How Do You Choose A Public Relations (PR) Agency?
• What do you want to achieve from PR? It is essential that you and your board understand this and communicate this to potential agencies. The common way this is initiated is via a brief where you can outline what you expect to achieve from the relationship with the successful PR agency. Many companies employ a PR agency because they think it is the right thing to do but are not clear internally as to what they want to achieve from it. Or, perhaps they know what they want, but not how they want to achieve it. It is essential that both you and the PR agency understand the objectives from the very beginning including timescales and targets. Whether this is hits on your websites, how many times the phone goes off, share of voice against competitors, coverage in key publications, awards or speaker opportunities, etc.–it is paramount that everyone knows what these are. For the relationship to work, everyone needs to understand what is required of them. • Be clear with the PR agency how the
