R Public Relations Firm
What Is a PR retainer and How Is It Used?
If you’re considering hiring a public relations (PR) firm, it’s important to understand the billing process. No one wants any surprises there, R we right? There’s hourly billing, of course, but you may also have the option of a PR retainer for the services you need. Which is the best fit for you? Let’s find out.
PR Retainers Defined
A PR retainer is a lump sum that you pay to a PR firm each month for the work they provide. The amount you pay depends on how much work you need to meet your PR goals and your budget, so it’s important to be specific about both early on in your communications with the PR firm. Your monthly statement should itemize any work performed as well as expenses that were not included in the retainer if any. You should also be able to request the right to approve any expenses over a certain amount before they are incurred.
Benefits of PR Retainers
There are a number of benefits to PR retainers including:
- Having access to a broad range of services from the PR firm
- Building a relationship with a dedicated team who knows your brand and goals
- Ability to achieve long-term as well as short-term goals with messaging and brand consistency
- Flexibility should you need more of certain services and less of others depending on a project or goal
- Better budget control because you know what your PR costs will be each month
When is a PR Retainer Best?
A PR retainer is an ongoing agreement between you and your PR firm, usually renewable on a yearly basis. Although different PR firms may have different terms. So, if your brand needs ongoing support to increase brand awareness and credibility, keep your target audience engaged, help generate leads, and/or maintain your positive reputation, a PR retainer could just be the way to go.
With a PR retainer, your firm will continually work on your behalf to consistently monitor the media in your target market(s), identify opportunities in which to pitch your products/services and share your announcements and news. R firm also considers it an opportunity to really get to know you, your brand, and your goals so we can work as an extension of your team for better efficiency and success.
This can also be helpful when things come along that you’re not anticipating like perhaps a product recall, customer injury or complaint, employee misconduct, security breach, or any type of negative press. It’s in these circumstances that time is of the essence and having an expert PR team at the ready can be invaluable.
On the other hand, if you have more one-off needs for PR services such as you already have in-house PR staff but have an overflow project that needs outsourcing. Or, perhaps you have a small company with too limited of a budget for ongoing PR. That’s ok too! Luckily, R expert team not only works by PR retainer but also offers a la carte services!
We’d love to see how we could help your brand! Learn more about our public relations services. Or, schedule a FREE Discovery Call Today!
5 Things to Ask When Hiring a Public Relations Agency
Public relations can benefit your organization in a number of ways from elevating brand awareness to enhancing brand credibility to keeping your target audience engaged to generating leads to maintaining your positive reputation and navigating crises, just to start. But what’s the biggest challenge standing between you and those benefits? Finding the right public relations agency to do the job. No pressure, right? Don’t worry, R goal is to make this process much easier. Here’s what you should be asking when hiring a public relations agency.
- What’s your specialty? – This is two-fold in that a public relations agency may not only specialize in certain services but also certain industries. For example, we R a lifestyle public relations agency which means we specialize in brands within industries that include restaurant, hospitality, and retail as well as health and wellness. And while we are full-service, R sweet spots so to speak are media and influencer relations, crisis communications, and social media. Make sure you choose the agency that aligns most closely with your industry and your public relations goals.
- Who will I be working with day-to-day? – It’s often the case, particularly with larger public relations agencies, that they’ll send their senior team to woo potential clients, then once you’ve signed, you’ll find you’re working with junior staff on your campaigns. Not only is this important in terms of experience and expertise, but also when it comes to chemistry because you need to click with your public relations team in order to work most effectively. And you won’t know that until it’s potentially too late (after you’re in a contract) if the team you meet initially isn’t who you’ll work with daily. That’s actually a big advantage of boutique public relations firms, like ours, in that the team you sign with is the team you work with from beginning to end.
- Who are your clients? – This is another two-fold question as here you want to determine the public relations agency’s credibility and you want to know if those clients are similar to your organization. For example, if they primarily work for Fortune 100 companies with large budgets and you’re a start-up with barely any budget to spare that might not be a good fit. Not just from a budget perspective, but also because a successful PR strategy for a Fortune 100 company would likely be very different than the approach that would be most successful for you. Ask for referrals, case studies, and/or examples of their work, too. We R proud of our clients’ successes and love to share our work. If a public relations agency isn’t, that should be a red flag.
- How do you work? – Public relations is all about relationships, and not just with the media, the client-agency relationship is just as important. Not only do you need that chemistry we talked about earlier but you want to be on the same page in terms of working style as well. Have them outline their process from the start of a project or campaign to the end. Find out how often you’ll communicate as well as the primary means of communication. If the agency lives and dies by Slack and you prefer phone calls, there may be an issue. R approach is to be a collaborative partner that is flexible, and adaptable to how the client is most comfortable working. However, often the larger the public relations agency, the more rigid the process. Lastly, make sure you understand how you’re billed for time.
- How do you measure success? – PR is a fluid industry. What works today may not work tomorrow as consumers, the media, and technology are constantly changing. That’s why R public relations agency measures and tweaks relentlessly. It’s the only way to succeed. Not only for the agency to prove their worth but for you to achieve your goals and validate the PR spend. Yes, we know sometimes it’s still like pulling teeth to get the c-suite to allocate budget to public relations. As such find out not only how potential agencies measure success (metrics), but also how often they report results as well as how you can utilize those results collaboratively to make decisions.
R team would love to help your organization achieve all the benefits of PR. Learn more about our public relations services and schedule your FREE Discovery Call today!
