A very common question asked when considering public relations is, do I need a public relations agency? The answer is yes, you do need a public relations agency for a variety of reasons (and not just because we are a public relations agency).
Why you ask do you need a public relations agency? Let us count the reasons why:
- The media receives thousands of pitches a day. Having a public relations agency make the media contact adds credibility to you and what you are promoting. It shows the media that you, your company, service or product are credible and you are placing money behind it to promote it. Trying to do it yourself lessens your credibility in the eyes of the media.
- It saves you money and time. In business, everything revolves around the bottom line. In this alone it is smarter to retain a public relations agency. Public relations is not just press releases, press conferences, and media appearances. It also includes the social media aspect of maintaining a company’s blog, and social media pages. This would require several salaried people. In terms of salary alone, you are losing out as with a retainer with a public relations agency you have a team of professionals on your account that handle each aspect of that public relations campaign. For small and medium sized organizations, the savings is even greater. Not only are you saving money, you are saving time and remember time is money. There are not enough hours in the day for a small or medium sized business to do everything that needs to be done. And time away from your core business means lost opportunities.
- The personnel at a public relations agency are the experts in their field. They bring their expertise in writing, social media, media relations, branding, and special events to the plate. They know public relations. They know how to position a client for the maximum exposure. They have the contacts with the media. They know which reporters will cover which topics and also how to package a story that the media wants. Many people think of an interview in terms of sales, it isn’t. If a reporter suspects someone is just trying to sell them something through their story it will never see the light of day. An experienced public relations expert knows how to package a story so that it is newsworthy to the reporter while still being of marketing benefit to a client.
- Crisis Communications. Most people think of public relations as positive news. It is, until disaster strikes. Businesses always have a plan for when a crisis strikes in how to handle things except in terms of publicity. Working with an agency means a preliminary crisis communications plan has been developed beforehand that can be altered to fit the crisis. Agency personnel have the skills and experience to objectively evaluate your business, clearly assess its strengths and weaknesses, and figure out how to use them in crisis communications.
- By bringing in someone from the outside you are bringing in someone who can be more objective and doesn’t have the emotional commitment and blinders that an owner or company employee has and can assess what ideas will work and what won’t work.
- A public relations agency tends to be more creative in developing story ideas and teasers to induce the media and can think outside the corporate box. An agency constantly monitors the news and often sees opportunities that others don’t. For example, our agency represented a marriage counseling service and when the Anthony Weiner story broke during the 2016 campaign, went into pitching mode to have our client discuss why powerful men cheat which resulted in coverage on FOX News Channel, CNN, HLN, Good Morning America, People Magazine, and the New York Post.
So, based on these reasons, the answer to whether you need a public relations agency is quite simple and emphatic. Yes, you do.
