PR Agencies – What To Look For In A PR CompanyThere are over 5,000 PR agencies in the UK ranging from smaller consultancies up to large multinational agencies. This gives you lots of choice and alternatives depending on what sort of PR agency you are looking for.
The problem you face is finding the ‘right’ PR company for your business.
Do you go onto Google and select the PR company at the top of the results, since if they are at the top they must be the best right?
Wrong. It just means that they have the most relevant website at the time you searched. Since search engine results are always changing, you will find that the top result will change from month to month.
When looking for PR agencies, what to look for would be experience. If they know your industry, then they should be well equipped to help you.
However although this does narrow down the results somewhat from 5,000 PR companies to a few hundred, how do you find the right one from a few hundred?
As there are so many public relations agencies to choose from, it is best to go with one that meets all of your criteria. Since all companies in the UK are different, all will have different criteria, but we feel the following points may cover all bases.
This may well be based on the following:
It is always advised to meet with an agency before signing up, this achieves two things. Firstly, you can get a feel for the culture, what the team are like, how they keep their offices and how professional they are.
Secondly, you can get a feel for what their understanding is of your business/service. For them to work effectively for you, they do need to understand your business. Very often on the phone or e-mail, agencies can give all the right sounds of understanding, but it is just a sales fob off. This leads on to the next point below.
An experienced agency will get you better results from your media campaign.
As there are so many around the UK, it does make sense to work with one that knows your product/sector/industry. This will give them a head start in getting your campaign up and running, but also they will already have established contacts within the media circles to work with from day one.
Many marketing companies can run their campaigns, however it is the results at the end of the day that we are all interested in. Ask them for recent case studies or testimonials from clients that have found their approach successful.
They should be able to give you an idea of how the campaign is expected to go based on their previous experience – even though no two clients are the same and no two marketing companies are exactly the same.
If an agency is linked to a professional body, this could be what to look for.
Reputation management is one of the main services that public relations companies offer. Tactics might include email newsletters, messaging on your website or blog content, social media management, responding to reviews, and engaging with followers.
Interacting with followers is important and this is time consuming. this is something PR companies can manage for you.
Problems happen from time to time. Scandals, fire, theft, the list goes on and these issues do need to be addressed in the media to maintain a companies reputation.
Sometimes responding quickly via a press release or on social media is necessary and something that a PR company can handle for you.
An example would be Facebook, they have used public relations to address issues such as server updates or downtime.
How long has the agency been trading for?
New public relations companies are starting up all the time, but will lack the experience of agencies that have been trading for 20 or 30 years,
Sometimes new PR companies may be enthusiastic, but experience counts for everything.
What you need is for them to talk to journalists for you. New PR companies may well not have the connections to publications in your industry sector.
All PR companies set their own rates so shopping around and comparing quotes is important. Not to find the cheapest agency, but to find the right agency for your business.
With public relations, you do not necessarily get what you pay for. The most expensive PR company does not make them the best.
You cannot compare PR companies in the same way that you would car insurance or car prices.
We always advise shopping around, comparing PR prices in order to ensure that you get the best value for money. When considering public relations agencies – what to look for would be location and experience.
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