Do I Need A PR Agency?
It’s a question anyone in business will have most likely asked themselves, at one point or another? Is PR something my brand or I need? Or is superfluous to my company’s requirements? Well, the answer is this. In virtually every instance, the use of a PR agency will benefit your company in the long-run. We’ve put together the following blog to answer some of the most common questions (a list of FAQs, if you will) that we experience revolving around PR. This will hopefully clarify and convey why it’s such an essential facet of business relations. So, in answer to the question ‘Do I need a PR agency?’ – yes, yes you do, and the team here at VerriBerri wants to show you why.
What Is PR?
We should probably clear this question up before moving onto anything else more complex. Most businesses aren’t aware that they’d benefit from PR, because most businesses don’t actually know what PR is. This isn’t to shame anybody, far from it. In fact, if you asked the average person on the street what somebody in PR does, you’d be hard pressed to find a wholly accurate answer. The reason behind this is that it’s an incredibly broad discipline to work within. PR stands for Public Relations and, ultimately, it’s about getting your brand noticed by the public, and also making sure that exposure is positive from an optics perspective.
Funnily enough, the other reason businesses don’t use PR (asides from a lack of understanding) is because they think that they’re above or beyond it. They think that they’re ‘not the kind of company that needs PR’. If only they swallowed their pride a little, then they’d see just how much of a boon PR can provide for them, financially!
How Will PR Benefit My Business?
You now know what PR entails, and are perhaps left thinking that ‘yes, I need a PR agency’, but what are the tangible benefits to it? Fancy words and vapid statements are one thing; fiscal returns are quite another. This is one of the areas where PR is unfortunate. There aren’t really any tangible statistics you can wheel out, financially speaking, that are truly representative of the worth that PR will bring to your brand. That’s why it’s our job to explain to you where the benefit lies. Simply put, you cannot (and we mean cannot) put a price on brand exposure.
A PR team, working on behalf of your business, will pitch to journalists. Using their honed grasp of language to concoct engaging pitches, they will look to get a journalist to bite just enough to start a conversation. Following that, they’ll write articles on journalists’ behalf; they’ll also maintain incredibly prompt channels of communication between both the journalists and you as a business. The importance of getting seen in these sorts of magazines, for example, cannot be overstated.
Is PR Just About Magazines And Newspapers?
Absolutely not! PR is so much more than simply securing articles, though this is of course one of its major components. Some may have argued that a decline in print media would equate to a downturn in PR requirements. Not true. In fact, some might say that print media is more impingent upon PR than the other way around. PR is thriving in a digital age full of blogs and online articles. There are more ways than ever to secure your business positive exposure, and an agency’s PR team are specialists in seeking those ways out.
The phrase ‘I need a PR agency’ doesn’t always have to apply to entirely positive situations, either. PR is as much about maintaining business reputation as it is building it. As such, crisis management often forms an integral part of any PR agency worth their salt. All businesses will go through a crisis at some point in their lifetime. Anyone that says they’ve had an entirely smooth run as a company is almost certainly lying! Crisis management involves implementing contingency plans as preventative measures, but also proactive means of response should a crisis already be in mid-flow, as it were. It also involves media training, industry insight and knowledge of trends which are circulating that are likely to affect your business.
Does My Business Size Matter?
Not particularly, though small businesses and SMEs can especially benefit from a PR agency as they may not have the industry influence or clout that more established brands oftentimes have. PR is great for start-ups then, who don’t quite know how to get their foot in the door. They may have a great service or product, but are unsure about how to get noticed – PR provides the answer to that particular conundrum. PR doesn’t discriminate when it comes to business size, because at the end of the day, a lead is a lead, whatever size you are.
Is PR An Isolated Discipline?
No! Most times, PR teams work in tandem with other subsets of marketing to achieve as optimal results as possible. At the end of the day, all a PR team is looking to do is provide as high a ROI for you and your business as is physically possible. Working in close communications with SEO specialists, content creators and graphic designers, PR teams will look to bolster your business’ image as much as they can. The best results in most things in life stem from working together as opposed to in isolation. That’s what your business should see PR as. It’s a tool of teamwork, something to buoy your company’s spirits and financial prospects moving forward.
So, if you’ve finished reading this and concluded that ‘I need a PR agency!’, then great, we’ve done our job! The truth is that your business needs PR like a fish needs water. Also, you’ve got the added benefit of actually being able to explain to people what someone in PR does – which in itself is no mean feat! Get in touch with us today to find out more about how we can cater to your PR needs.
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