These days there are a lot of public relations firms around, and so it is very important to do some homework before selecting one. These PR companies range in size from small, who tend to deal with local businesses, to multi-national, which tend to work with only large business. One of the most important decisions that needs to be made before hiring a public relations firm is what it is that you actually want them to do. It is no good hiring one without having a specific plan in place as this can end up costing money that could have been saved. Below are two important factors that must be considered.
It Is Essential To Decide What Size PR Company That You Are Looking
However, it is not always something that has a simple answer. This is because a number of factors must be taken into consideration. The main one being your budget. For the public relations firms like The Woods & Co. which deal with all types of clients, costs can be as much as a few thousands of dollars ($) per month. However, the average business will want something within their budget which they can still offer. It is only small change though for a company such as Sony or Samsung. Most of the money for large companies, such as those two mentioned, is for brand awareness rather than actually selling a product or service. For smaller PR firms, costs can start at only a few hundred a month.
Ignore Hype and Flashing Lights
It is amazing how many people visit a website, and based on the fact that it looks nice, the colors are good, and it has outstanding graphics, they make a decision that they are company that they will hire. That is definitely the wrong way to go about selecting a firm, and will likely end up costing money that could have been better spent elsewhere. Just because a firm spends a lot of time and money on a website, does not mean that it is any good at public relations. It is very important to always look a little deeper.
What you need to do is check out their portfolio so you get a true picture of what they have done in the past, and that in turn will give you a good idea whether or not they can do what you want. If the site has no, or very few examples, in their portfolio, then it is best to move on to a firm that does. If a company is good at what they do, then it is human nature for them to want to show as much of it off as possible, especially when trying to bring in new business.
Selecting one of the many public relations firms available these days should be based on finding one that fits as closely to your needs as possible. Finding the one which best matches what you want will give better results over the long term, and that means better value for money.