet with you to present their proposals. Give them at least a couple of weeks to prepare their proposals.
These meetings are the last step in your evaluation process. Part two of this blog post will help you with the decision-making and give you more tips on hiring a PR firm. Stay tuned!