As your agency grows, you will probably recognize the need for the services of a public relations (PR) advisor to help you get media exposure.
To choose the appropriate PR advisor, you should have a good idea of what to expect in the way of services, what you need (or more accurately, want to accomplish), where to look for an advisor, and how to select one. Not an easy task, but it's a lot more manageable if you plan ahead.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Your first task is to get an idea of what to expect from a PR advisor. If you begin your search with unrealistic expectations, you are bound to be disappointed. If you don't have some idea of what to expect (or some business colleagues who can give you an idea of what to expect) for PR services, based upon your industry, business size, and PR budget, then you have to research this information.
Basically, if your PR budget is below, say, $2,000 a month, then you won't be getting 'full service' PR. What you can expect is counseling as to how to spot and cultivate PR opportunities and some short- duration campaigns, such as the solicitation of a certain publication or similar group of publications. In other words, you and your staff are going to have to do the ongoing PR work, rather than have the PR consultant do it. What you will be paying for is the initial effort and an education, which assumes that you are ready and willing to be educated.
This is not such a bad deal for the small professional firm. Once you have the initial working tools in place, PR consists mostly of spotting and cultivating media coverage. Once you're trained in how to think along these lines, you are the one who is in the best vantage point to spot opportunities. After all, don't you read, watch, or listen to the same media as your clients?
The range of PR services can be quite varied, depending primarily on your budget. Here is an idea of what you might expect from a PR advisor, starting with the most basic services and escalating to full- service PR:
1. The PR audit: This would be a quick assessment of you, your practice, and your environment (clients, media, competition), with some recommendations for how your practice could utilize PR. Expect to pay an hourly rate for this type of audit. A good professional can probably do it in about 10 to 15 billable hours. Keep in mind that if this is offered 'free,' you are probably going to get what you pay for.
2. Press releases/media kit: This service would provide a media kit (background information for the media, photo, etc.), and issuance of press releases to the media. This service is primarily of value to clients who know whom they want to approach and why, and simply need the professional preparation of support materials.
3. Media counseling: If you are not a knowledgeable media user, you might want counseling to complement the press release service. The counseling would help you establish PR goals and objectives for your PR, and target publications/media. It would also prep you about how to conduct interviews.
4. Special events/trade shows: If you were to participate in a local, regional, or national trade show, or wanted to conduct something other than a routine seminar, professional advice can help you look better and make a better impression.
5. Public relations campaign: This would be a program that may have a specific or general focus to increase awareness of your agency. It generally takes current competitive positioning and attempts to create broad market (client) awareness. It typically includes many of the elements discussed above.
6. Identity campaign: This may include an analysis and repositioning of your practice as part of the PR campaign. There would be more involvement by the agency principals to take a look at your practice, goals, and market. You really need senior (experienced) PR practitioners with marketing/management consulting experience for this task, and the fees will reflect it.
WHAT TO ACCOMPLISH
Knowing the range and components of PR services, the next step is to determine what you want to accomplish from the PR program. This should be defined in terms of a certain amount of exposure, during a certain period of time, in certain media (which preferably will translate into clients). The more conservative the objectives, the more realistic will be the proposals and the higher the probability of obtaining those goals. Initially, the media should be that which will reach your clients (on a local level), and perhaps some national trade or business press. A realistic time frame to develop a full publicity campaign is six to nine months.
Another objective for retaining a PR advisor would be to bring you and/or other selected spokespersons for the firm up to speed about how to spot, cultivate, and handle media opportunities. This involves planning ahead and identifying certain predictable issues that you can comment about, or developing an effective way to showcase your firm and its talents. A workable knowledge of editorial calendars, special issue editors, and the like are required-a PR advisor can show how this is done.
WHERE TO SEARCH FOR ADVISORS
Once realistic expectations have been established and objectives determined, you are ready to begin the search for a PR advisor.
There are several obvious places to look. For one, call the publications that you want the agency to appear in and ask the editors whom they know and what PR consultants they prefer to work with. Another source is businesses about the same size as yours (other than your competition), who seem to appear in the media on a regular basis. Call the owners and ask them if they have a PR advisor or know of one.
Another source of names is your local publicity club or chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). You should probably cross-check the names you get from other sources against the membership lists of these groups anyway. Be wary of any PR practitioner that has no professional trade-group affiliations. Last but not least, you can check the Yellow Pages under 'public relations counselors' or the business-services advertising section of your local business publications.
HOW TO SELECT YOUR ADVISOR
Now that you have a list, begin the selection process. Start with about six names. Call them, introduce yourself, and ask if they can handle the PR needs of a firm of your size, and if they are interested and available to work on your account. If they are, ask them to send some material and background on their practice, and, if appropriate, schedule an appointment. Be wary of any PR practitioner who will not send advance materials or promises but doesn't deliver. Effective PR is done mostly with the written word and prompt follow-up. You don't want to hire a shoemaker whose kids go barefoot.
Look at the material provided, noting the amount and quality of media exposure. Zero in on results, not just activity (e.g., photos of media cocktail parties). Is there a representative cross-section of media coverage and different story angles, or is it all secondary media and cookie-cutter stories? Does the PR specialist seem to do a fair amount of the kind of PR you have in mind, or does he or she do mostly special events, publicity tours, etc.?
Keep in mind that PR is one of those disciplines in which, by and large, 'what you see is what you get.' In short, if you don't see the kind of results you had in mind in the portfolio, don't be too surprised if you don't see the results after you have retained the advisor.
During the interview, outline your goals and objectives, and solicit input from the PR counselor. If you're a little off-base, the counsel should tell you that. If they have some different ideas, you want to hear that, too. In short, you're dealing with another professional, so look for objectivity and candor. You are also looking for a good fit, or professional (not necessarily personal) chemistry, just like you have (or would like to have) with your lawyer and/or doctor. You want to be able to trust their professional judgment.
Ask about, and get, a fee estimate. Also get a written proposal or estimate, along with specifics of what you will be getting in terms of time or deliverables. Make sure that the account executive is who you think he or she will be. Remember, a lot of PR work is done out of sight, so you are buying a combination of proven results (track record), promises, and talent. You don't want to retain a PR counselor based on price alone, but on the basis of who will be able to get the results you want and help develop PR abilities as well.
Developing your agency's PR capabilities is not as difficult as it might seem. A competent PR professional can make life much easier and get you a lot further down the road. It's worth the effort to make sure to get an appropriate advisor.