Whether you’re in the process of changing your incumbent agency or if you’ve never procured  a PR agency to manage your corporate reputation before, hiring new representation is always a daunting challenge. With almost 500 agencies in Australia and all with their own specialisations and ways or working, it’s important to select an agency that shares your vision, whatever that looks like. Let’s outline the most important factors to consider when engaging an agency.

Ensure the Professional Services Company Actually Specalises in PR

For anyone outside the corporate communications world, there’s often a veil of mystery shrouding the PR industry. Agencies that offer marketing and advertising services will often claim to manage public relations work as part of their “full service offering.” Often, these situations result in that agency outsourcing the PR work, resulting in more expensive, less timely and more diluted outcomes. When shopping for an agency, ensure that the agency you approach actually specalises in public relations and not just marketing.

Consider budgetary factors

​The ethos “you get what you pay for” carries great importance when hiring an agency to execute an important business function. You shouldn’t underpay for results, nor should you overpay. A balanced approach is best. You shouldn’t be paying a premium for a “full service” offering if you won’t get sufficient ROI from unnecessary add-ons, and similarly, selecting the least expensive option on that merit alone will certainly garner less than stellar results. PR requires continuous investment over time in order to build momentum and yield valuable results. To this end, beware of agencies that promise unrealistic results straight away.

Make sure your commercial goals are aligned

It’s tempting to get pulled into to the trap of being wowed by media coverage, but coverage for the sake of coverage is often meaningless. It’s crucial that before your PR agency launches into a media relations campaign, the expected outcome has a solid strategy to underpin it. Is there strong messaging behind the outreach that was carefully crafted by the PR team? Does the coverage coming in actually resonate with your target audience? Have you agreed on what commercial success looks like? These are basic factors that need to be aligned with various stakeholders before committing your public perception into the hands of a new PR agency.

Think Carefully about Trust and Credibility

Your PR agency should be tasked with bringing greater trust and credibility to your business and your profile, so to that end, you need to be sure you put your full trust into your new PR agency. Once the contract is signed, your corporate reputation is now in the hands of an external third party. That can seem scary at first, but when that decision is made, you need to place full trust in that agency and consider it part of your wider team. A good PR agency should have a comprehensive understanding of your business, your commercial objectives and the right message to curate your external corporate reputation.

However, in order for your new agency to accomplish the agreed upon deliverables, you need to be honest and transparent about your business. Should any skeletons be hiding in your closet, being upfront about them with your agency will enable it to come to the table prepared and better handle any tricky media enquires.

To learn more, contact us at christopher@pearscroftcommunications