Does Your Business Need A Public Relations Agency

As someone who tends to get a lot of press for her business, I’m often asked who does my public relations. When I answer “Me, myself and I” many people are shocked to find out that I’ve never spent a dime trying to get more press while they continue to struggle.

I’ve coached clients who’ve spent thousands on public relations and have gotten no results. I also sat on a panel where a writer from MSN said she didn’t want to hear from a company’s public relations person, she wanted to hear from the company.

Do you need to hire a public relations agency?

The reality is you may not always need to hire a PR agency. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean public relations companies are obsolete. Many of them do a spectacular job and you may get to a stage in your business when you actually need one. All I’m saying is you may not need one right now. Here are some ways to tell whether or not you should hire a public relations agency.

1. What stage of your business are you in?

I can’t stand it when I see beginning business owners spending thousands on things they don’t need yet. When you’re in the beginning stages of your business it’s unlikely that you’ll have anything figured out. You don’t know what your story is, you don’t really know your brand, you don’t know your sales funnel and you don’t know your market.

I recently wrote about how you need this information in order to hire a good web designer. Well, the same is true for hiring a public relations company. They can’t help you unless you get clear on these questions.

2. What kind of media are you trying to get?

Whether or not you should hire a public relations agency also depends on the kind of media you are trying to get. For example, if you’re trying to get online press you may be better off saving yourself money and doing the pitching yourself. Online media is much more accessible and isn’t so time consuming that you would need to outsource it to someone else.

Additionally, like I mentioned with the MSN writer, they’re tired of getting emails from your public relations people. As someone who has written for large publications and gets pitched all the time, I can vouch for that. I am much more likely to respond to someone from the actual company (so long as it’s a friendly email and not a blind one) than a cut-and-paste email from your public relations agency.

Now, if you’re looking into getting on TV or more traditional radio, then you may need to hire a specific, professional public relations person. It may not entirely be necessary, but those connections are harder to make than those online, so a public relations agent may be able to help you.

3. Do you have alternatives that may work better?

I was recently hired as a spokesperson for a very cool company within my niche. This happened because public relations agencies weren’t getting them the results they wanted. Meanwhile, I tend to attract media within our niche and I can use my authority to give them more credibility.

This has turned out to be a better option for them than hiring an agency. Because I know how to pitch online media and because I already have authority within the niche, it makes more sense for the company to pay me than it does for them to pay an agency that handles multiple industries.

Of course, this depends entirely on what you are trying to accomplish and what kind of media you want. What works for one company may not work for another company.

Another alternative is to befriend some writers on your own. Often times getting press is just about connections so if you build your own connections you may be able to do some of your own public relations.

4. Do you already have an influx of media requests?

Most of my colleagues have hired public relations agencies only after they’ve encountered more media requests than they can possibly handle on their own. Or, they’ve hired public relations agencies after they’ve established some authority for their company.

Again, this just goes back to what stage of the business you are in. Are you just starting out or do you already have some clout a public relations agency can work with? This will affect whether or not you should hire a firm and whether or not they will even be successful.

5. Can you afford it?

Public relations is not cheap. That’s why if you can’t afford it (or can’t figure out how to leverage the cost into more sales) then it’s probably not the right time to outsource it. And like I’ve mentioned previously, much of it can be done on your own.

Final thoughts

These suggestions are only my opinion based on my experience, what I’ve seen in the online space and what I’ve seen with my colleagues. It’s not gospel and there are naturally other variables involved that may affect your decision. Just note that you may not need to spend thousands on public relations off the bat.