7 Questions to Ask When Hiring a PR Firm

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Three years. That is the average length of today’s client – PR firm relationship. The average is less than half of what it was 20 years ago, and continues to decline. There are a number of reasons clients decide to move on from hiring a PR firm, many of which are completely avoidable if you start your agency search off on the right path from the very beginning.

Having owned and led an award-winning marketing and PR firm for the past 15 years, I have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building a successful agency-client relationship. We’ve worked with large global clients, small local startups, trade associations and non-profit organizations. No matter the client, success always starts with a strong partnership built on a cultural fit, clarity of roles and a strategic alignment of on goals and measurement of success.

So, what does it mean to have a strong agency partnership? And how do you start building one? Here are seven questions to ask when vetting and interviewing a new PR firm —and what you should know before you even begin your search.

1. What industries do you specialize in?

A successful PR firm needs to have quality storytelling abilities and strong relationships with the right reporters, but it’s also to your advantage when an agency has knowledge of the industry trends that are impacting, or will impact, your business. Our agency focuses on payments and fintech and publishes research and commentary, speaks at conferences, supports trade associations and even helps to advise government agencies in this space. Being a driver of the thought leadership dialogue gives our clients access and insights and ensures that we understand their business.

Deep industry expertise means they are on top of the trends media in your space care about and can inject you into those stories and help you make business decisions based on market intel. It also helps keep your firm’s ideas fresh and innovative and allows them to best understand all the places to build awareness outside of just earned media. They can suggest the right shows, speaking engagements, awards programs, LinkedIn groups, etc

2. Your industry experience fits, but how are you going to help my business?

We have a saying at our firm: Meet your clients wherever they are. This is critical to success. There is a big difference between working for a Fortune 100 tech company with a steady stream of news and expert spokespeople versus a smaller company with a disruptive technology but little name recognition.

One involves strategic planning around announcing news, managing crises and getting the most out of every campaign. The other involves creating a narrative with unknown spokespeople and figuring out how to inject it into a beat that doesn’t even exist yet. Your agency must fully understand where you are in your lifecycle in order to help you achieve your next wave.

If you are a big company, look for strong case studies managing multiple streams of content and experience with multiple stakeholders from various departments. Don’t just look for a “big” PR firm, look for tenure and experience of the actual account team. You need business acumen to truly partner with a Fortune 100 brand.

If you are a smaller client, be wary of being wowed by PR agencies that boast big-brand client rosters alone. Working with huge, multinational companies with big budgets takes one kind of skill and teasing out content and news from smaller companies with no established brand equity takes another. Make sure you can see case studies that are relevant to your business.

3. Do you understand PR and marketing? 

The lines between marketing and PR continue to blur. Look for an agency that understands and has embraced this evolution, offering additional insights and value beyond traditional media and PR tactics. We started as a PR firm but added a content marketing team when we saw that our clients’ goals would be better met by a mix of these converging tactics. And our clients appreciate not needing to hire multiple agencies to get it done.

Traditional media relations or social isn’t always the answer alone—sometimes a piece of gated content targeted at a handful of potential customers stuck in your funnel can have a bigger impact. If your agency understands PR and marketing you know you will get the right tactic for the best outcome for your business.

4. How do you measure success?

The PR industry is notorious for the challenges of measuring its success. Look for a PR firm that is able to clearly layout how they are going to tie the results of their programs to your business objectives. Are the analytics and analysis your agency is going to provide meaningful and understandable to the executives and decision-makers at your company? The measurement and data your agency reports on should be directed by the goals and outcomes you’re expected to deliver.

Years ago, one of the first times I realized reporting and measurement needed to be a top priority for our agency was while we were presenting our annual results to one of the top leaders at one of our biggest clients. In looking at our impressive end-of-year earned media numbers, he said, “these look great, but how did they directly contribute to our business goals?”

Our numbers were certainly impressive to even the most seasoned PR pro, but we needed to interpret and report the data in a way that is understandable and impactful to leaders who don’t work in PR everyday, and tie them more directly to business objectives. Since then, we’ve started reporting on share of voice in the media versus competitors, the SEO impact of our earned media and more.

5. Who will be on my team and how much turnover do you have?

Agencies have rightfully earned a reputation for the bait and switch. Agencies impress potential clients with insightful ideas and analysis pitched by senior executives, but after they’ve won the business, the work is then pushed down to a junior team. This is how a lot of PR firms make money – push the work down to cheaper, less-experienced employees, push the profitability up. You should also be asking about turnover. Agencies have notoriously high turnover rate of around 30%, and the impact on your PR success can be significant. Consider independent agencies with a strong track record of client and employee retention.

6. What would your clients say you are like to work with?

Your PR firm should be an extension of your team. Just like you look for cultural fit when you make a new hire, your agency should also have to clear that bar. Like you would in the hiring process, calling references is the best way to figure out what unique attributes your potential agency will bring and where they might still have some opportunities for improvement. Agencies have a ton of creative resources at their disposal to wow you in their presentations, but reference checks will shake out exactly the type of results and experience you can expect in a client-agency relationship.

7. What is your philosophy and how do you manage your business?

Who manages the business? What kind of profitability ratios are you aiming for? How much new business do you bring in every year? If your agency is owned by a PE firm or a publicly traded holding company, what happens to my team when you need to meet numbers? These are all important questions to get a feel for how an agency is run. How an agency manages their business will affect how they service your business. These are conversations that our team proactively has with prospective clients. I’ve found that being transparent about how we manage our business resonates with clients and is a big driver in the very low client or consultant turnover rates we have.

Asking the right questions can set you off on the right path, but you also need to know what the right answers are for your business. Thinking through your strategic objectives and providing a clear picture of how your team can manage, support and work with an agency is key in vetting and interviewing a new agency, and ultimately building a strong agency partnership, which offers you and your business the  best potential for success.

A version of this article was published in MarketingProfs.