Liesse Jayalath is director of inventive and content material strategist at Look Left Advertising and marketing.
As a former in-house marketer, I’ve managed companies starting from branding and net improvement to technical writing and PR. After a decade, I’ve realized a factor or two about tips on how to discover the correct company for the job and tips on how to take advantage of the engagement. Now as an company director at Look Left Advertising and marketing, I’ve been on each side. Right here’s the recommendation I give people once they’re searching for an company to companion with:
The place to start out
So, you’ve been tasked with discovering a brand new PR company to take your organization to the subsequent stage. Whether or not this provides you cancel-all-plans-level anxiousness or makes you Slack your work bestie with pleasure, I’ve obtained you coated. These are the highest three issues to contemplate when searching for a PR companion:
- Hold your RFP quick and direct – I’ve been on the giving and receiving finish of a number of requests for proposals (RFPs). Some are glorious and others create extra confusion than readability. Once you’re writing an RFP, don’t overthink it — preserve it quick and direct. Your RFP ought to assist potential companions perceive what you’re searching for and provide you with a really feel for the way their company thinks. Make necessities, timelines and objectives clear, and embody it in your preliminary electronic mail to companies you’re fascinated by working with
- Search for chemistry – Good companies grow to be an extension of your staff, so it’s essential to search for chemistry and suitable communication types throughout your search. Since belief can take awhile to construct, it’s essential to spend a while attending to know the staff in the course of the RFP course of.
- Contain management – We work with startups the place the CEO is usually the face of the corporate. Which means they should be keen to dedicate time and power to PR, so it’s essential that they’ve a reference to, and belief in, the company. If this doesn’t apply to the CEO at your organization, take into consideration what chief will work intently with PR and embody them within the resolution. In the event that they don’t vibe with the company, preserve wanting.
Discovery ideas and what makes an company stand out
Whether or not I’m hiring an company for a one-off challenge or a long-term engagement, I all the time begin the identical means. I search for examples of labor that I believe are glorious after which determine who produced them. I monitor them on a spreadsheet and attempt to do as a lot of the invention by myself earlier than I attain out. My spreadsheet often contains the identify and web site of the corporate, the value, their timeline (if it’s a project-based engagement), their location, notable work and notable shoppers — particularly opponents. This spreadsheet additionally helps me centralize proposals and preserve notes as soon as I’ve talked to them.
What I like about this technique is that I can examine companies facet by facet. I can see if the value is similar for 2 companies however the high quality of labor for one is means higher than the opposite. Or, if the identical quantity of labor will take twice as lengthy with one company than the remaining, I can dig in and see if the standard justifies the time tradeoff.
As soon as I’ve accomplished my private discovery, I arrange conferences with the companies I need to work with. Whether or not it’s in individual or over Zoom, I’m searching for just a few issues within the first assembly:
- Had been they well timed {and professional} of their response to my electronic mail, scheduling the assembly and following up? In the event that they aren’t immediate with in-bound enterprise, they most likely gained’t be when you’ve signed the dotted line.
- Did they do their homework? I have already got a whole spreadsheet with details about them. They don’t need to go that deep, however they need to have checked out my firm web site and know what we do earlier than we meet.
- Can they up-level our firm? To me, an company is a staff of specialists that assist an organization be taught, develop and produce glorious work. I’m searching for inventive concepts and new methods of doing one thing that we hadn’t thought of earlier than.
Get essentially the most out of your partnership
When you’ve secured your new company companion, set a method, objectives and highway map with them early on. They could have a course of in place for this, but when not, don’t be afraid to take the result in:
- Agree on a PR technique – When you select an company, use the RFP that you just supplied to create a method. For one-off tasks, you possibly can define the technique for your entire engagement earlier than you start working collectively. For retainers, define the primary quarter intimately after which work with them to determine larger objectives for the yr.
- Set metrics – It doesn’t matter when you use KPIs, OKRs or another goal-setting acronym, as long as you’ll be able to measure success. Having a framework in place and common check-ins on objectives will assist preserve you and your company on the identical web page. I’ve seen partnerships that don’t have a method or a framework for speaking about efficiency lead to miscommunication and one get together feeling like their wants aren’t being met.
- Be sensible – Share a set of sensible objectives and a set of stretch objectives, and pay attention when the company tells you what’s inside your attain now or sooner or later. If you wish to be in The New York Instances nevertheless it isn’t the perfect outlet in your viewers, ask them what your white whale must be and go after that. Keep in mind, you selected this company since you belief it, so take recommendation to coronary heart.
- Collaborate and talk – Though your company is like an extension of your staff, it doesn’t have institutional information or entry to labeled enterprise info that in-house entrepreneurs do. Moreover, it most likely doesn’t perceive the intricacies of your product simply but. To achieve success, the company must work intently and collaborate together with your staff. It’s a good suggestion to assign a single level of contact out of your inside staff and one from the company to speak with each other. They need to have the ability to reply most questions, and if they will’t, they’ll be those to get the knowledge or crucial approval. This streamlines the communication and workflow between groups.
Selecting a PR company that appears like an extension of your staff is crucial to a profitable partnership. The folks in your account staff ought to dwell and breathe your model, sport your swag and say your identify in a crowd of influential folks. I’ve managed a number of companies, and those that ship this are uncommon. The following tips ought to enable you begin your search on the correct foot, and handle the connection to enrich your work and achieve your objectives.
Choose the company that’s most fascinated by your MONEY. Not your impression of them, not their references to prime contacts in authorities and media, not the status of their shoppers nor which of their company’s royals went to the identical school as you however YOUR MONEY.
Most of them might make the identical little self-deprecating asides which may make you surprise if all of them purchase the identical how-to-sell ebook of humor. They’ll inform the place they went to high school, the place they used to dwell, typically how poor their households had been and different historic tidbits to affect you however the principle factor they will do for you is that will help you with MONEY so concentrate on that to the exclusion of little jokes and historic allegations.
Essential “your cash” feedback could also be these you’d relatively not hear—references to cash you’re higher off not making as a result of (a) it’s not adequately trustworthy, (b) there’s an opportunity of being caught, and typically most importantly as a result of (c) getting caught might imply prime administration’s lack of their jobs and even freedom!
Extra essential cash feedback are about not your “goodwill” alternatives nor even fame enhancement however enhance in your EARNINGS because of authorities motion, client response or an unrecognized alternative.
The important thing query you have to be searching for from a potential PR agency will not be “why us” however “why you,” why the principle benefit supplied by the PR agency is why their selection might lead to your ending up with no more favorable public attitudes however more cash.
The cash is on the market and hundreds of PR shoppers are getting it. How a lot you get (and whether or not you get any in any respect) might rely in your savvy in what you search for in shows—not attitudes, not goodwill, not even fame however cash. Decisive info could be very doubtless there for you when you eagerly search for it and when you don’t get distracted by historical past or examined sentences that promote.
This knowledge of what to search for, just like the knowledge in PR Day by day conferences and contests, might enable you land an excellent promotion that will likely be nice in your cash.