OK future great communicators! You’ve done a ton of work on creating and testing your message, really learning your audiences and building out a great communications plan. Now you’re ready to execute. Who will help you?? There are a ton of PR agencies out there, but it can be very hard to discern who’s great and who’s ridiculous.
Before you even start talking to PR agencies, read this. You need to be very clear about what to expect. Then start to stimulate your network. Ask everyone you know which agencies they like. Be open to working with people in different markets – with videoconferencing you can feel very connected to a great team in Chicago even if you’re in San Francisco. And they’ll be less expensive!
When you do start meeting with agencies, look for an agency that understands the world you’re in. You can teach someone medical terms, but you can’t teach them the intuitive understanding of how to interact in that byzantine vertical market. And you shouldn’t have to!
Look for people you can trust. Every agency is a collection of people, so you need to trust both the agency’s leadership and the people who will be on your account team. Your intuition matters as much if not more than your prefrontal cortex in choosing an agency. Finally, when you reference check, don’t just talk to the references the agencies give you, talk to the references they don’t. A little detective work on Google will tell you who to call.
Once you’ve chosen your PR agency, you’ll need to decide if you’re going to use them as a one stop shop for writing content, managing your social media, creating video, pitching speaking engagements, etc. Every shrewd boutique agency has a set of vetted sub-contractors so they can offer these additional services to clients. You can also choose to create your own network of vendors that all report directly to you. Independently coordinating and managing separate vendors puts a bit of a burden on you, but it’s totally doable if you’re committed to setting it up. Either approach can work. And you can always do a hybrid!
By the way, if you’re looking for freelancers who can help with things like writing, managing your social channels or your e-mail marketing, try Upwork. I have loved the people I’ve found there. (Yup, they’re a poseycorp client, and poseycorp is their customer too.)
Finally, while no agency relationship is a permanent marriage, commitment does go a long way toward building mutual trust. In a committed relationship both sides work harder to make the relationship work. So if you want great things from your agency, be a great client.
Your business must scale, and you must scale with it. Great communicators create the change they want to see in the world. poseycorp helps innovators build powerful messages and the skill to deliver them so they can break through the noise and be heard! Click here to receive pragmatic communications advice in your inbox every month.
If real time advice sounds good to you, join a poseycorp Ask Me Anything – the first Friday of every month on Zoom. On Friday April 6 we’re talking all about Crisis Communications with co-host Paul Wilke, founder of Upright Position Communications! Click here to register
