Ten Reasons Not To Hire a PR Firm
 |
| Are PR Firms Necessary? |
Hire a PR firm? No way!
That’s something a number of companies seem to be thinking these days.
Given my strong belief that every company should hire a PR firm, I’m very surprised that so many companies don’t have a PR firm.
In order to understand why many firms opt to forego hiring a PR firm, I decided to put myself in the shoes of those who are operating a business without assistance from a PR firm. Along those lines, I’ve come up with this list of Ten Reasons Not to Hire a PR Firm.
Ten Reasons Not To Hire a PR Firm
1. Media is going the way of the dinosaurs, so PR is not relevant any more.
2. Money is tight these days, and we need to spend it on other priorities, not on PR.
3. Our sales are just fine. There’s no need for PR right now.
4. We have money for PR but we don’t have time for PR. We are way too busy to focus on PR right now.
5. PR firms are too expensive.
6. PR is something that we can do ourselves without having to hire a PR firm.
7. The last time we hired a PR firm, they didn’t do a good job for us.
8. Our competition is not investing in PR, so we don’t have to either.
9. What we sell is not really much of a PR story, so we probably would not get very good results if we hired a PR firm.
10. We need to focus on sales, not marketing. I’d rather hire a new salesperson than spend money on PR.
Do These Reasons Make Sense To You?
So there you have it – a bunch of reasons why firms don’t hire a PR agency.
What’s your take on these reasons not to hire a PR firm?
If you own or work at a PR firm, how would you go about responding to this line of thinking?
If you had a meeting with a firm that gave these reasons as to why they don’t need your services, how would you respond?
About this contributor: Ken Gaebler founded Walker Sands as a full-service marketing firm back in 2002 with the goal of creating an exceptional consulting firm that could be instrumental in helping other organizations to achieve greatness. Read more from this author
Ken, this is an excellent list of reasons why so many people feel they can’t/don’t want to hire a PR firm. Thank you for sharing, and thank you to Vocus for posting it on twitter.
I feel like PR received a bit of a bad rep in the recent boom years, and sometimes (let’s be honest) it was earned. PR is an art, a science and a good business practice all rolled up together.
But I totally understand those who are leery of signing up to pay a significant retainer per month. Too many have horror stories of paying in advance only to have a very rote service provided, press release blasts sent out w/little or no thought to the correct media outlets, pitching that missed the point, and in the worst case scenarios clients feeling totally ignored by those who should be their best cheerleaders.
My response? The key to remember is that there is no longer a “one size fits all” approach to public relations with the more progressive minded PR firms and freelancers. Before making any decision do your homework. Look for a firm or an individual that has strengths in the area you need to expand into. Ask for quotes from several places/people so you get an accurate idea of the true going rate – and – in closing, look for PR professionals who are willing to open up (like Ken is) and talk and coach you on what PR really is. It’s not a magic bullet, it’s an ongoing process. It’s not a one shot deal, it takes many placements to really start to build serious momentum for yourself, product and service.