Eric Yaverbaum, Robert Bly, Ilise Benun. Public Relations for Dummies, 2nd Edition

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One more homey example: My wife and I once took our son to a town carni-

val. At one game of chance, you could win a small stuffed animal by placing a

quarter on one of ten numbers and then hoping, when the wheel of chance

was spun, that the pointer would end up on your number. It occurred to me

that if I wanted to be certain of getting a stuffed animal for Alex, I could do so

by spending $2.50 and putting a quarter on each of the ten numbers simulta-

neously: I’d have to hit with one of my ten bets. (In fact, we bet normally and

won a stuffed animal on the first spin!)

In PR, the same principle applies: Keep putting yourself out there in the

media — with query letters, pitch letters, press releases — and you will hit

the winning number. The prize is publicity for your company or service.

It’s inevitable.

Does this mean that a one-shot press release or PR promotion won’t work?

Not at all. Even a single press release or media appearance on TV or radio

can generate scads of press coverage and hundreds or even thousands of

inquiries and sales. But on the other hand, your first effort may bring little

or nothing. When you treat publicity as a one-shot event, you’re gambling.

When you have a consistent, ongoing program, with efforts going out monthly

or on some other regular basis, you’ll almost certainly get the result you want

sooner or later (sooner if you follow the suggestions in this book).

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Chapter 3

Hiring Professional PR Help

In This Chapter

! Considering and finding which type of outside PR help to use

! Using PR professionals to your best advantage

y fellow PR professionals may hate me for saying this, but PR is some-

thing that many companies — especially small businesses — can and

should do on their own.

The question then arises: If you can do it yourself, why pay someone else to

do it for you? Sometimes it’s just a matter of the advantages inherent in out-

sourcing: Your staff is already too busy to do PR, and you don’t want to add

to your overhead by hiring your own PR department, adding a PR person to

your marketing department, or expanding your already overworked in-house

PR people. An obvious answer is to outsource PR. In addition to giving you

access to outside expertise, hiring a PR professional frees your employees to

concentrate on their core business.

Companies also hire outside PR counsel for a fresh point of view and original,

creative thinking. In-house people may have been working on a product line

for so long that they’re bored and can’t see any excitement in it. To the out-

side PR professional just brought onboard to handle the account, promoting

the product is a fun challenge that gets the creative juices flowing.

Another reason that companies hire PR firms is to benefit from the PR firm’s

impressive list of media contacts. But you already know what I think of that.

Getting Help

Few people in small business have the time to become experts in PR and pro-

motions, even though they may be quite decent at it. So should you hire an

advertising agency or public relations firm to handle all this, or can you do it

yourself?

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Some small businesses use their ad agencies to handle their PR. Others hire

PR firms or PR counselors — independent PR advisers, usually one-person

shops. Another alternative is to hire a freelance PR writer to create your

press materials. In this section, I take a look at each of these options.

Advertising agencies

Advertising agencies provide advertisers with a wide range of communica-

tions services: copywriting, art, production, media planning and buying,

market research, sales promotion, and public relations, both online and off.

Many ad agencies promote themselves as “marketing communications” firms

and include both advertising and PR in their roster of services. Should you

engage separate firms for advertising or PR, or is it better to have them both

handled by a single shop?

The argument in favor of hiring a PR firm for PR, and an ad agency for adver-

tising, is simple: They are two different disciplines requiring very different

skill sets. Advertising agencies can say practically whatever they want in an

ad, because they simply pay the media to carry their message. In PR, we have

to convince — sometimes subtly — the media to carry our message for us,

because we’re asking for a “free ride” — we are not paying for the coverage.

It’s a different art and not one that all ad agencies practice well.

The argument in favor of having one firm do both advertising and PR is synergy

between the campaigns. One danger of having separate agencies for advertis-

ing and PR is that they won’t communicate well and work in tandem, resulting

in ad and PR campaigns that communicate different messages. Integration is

absolutely and vitally important and will stretch your investment farther.

But you don’t need to take the single-agency approach to solve that problem.

Just make sure that your ad agency and PR firm — if you have one of each —

talk to each other frequently and are aware of what the other is doing. At my

current agency, we are fully integrated with advertising, which is what makes

the most sense and is often the elusive holy grail of marketing. When true

integration exists, the client gets the greatest investment for their dollar.

Public relations agencies

Public relations agencies are the professionals to turn to when you want to

get coverage in the media. Now, sending out a press release or calling up a

local editor are two things anyone can do — you don’t need to be a specialist

to practice public relations. So why hire a PR agency? One reason is that PR

firms are PR specialists.

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At Lime Public Relations and Promotions, the PR firm where I am currently

the Managing Partner, the PR group is made up of experts at writing, plan-

ning, timing, and executing PR and promotional campaigns. A big reason is

that doing PR is the priority. We treat it as a critical task, and we spend the

vast majority of our time doing PR. Although novices tend to be unstructured

and haphazard in their PR efforts, professionals can plan and execute a cam-

paign that supports a marketing strategy.

Many public relations firms charge their clients a monthly retainer for their

services; a typical monthly retainer can be $5,000 to $15,000 a month or more,

depending on the scope of the work. Larger and mid-size PR firms usually

require a retainer of at least $10,000 to $25,000 a month or more. Smaller PR

firms are more flexible, with minimum monthly retainers in the $5,000 range.

You can even find solo practitioners — one- or two-person PR firms, often

working out of someone’s home — who will take you on for $4,000 to $5,000 a

month. If you find someone who wants to charge less than that, just remember

that you get what you pay for.

Deciding whether to hire a PR firm

Do you need the highly professional and somewhat costly services of a PR

agency? Or can you do things less expensively and better yourself? Here’s a

list of do’s and don’ts to help you decide:

! Do use an agency if effective PR is crucial to your success and if you feel

that you can afford the going rates.

! Do consider using an agency if you spend $3,000 or more a month on PR.

That’s probably the minimum amount it will take to interest even the

smallest agency in handling your account.

! Don’t hire an agency because you’re trying to cut costs. Getting outside

help is almost always more expensive than doing it yourself.

! Don’t hire an agency solely because you think you don’t have time to do

it yourself. Yes, the agency will free your time for other tasks. But when

you hire an agency, you’re hiring creativity coupled with PR expertise —

and not just another pair of hands.

! Do hire an agency if your company is marketing oriented.

! Do hire an agency if you intend to use its services to full advantage.

! Do hire an agency for fresh thinking, outside objectivity, and a more cre-

ative approach to PR.

! Do hire an agency if you need help planning promotions, introducing

new products, and selecting target markets.

! Do hire an agency to do things first-class.

! Don’t hire an agency if you’re certain that only you know the best way to

promote your business and that outsiders can never make useful sug-

gestions in this area.

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Most important, hiring an agency is an investment in your time. You must

have a partnership with the agency and a person within your organization

who will champion the program.

If you decide to hire an agency, you need to know how to select the one that’s

right for your business. I cover this in the following section.

Selecting a PR firm

Here are seven useful tips for selecting the PR firm that can best serve your

company:

! Opt for a PR agency with expertise in your area. All else being equal,

accountants, brokers, and bankers should select a PR agency that special-

izes in financial accounts. A manufacturer of globe valves for petroleum

refineries should choose an agency with industrial expertise. A designer

of men’s swimwear would do best to seek counsel from a PR agency with

other fashion accounts. By choosing an agency that already has some

experience in your industry, you save yourself the costly and time-

consuming process of educating its staff from scratch.

Make sure that the agency does not have any of your competitors as

clients. A conflict would surely arise. Another warning: Take my caveat

“all else being equal” seriously. A more important factor than expertise

in your area is whether the PR firm is good at getting PR for its clients.

All else is usually not equal, and I’d rather have a great PR firm that

didn’t have experience in my industry than a mediocre one, with weak

results, that did.

! Do not hire an agency with more capabilities than you need. Do you

really need an agency with overseas branch offices, television produc-

tion capabilities, a market research department, and clout with the

White House? All of an agency’s clients pay to support its complete

operations — so, to save money without sacrificing service or quality,

select an agency that offers only those communications services you

need, which will likely be account management, PR writing, and media

relations.

! Make sure that the agency is the right size for you. A $20,000 account

represents only 0.01 percent of a $200-million agency’s income and con-

sequently receives only 0.01 percent of its management attention and

0.01 percent of its creative effort. Make sure that your agency is small

enough to consider your account profitable and worth its best efforts,

yet large enough to have the resources to get the job done.

! Ask to see the agency’s work. Examine a prospective agency’s portfolio

of press clippings and client case studies. Do you like what you see? Is it

the kind and caliber of work you want done?

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Avoid agencies that “talk the talk” but haven’t “walked the walk.” Lots

of PR firms say they can get you in the media you want. But have they

constantly delivered on this promise for their existing clients? More impor-

tant, do they just get a bunch of press clipping for their clients, filling up

portfolio books? Or do they execute targeted campaigns that have actu-

ally helped build major brands and achieve a significant improvement in

the client’s bottom line?

! Get the names of some current and past clients and talk with those

clients. Find out what the PR agency did for them and whether the

results were worth many times the fees paid in terms of increased

business results.

Also ask the PR agency for the names of two or three clients who fired

them. That’s right, ex-clients who left them. Find out why the PR firm

was fired. If it was for lack of results, that’s bad. If it’s because the PR

firm’s ideas were too daring and the client was afraid to try them, maybe

you’re more daring and won’t be so afraid.

In reviewing my career, I have found that the number-one reason I have

lost accounts is that I gave the clients my opinion and they disagreed

with it. If you’re simply looking for someone to parrot your own ideas,

don’t waste your money on an outside PR firm or consultant. A large

part of what you pay an outside service for is a fresh point of view and

ideas different from what you would come up with on your own.

I tell my own employees, “It’s okay to have an opinion different from

mine; it is not okay to have no opinion.” As a client, you should give

your PR advisers the same instructions I give my employees.

! Make sure that the agency is sympathetic with the needs of small busi-

ness. Especially if you’re a small business on a limited budget, explain

to prospective agencies that your goal is to create PR campaigns that

increase sales — and not to win PR industry awards. Tell them that your

money is limited. Tell them that you want a PR campaign to generate

traffic or boost sales, not to get your picture in the paper just to please

your mother.

! Check the personal chemistry. PR is a people business. My PR agency’s

most precious assets all leave the building in the elevator every night:

my employees. If you don’t like the people who will be working on your

account, or if you sense they don’t like you, look for another PR firm;

it’s not a good fit.

! Be clear about fees. Check out the price. What is the average monthly

retainer the PR firm’s clients pay? The minimum monthly retainer? How

much do they propose to charge you? And what do you get in return?

Have them spell out what they will do and the level or degree of activity

you can expect for your investment.

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My agency has hourly rates established for me, my partner, and every other

employee. We keep track of everyone’s time and bill it against the retainer.

So if Joe bills at $100 an hour and does 10 hours of work this month for

Client X, $1,000 of that client’s $12,000 monthly retainer has been spent on

Joe’s services.

How many PR agencies should you interview when making your selection

process? I recommend you meet with at least three different agencies so that

you can see the different perspectives from which they approach PR in gen-

eral, and your business problems in particular. You may find it helpful to spell

out what you’re looking for in a PR firm and what you want it to do for you in

a Request for Proposal (RFP).

Review the proposals that the PR firms submit. A good proposal should give

you, the client, insight into how the agencies think, the strategies they use,

their costs, and their time line for implementing your campaign. Although

their fee is paid monthly, you usually need at least six months of working

with a PR firm before you can accurately evaluate results.

After reviewing the proposals the PR firms submit, ask the ones you like to

come in and do a presentation. That means a presentation of their capabili-

ties and what they can do for you, not actual creative work on your account.

You shouldn’t ask for that until you’ve made your decision and hired one of

the agencies.

Freelancers

Many creative types of people — especially writers, artists, photographers,

and publicists — are skilled in areas of promotion and work as freelancers,

serving both advertisers and advertising agencies. Freelancers are capable

of delivering the same high-quality work as advertising and PR agencies at a

fraction of the cost. Using freelancers can be the least expensive way of get-

ting professional help to create your promotions.

Before hiring a freelancer, check his résumé, portfolio, and client list. Find out

his rates and get a written estimate in advance. Most important, make sure

that you like (or at least can tolerate) the freelancer as a person. With adver-

tising agencies, an account executive separates you from the writer or artist.

With freelance help, you deal with the creator of your promotion directly. To

have a successful collaboration with the freelancer, you must be able to work

well together.

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Some freelance PR writers may say they can also do PR placement, but be

wary of this claim. Part of the reason I can follow up so effectively is that if

I send a press release to a thousand editors at a thousand publications, my

staff personally calls every one of them — some several times — to follow up

and get more placements. Now, if each call takes ten minutes, a thousand

calls would take one person seven consecutive days if he worked 24 hours a

day without a break. A lone freelancer with limited time and no staff cannot

duplicate this level of effort from a home office.

Graphic design studios

Most small businesses rely on print promotions — posters, signs, pamphlets,

ads, point-of-purchase displays, coupons, media kits, and brochures — to

reach their customers and prospects. Graphic design firms can often meet

this need with great quality at a reasonable fee.

Graphic design studios do not, as a rule, offer media, marketing, writing, and

PR services. They are simply the experts in designing and producing print

material.

Some small-business managers have a good grasp of sales and marketing, know

their business well, write lucid copy, and understand the basic promotional

tools. They just need help turning their ideas into polished print material,

and a graphic design studio can provide that help.

The rates for graphic design services vary according to where your business

is located. In Manhattan, a city that may have more working graphic artists

than anywhere in the United States, the design rate ranges from $100 to $150

an hour.

Web designers

The Web is an important part of any PR campaign (read more about that in

Chapter 16) so you need a professional Web designer to create a site that is

both useful and usable for your press contacts. When it comes to hiring a

Web designer, beware that there are generally two types: designers who

understand technology and technologists who understand design. It’s rare

(but possible) to find someone who does both well. To find out what kind of

designer you’re talking to, ask, “Who is doing the design and who is doing

programming?”

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Search engine specialists

It is also rare to find a Web designer who understands search engine opti-

mization, but when you do, they’re usually the technologists. If being found

by the search engines is a key component in your campaign, be sure that the

Web designer or firm that you hire has someone in place or on staff who not

only understands search engine technology but also stays up-to-date on it, as

the technology is constantly changing.

Getting the Most out of Hired Help

You’ve looked at your checkbook, looked with dismay at your current promo-

tion campaign, and made a major decision: You want your promotions to be

first class, and you’ve decided to get professional help — an advertising

agency, a PR firm, a freelancer, or a graphic design studio. Here, then, are

some helpful hints for getting the best work out of your outside supplier with

the least amount of trouble:

! Brief your agency. The more your PR firm or advertising agency knows

about your product, your company, and your markets, the better. Tell your

agency what makes your product unique. Explain its advantages over the

competition’s products. Explain your marketing strategy. Provide back-

ground material in the form of current ads and press releases, brochures,

articles on your industry, and market-research reports. The best clients

prepare comprehensive agency briefings in writing.

! If you use separate agencies for advertising and PR, brief them both

at the same input meeting. Doing so further helps ensure integration

between your advertising and PR campaigns. It also saves you from

having to present the same background briefing twice.

! Do not compete with your agency in the creative area. You certainly

can disapprove of the brochure copy or the press kit that your agency

turns in. Make helpful criticisms and turn it back for a revision. But don’t

tell outside talent how to do the job. If you can write better than the

writer and take better pictures than the photographer, fire them and do

the work yourself.

! Don’t strain your promotions through many layers of approval. You,

and possibly your business partner, should approve or disapprove the

work that the outside agency submits. But don’t look for approval from

your purchasing agent, your accountant, your cashier, and your mother-

in-law. Too many levels of approval muddy clear writing and water down

the impact of the message. Worse, they dampen the creative spirit of

your writers or artists so that the next thing they do will be mediocre

enough to get your company’s instant approval.

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! Be reasonable about paying. Making a good profit in PR or advertising

is difficult, and many agencies and freelancers have gone out of business

waiting for late payments from their clients. Be fair to your agencies and

freelancers and pay them promptly.

By all means, watch expenses carefully, and don’t pay for something you

never asked for in the first place. On the other hand, too much haggling over

money can cause your outside professionals to put forth less effort on your

account. You will get a competent promotion, but not a great one.

That said, when you hire a PR agency to work with you, it’s essential that you

stay in charge of the process. If the agency is making the decisions, it’s akin to

the tail wagging the dog. Your practitioner is there for advice (and you should

hire someone who will give you the best advice), but you are the one who

knows your company best. You are the one with daily and one-on-one contact

with your customers. That’s why you must be the ultimate decision-maker

when it comes to how you implement your PR campaign.

! Create a budget. Before talking to an agency, know what you can afford

to spend on PR. Your budget will depend on where you are in your busi-

ness cycle. A mature business will have different needs from those of a

new business. In a major corporation, the PR budget will be 5 to 10 per-

cent of the entire marketing budget. You must determine the parameters

before you speak to an agency or a PR practitioner.

! Set sensible expectations. This is the number-one key component in

establishing a successful, long-term relationship and must happen from

the beginning. The most realistic expectation is that the process takes

time. Steer clear of any agency that promises to get you on Oprah next

month. Create communication documents with time lines that spell

out what will happen — not just the tactics but, for example, every little

task that goes into writing a press release and getting it out to the press.

Assign every item to a person so you see who’s doing what and when it’s

due. Update these documents weekly, adding new assignments, checking

off what’s finished, and using red flags to indicate where you’re late.

! Understand who does what from the beginning. Hiring a PR firm doesn’t

make your work easier. If you want PR to work, you have to keep in mind

that it is a partnership and will require a commitment of your time.

You need to know how PR works (reading this book is a good start, of

course). Typical tasks you should expect to do include talking to the press,

taking incoming calls, sending product samples to the press, and so on.

! Establish and maintain direction in the process. Set up a weekly confer-

ence call to review the weekly update so you see exactly what goes on.

The decision-makers for your company need to be on the call, so schedule

the conference call around them, if necessary.

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