How to find a good PR agency?

[tom_15gifts]

Hi,

I'm currently in the process of building a new website and I'm looking towards PR as a tool for the launch. The more I read up on PR though, the more articles I find from journalists complaining about the constant bombardment of untargeted press releases that they receive.

My experience of PR in the past has not been great and, as a start up with a tight budget, i'm wary of throwing my money at a company who simply sends out a half hearted press release to everyone on their books.

How do I sort the agencies that build valid relationships and target the product well from those than fire repeatedly into the dark?

[Call Tracker]

Why not try having a go yourself? You seem to know what you need to do and if you write well could start off a campaign to test the water. If time is an issue use then good freelancer would be your best bet. Try and use someone that can provide examples of previous coverage and give you some ideas of how they would target journalists in your sector.

PR is not hard but it takes a great deal of time and a lot of bravado to sell ideas to journalists. The writing element is the tricky part as is coming up with unique ideas that journos will jump on.

[Be Known PR]

Hi Tom,

The fact that you know what to avoid is a good start when looking for PR agencies.

My advice is:

Look for a freelancer that has a good background in big agencies but is now working on their own (they have the smae highly tuned skills and experience but do not charge the same high fees that their previous employers will)
Chat to them for a bit and go with someone you feel comfortable with and who understands your product and your specific needs
Ask for client testimonials and see if they are happy for you to speak directly to any past or present clients
Ask to see examples of recent coverage
Don't tie yourself in to a long contract
You are right about the issue of poorly targeted press releases. Most PR's will tell you they have good contacts and in fact any PR consultant with a decent track record should have a good list of contacts. Be wary of any who say they are happy to send you a list of named contacts, they are usually the ones who just have a generic list - why would they make a list that has been cultivated over time so easily available.

Have a read of this: http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/marketing/pr/pay-per-hit-pr.shtml.

There are a few good PR consultants on here.

If you want to PM/email/call me that I would be delighted to chat further.

David

[Be Known PR]

PR is not hard:eek:
...and a Happy New Year to you too!!! ;)


The writing element is the tricky part as is coming up with unique ideas that journos will jump on.

You will find that there are endless numbers of PR 'professionals' who fall down on that count. I recieved a press release from a PR - who I had never heard of the other day who for some reason had me down on his distribution list (note your point about press release blitzing) - which was one of the worst written releases I have seen in a very, very long time. Full of spelling mistakes, badly formed and lacking in any newsworthy content.

[WhiskyFive]

If you've only got a small budget (under £3K per month) then there is little point in going to an agency - you would be a v. small and insignificant client, often ignored..or worse, given to the intern to handle!

If under £8K per month, then don't go with a big agency - make sure you are a small agency's biggest client...so you get a lot of love :-)

The points above are very valid - most PR can be done in-house - especially the basic press office stuff. If operating with a small budget, you can get a freelancer to work 2-3 days a week/ month (depending on budget) and still get some pretty good work done. I'd advise getting them working from your office for at least part of that time.

If going alone...try signing up to story alerts with Response Source as a good place to start.

[Be Known PR]

If you've only got a small budget (under £3K per month) then there is little point in going to an agency - you would be a v. small and insignificant client, often ignored..or worse, given to the intern to handle!

If under £8K per month, then don't go with a big agency - make sure you are a small agency's biggest client...so you get a lot of love :-)

With those sorts of figures and evaluations you are talking about the top agencies. Small and medium sized agencies would jump at a £2k a month client, it is their bread and butter. As for £8k a month, most top agencies will only have a few clients paying more than that.

I am also going to guess that those figures are well beyond Tom at the moment. Whilst at an established (and award winning) PR agency we had a gift client that was on £1.5k a month - and they were a well known retailer.

Any agency is going to distribute their resources across client accounts, usually you will get a percentage of time from different levels of staff in relation to your fee. Therefore, yes, a smaller fee with a bigger agency is likely to mean more time from the account execs/managers and less from the directors.

Find the right people to work with though and no matter what their size, they will treat all clients with respect and the bosses will get involved in everything. However, like most industries, you are paying for someones time. Therefore the higher your monthly fee the more time you will get dedicated to you. That said, every agency I have worked for has over serviced every client because you want and need to get results for them to stop them looking elsewhere.

[Kelly Cairns]

I have a friend who is does PR (freelance), if you're interested I can send you her details.

She has a prove track record in getting results

[GreatSEO]

Kelly

Can youi send me her details please

cheers

Dave

[Kelly Cairns]

Hi Dave

here's her website address http://www.lsmedia.co.uk/

tell her Kelly sent you :)

[tom_15gifts]

Thanks for the great information guys.

The conclusion seems to be that it's good to go freelance if you haven't got money to burn but it could also be worth covering the basics yourself.

It sounds like the challenge could be finding someone with enough contacts and influence whilst not losing the personal touch.

On a separate note, I had a look around 'be known pr' and I saw the pay per performance prices. Whilst this seems like a great 'no lose' option, those costs could quickly rise if you get a good story out there that makes a little impact.

I wonder if this option seems great for the more cautious business but actually ends up being more costly?

Finally, to all the PR people who messaged me directly with a bland offering, you seem to have inadvertently proved my initial concerns right.

[Be Known PR]

Tom, glad you had a look. Have to say I am not sure that it is good forum etiquette to encourage a negative debate about someone who has offered you objective advice in the same thread, but I am big enough to take it.

In defence of my fees: (and I hope this doesn’t come across overly aggressively or defensive)

The thing about pay by results PR is that each hit is always going to cost you more than if you were paying a monthly retainer because you are paying a little extra for the security of not taking a risk.

I have tried to position my rates so that they actually reflect what a client would be paying if they were on a retainer. I also make it clear that clients can (and should) set a monthly budget cap so that there is no danger of them being hit with fees that are beyond their means. I also work with them to make sure their money goes as far as possible, so that if they only have £1k per month then I will try to get a spread of coverage rather than just gobbling up the budget with one big hit each month.

Out of all the tools in the marketing mix, PR is probably the hardest to measure by a long shot, because you will very rarely see a direct return on investment.

For example, with a gift company like yourself, you may find that your PR person manages to get a boxed pen set featured in the Sunday Telegraph magazine. One week later you look at your sales figures to see that no pen sets have sold so you write the coverage off as worthless.

What you don’t know however is how many of your other sales that week have come from people seeing your name and pen set in the magazine and thinking ‘that’s not what I’m looking for but I wonder if they have anything suitable for uncle Jonny’. Or how many people have seen your name, stored it in their subconscious and then clicked on your site when they have Googled ‘gifts’ because you came up in the search results and the name ‘rang a bell from somewhere’.

To quote your original post How do I sort the agencies that build valid relationships and target the product well from those than fire repeatedly into the dark?
One answer would be: You get what you pay for. Yes, you can get very cheap PR support (much cheaper than I and many others would be willing to provide it), but what is it they say about paying peanuts?

I would be interested to hear other people’s thoughts on the topic of the cost of pay per coverage PR.

My fees were worked out by looking at what level of coverage clients of agencies I have worked for would expect for their monthly retainer and then making sure that if I achieved equivalent coverage that the combined cost would be cheaper than the estimated retainer fee. I also decided that I did not want to undervalue my work by setting my fees too low.

As it happens, I am in the middle of putting together a new fee structure that will give more flexibility. In a nutshell, I will offer three fee packages: pay by result, a one off bespoke project fee and a mix of retainer and pay by result with a £500 per month retainer and a 50% discount on pay by result fees. I am also going to add a lower bracket of one eight of a page to provide greater value for smaller product placement and short quotes.

Finally, Tom, you mentioned you wanted to launch your website. Pick up the phone, give me a call and tell me what your budget is and I will gladly come up with a plan for a one off bespoke project that has an unlimited coverage cap, a money back option and that steers well clear of and bland offering. You can’t say fairer than that. :)

[Call Tracker]

I think you offer great value Be Known PR. An article in a national newspaper would cost thousands if you advertised in that space. For the op who obviously is skeptical and knows little about PR and how it works it would be a good route as there is no commitment until the coverage is achieved.

The key to using an agency or freelancer is good communication. Get involved and make suggestions, there are many opportunities to be had out there and PR is an excellent way to get your business some great exposure.

[tom_15gifts]

Hi David,

First of all apologies if the comments came across as rude after your advice, they were certainly not meant in that way.

Your site was the first place that i'd seen a pricing structure for pay per coverage PR and it was the validity of your offering that made me think this would be a good place to discuss it.

In all other forms of online marketing you know how many people will see your ad or how many clicks you'll get for your money so PR will always differ in that respect. For marketers wanting that same level of guaranteed exposure, your offering hits the nail on the head. It's just a case of working out whether guaranteed coverage for a good price is better than going for potentially great coverage for a retainer rate.

The one part I didn't fully understand is the monthly cap. What if you reach that cap and magazines/papers still keep picking up on a story? Does that coverage come for free? If that's the case, how do you judge how much work to put in for the amount they're willing to spend?

Finally, you can't say fairer than your proposal and there's a number of reasons now why i'll give you a call. I've pre-empted this a little because development is still under way but i'll be in touch.

Although it's not just a gift site :)

[Be Known PR]

No worries Tom.

As far as the cap goes, I try to be as flexible and reasonable as possible with clients. Therefore if one specific story gets 20 little mentions in a range of media then I will try to group it together so that it works out cost effective for the client. Each case is different, but I would, for example, say, right you got a paragraph in 12 regional papers, instead of charging you for 12x£225 I will charge 3x£400. If that makes sense.

Look forward to speaking to you at a later date.

[gercam]

I have used http://www.londonpragency.com/ before with grreat success. In the first month I was in Daily Mirror and campaign just went from strength to strength- see my media pages http://www.bagnificent.co.uk/press-coverage.html for proof. Steve(the owner) is a member on here too. I would
definitely have a look at them.