Getting the best out of your PR agency

Top tips for making the most of your PR agency this New Year…

There was an interesting little article in the Financial Times last month by Luke Johnson from Risk Capital partners, a private equity firm.  In it he states that a good PR consultant is worth paying for and now more relevant than ever, given the new avenues of communication available to consumers and businesses alike. I’m not going to argue with him there.

Too often the agency/client relationship gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list when times are tough and this generally leads to both parties feeling unloved and undervalued.

In the current economic climate, before you enter into the time-consuming and ultimately expensive process of finding a new agency, make your New Year’s resolution to ensure that you’re getting the best out of the agency you’ve got!

As a business, some of the simplest ways to prevent this and make sure you get the best out of your PR agency are as follows:

1.    Keep up regular contact – weekly status reports and monthly meetings are a must so that you can see what is being done and so that the agency gets the access they need to you and your team.

2.    Make sure there are clear, measurable objectives which are reviewed regularly – going for 12 months with a single set of objectives measured at the end of the year can lead to you feeling a bit lost and unfocused by the time you’re six months in – using quarterly objectives will help this feel more manageable

3.    Establish clear roles and responsibilities client side and at the agency – the absence of someone who is responsible for managing the agency will be detrimental to the relationship. Without this it’s hard to get the information needed to do a good job. Equally there is nothing more frustrating for a busy client than having three or four different agency people calling them about the same thing.

4.    Be realistic – if things aren’t going well in a particular area of your business don’t expect your agency to be able to work miracles. PR is best when used in unison with other marketing disciplines to amplify effects and achieve greater results, it’s not best used to help dig you out of a hole in your sales at a moment’s notice, for no extra budget.

5.    Tell your agency when you don’t like something they’ve done – if you or your team are getting frustrated with an agency don’t let it fester, tackle it and move on. If you’re unhappy there’s a good chance they will also be aware of it and equally frustrated. Any agency worth their salt will want to proactively address this and find a solution that everyone is happy with rather than continue with the pain.