Six Considerations When Evaluating A PR Agency

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So, you want to engage a PR agency to help get the word out about your solutions or services.

Sounds like a plan. Sounds easy.

But the process can be daunting, time-consuming, and expensive. And, most importantly, it may not help you achieve your goals.

If this sounds oddly pessimistic coming from someone in an agency, bear with me. I’m here to share some considerations, observations, and best practices gleaned from over three decades split between agency and corporate marketing gigs. Avoiding the mistakes of others can save you time and money, and result in a productive, positive working relationship with your agency.

Know what you want to accomplish.

Do you need straight-up media relations? Industry analyst engagement? Help with messaging and positioning? Social media strategy and support? Editorial and content development? Speaking opportunities? Is there the potential for crisis management? Will your executives require media training?

Having a grasp of your near- and longer-term objectives can help you narrow the field. Most agencies will claim to provide a full menu of such services, but the quality and scope of the offerings can vary wildly. Be skeptical and do your due diligence.

PR Agency? Full-Time Employee? Freelancer?

There are pros and cons to each of these approaches, and your organization’s budget, timeline, and internal processes will dictate the best approach.

Agencies can be expensive, depending on the retainer structure or the billable rates of your account team, but can actually be more cost-effective than the alternatives. They also bring a wealth of expansive and deep marketing expertise, along with a solid bench. They are often very good at helping determine what you need (see above), are responsive and reliable, and 100% dedicated to your agenda. Agencies also provide access to a host of services––from art/creative direction and design, to web development, digital marketing, and social media strategy and support.

Full-time employees are great because they are invested in your success and are in it for the long haul. But they often require substantial budget outlays, and can take months to identify, recruit, sign, and onboard. Once they are thoroughly steeped in your offerings, they can be outstanding brand ambassadors and stewards, and can also work on other marketing initiatives as needed. But once they leave, you’re back to square one.

Freelancers can be nimble hires––they often have excellent credentials, can start right away, and hit the ground running. But they typically operate with minimal resources, have no back-up, and must dedicate hours to other clients. They also can be brutally hard to integrate into existing systems (HR/accounting, project management, content management). They also are prone to terminating their arrangements abruptly (which can also work in your favor if you only need a limited engagement).

One size does not fit all. 

Yes, big agencies have big resources, but don’t let claims of a national footprint, local presence, global reach, or head count sell you on an ill-matched relationship. Think expertise, applied experience in your market, and skillsets that dovetail with your agenda. Access to creative resources is a plus. Know how many hours are available to your account each week or month.

Who’s on the team? 

This consideration also hinges on knowing what you want to accomplish. If you’re looking for a clip shop to get you mentioned in every low-value round-up article, then seniority matters little. But if you’ll need responsive counsel with expertise in and contacts spanning your market, look for senior-level account team members. Ask the tough questions: What’s the average tenure of your account team? Where have they worked? What companies have they represented? What results have they generated? How many former journalists are on staff? How many accounts do they manage at once?  

Mind the old switch-a-roo.  

Let’s assume you’re down to a few final candidates and are evaluating pitches. For these meetings, most agencies will send out the big guns––often including the person with his/her name on the door. But will you ever see or hear from these folks again? Many times, agencies get a bad rap by orchestrating a senior executive dog-and-pony show, only to later hand the account over to junior staffers (or even interns) who, while eager, often require more direction and a longer ramp-up period. Get firm commitments on your team’s composition, and don’t hesitate to challenge if you aren’t sold on the match. You want them to operate as an extension of your team.

Beware of scope creep.

Will the agencies you are considering be able to accommodate your needs as your marketing strategy evolves? If your program may eventually require social media support, make sure the agency of record has the capabilities––and not just an intern with a huge stable of Instagram followers, but applied expertise in cultivating an online presence with a custom mix of organic and paid content. Ditto for the media training and crisis communications mentioned earlier. Otherwise, you’ll be saddled with the chore of evaluating and enlisting additional vendors.

In the end, it’s entirely up to you, and highly dependent on your organization’s budget, processes, and requirements. And remember, the old adage, “Fast, cheap, or good? You can only pick two” applies here as well. If you want something fast and good, it won’t be cheap; if you want it cheap and good, it won’t be fast; and if you want cheap and fast, it won’t be good. Choose wisely.

The Lifelong Learner In All Of Us

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While searching for a high-school graduation gift this summer, I came across a book called, “Learn Like a Pro, Science-based tools to become better at anything.” Primarily a guidebook for students about how to learn, study and prepare for tests, it also has application for all who desire maximizing their learning abilities regardless of age.

The authors, Barbara Oakley and Olav Schewe, are university professors who share their failures along the way and how they transformed themselves into skilled learners.

As a PR professional for an award-winning PR and marketing agency, I wanted to give this book a “test drive” to see if it could help me in my own work, as well as provide colleagues with best practices.

One of the methods they recommend is the Pomodoro Technique, where an individual sets aside e-mail, mobile phones and other distractions for 25 minutes of uninterrupted study or work. The technique avails itself of the focused mode of learning, where the brain tackles an assignment or problem intently. After the focused period, the doer takes a five-minute break so that the diffuse mode of learning can continue working in the background while the person listens to music, takes a walk, gets a snack, etc. The idea is to rinse and repeat. The diffuse mode, incidentally, is the part of the brain that spurs creativity.

Focused and diffuse modes of learning help build connections between neurons, the brain’s building blocks. The links between neurons are synapses. The stronger the neural connections, the stronger knowledge, understanding and insights take root in long-term memory.

Exercise also plays a part in these neural connections because it produces a substance called brain-derived neurotrophic factor BDNF, a type of fertilizer for the brain.

The Pomodoro Technique may even mitigate procrastination by giving the user a set amount of time to focus intently on a task with a built-in reward at the end of the period. For those struggling with a particular task, like an essay or math problem, stepping away to do something else allows the diffuse mode to continue pondering the issue at hand. Often, new ideas emerge in our brains when we return to that task.

In a new business presentation, for example, the authors might recommend that team members review materials for one hour a day, every other day, in the week before presenting. The breaks allow the diffuse mode to do its thing. As that presentation day approaches, reviewing materials and rehearsing the presentation grow in frequency.

For the chapters on self-discipline and motivation, who better to reference than Theodore Roosevelt to make their points. In 1912, the former President sustained a bullet wound by a would-be assassin in Milwaukee. The shot missed Roosevelt’s vital organs, and while still bleeding, he continued speaking for over 90 minutes! Roosevelt, from a young age, pushed himself to read, study and exercise at a breath-taking pace. He is said to have read one book a day during his eight years in the White House.

Their point is that not everyone has self-discipline or that type of sheer will. But there are ways to improve one’s chances of success at assignments and getting things done.

The way to do it is by limiting the distractions and temptations that require such self-discipline in the first place.  Again, removing mobile phones during focused work, limiting the distractions on one’s desk and workspace are great starts.

To be deep learners, the authors have several recommendations while reading books and other materials: The first is to skim a book chapter or white paper for section headings, executive summaries, graphics and bold-faced copy to get a feel for the material. Later, with focused reading, it’s important to turn your gaze away every few pages to engage in a method called recall (or retrieval), which entails summarizing, in one’s own words, what has been learned. Studies suggest this method of reading breeds greater retention than reading materials repeatedly, where the strong neural connections often don’t form because one hasn’t really absorbed the material.

To aid in this process, the authors recommend taking notes on the right 2/3 of a notebook, leaving the left 1/3 to summarize key words and thoughts later in the day. This helps in the recall/retrieval process.

Another area impacting effective learning and time management is the writing and editing process. The authors assert not to confuse the two. When one is writing, one ought to pour one’s heart into writing without worrying about everything being perfect. It’s essential to get thoughts on paper and digital screen. The editing process takes place later and is more effective as its own discipline.

Setting process, milestone and long-term goals also go a long way to sowing a path to success. To establish goals and fulfill them, one must develop good habits and weed out the bad ones. This exercise can be accomplished by finding the triggers to bad habits and resetting them so that there are positive cues and then rewards at the end of the tunnel.

That’s all for now. My Pomodoro session has now concluded, and it’s time for a break.