Submitted by: Gary Preston(105) Approved Index Log in to become a member of Gary Preston's Fan Club!
When you hire a public relations agency to represent your business, you are entrusting them with a great responsibility: your company’s wellbeing. The trust you place in them can be compared with the trust you give your doctor, and your company could either go from strength to strength under their care or wilt on the vine and die. You hope they are fighting your corner and doing all they can for you, but how can you be sure? Their area of expertise is not yours and you can only have a rough idea of what it is they are doing on your behalf. Or can you? Well, to get a clearer picture of your company’s state of health and advice about the things you can do and the things you absolutely shouldn’t do to improve it, you have to ask a lot of questions. For that matter, it is advisable to ask a lot of questions in any case to receive the level of care and attention you are due and ensure that everything is being done for you that can be done.
So the first thing to determine of any PR agency, regardless of whether you are thinking of hiring them or they currently work for you, is how much they know about you. Because if their business is representing you to the world, you would hope they knew almost as much about you as you do yourself. A patient requires a thorough investigation before any diagnosis can be given, and your business is no different. But how can you tell whether the PR agency knows enough about you? Well, here are a few questions to help you find out:
How would you best describe the products/services I am offering? Are they established and familiar to the consumer or new and exciting? Traditional or modern? Staples of daily life or luxury goods?
What are my long term and short term plans? Do I want to expand into new marketplaces or consolidate existing markets? And what about the average age of my audience? Do I want to attract a younger or older clientele?
Could you describe the audience for my products/services? Is it rural or urban, specialised of general, in a higher or lower income bracket? Is the primary consideration value for money, style and quality, or durability?
The PR agencies’ answers to these questions should give you a clear idea of how much they understand your company and its products. However, it isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm if their sense of what you’re about differs from yours. Great benefit can be derived from having an agency that is able to see you as others do. Perhaps you have marketable qualities you weren’t aware of, or there are elements about the way you are perceived that you’d like to change. A good PR agency will be able to identify these areas and help you resolve them.
Now you have learned how much the PR agency knows about you, it is time to ask a few pertinent questions of your own about the nature of their business and what they are able to offer you.
How much experience do you have of working with my industry? Do you have the necessary media contacts to ensure the target audience is reached? In your experience would an image based or a content based campaign be more successful? Posters of press releases? Radio slots or magazine adverts? Do you understand the habits of my target audience well enough to be able to reach them at the optimum time?
Have you much experience of dealing with companies of our size? Will you be able to handle all our needs in-house, or will you need to outsource various services to others? If you do need to outsource, could you tell me a little about these other agencies and the length of time you have worked with them?
How will the work be arranged? Do you work with a number of clients on a long-term basis, or concentrate on several short-term projects simultaneously? Will a particular individual or team be assigned to me who I will be able to contact at any time? What about the standard of crisis management if there is an emergency?
What guarantees can you give me regarding the work you perform on my behalf? Do you have a performance related policy? If things need to be adjusted a year after the PR campaign was launched, will you be available to come in and do the necessary work? If it is determined that you are culpable to some extent for any failures that might occur, do I have any legal rejoinder?
What are your terms of payment? Tell me again what I’m getting for that?
Now you have asked the PR company questions about yourself and questions about themselves, there is only one other field of questioning to consider. To ask yourself questions about yourself! In other words, set out exactly what you are wanting to achieve by hiring a PR agency. Once you have determined this and gone through the lists of questions outlined above, you should have a much clearer idea of what a PR agency can and cannot do for you and what advantages there are in hiring one.
If you need help in choosing a PR Consultant then you could try visiting the Approved PR Consultant Index. From here you can obtain free quotes and advice from leading companies in your area.
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provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice
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