How To Choose A PR Company

Once you've decided you need PR help you have the difficult task of choosing the company or consultant you feel you can work with and are confident will deliver results. What are the questions you should ask when considering taking on PR support and how will you know if they are up to the job?

What is your need?

It’s important that your starting point focuses on your specific need - do you need a PR consultancy or would a freelance/independent consultant be able to provide the support you need? A freelance/independent consultant may be a...

...single person, though it is not uncommon for them to have some support staff. They offer can offer flexible support at rates that are typically less than a consultancy. A consultancy may have a larger set up and more resources available with teams that are sometimes dedicated to particular areas of expertise or have specific sector experience.

Your starting point — the brief

It’s a good idea to write a brief to outline the support you need. That brief needs to cover a number of areas: background on the company - size, number of offices, detail on products and services; PR activity to date, what you are seeking to achieve with PR. It’s also useful to give an indication of budget - the type of support and range of ideas PR consultants could offer will vary depending on the budget and there is no point is getting excited about their ideas and then discovering that you can’t afford them. The other questions any PR company will want the answers to, include:

(1) What you want to achieve and within what timescale — what does success mean?

(2) Do you want PR support... continued on page two >

 

 

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