What to do before you Hire a PR Firm

Hiring a PR firm is a good idea, but there are things you need to consider (and do) before taking that step. With the right Public Relations (PR) firm backing up your business, you’ll gain more visibility, credibility, influence, and authority over potential clients. However, you should know that PR campaigns can quite expensive, and there's no guarantee of getting the exact result you wished (for). Nevertheless, successful PR campaigns grant your business more exposure to the right customers or clients.

So, what are the things you need to do before hiring a PR firm for your business needs? These steps apply to Fortune 500 companies and young entrepreneurs.

4 steps to complete before you hire a PR firm

1. Define your goals

Before pursuing any business plan or model, you need to point down the goals and objectives you’d love to achieve with the plan. It is safe to think that because certain PR campaigns work for your competitors, it could work for you, too. But that's not how it works all the time. Instead, you should define what you’d love to achieve from the campaign – this will then tell you what to expect from a PR firm. Are you looking to create more awareness for your brand, educate a target audience, and gain more credibility? These are some questions you should ask before hiring a PR firm.

2. Go for the best-suited firm

PR firms are available in different forms (size and shape). Going for a large PR firm may imply that you'd reach a wider audience; however, your company's campaign goals should define the best PR firm you should work with.

3. Go for niche-related PR firms

Reaching thousands of right (target) audiences is more advantageous than getting your business to appear to millions of (general) audiences. You may have heard the “No news is good news” axiom, but if you want to get good results in return for your budget and time, you should discard the common axiom. Your business need to always be in front of the right audience; hence, it'd be best to go with public relations firms that specialize in your business niche.

4. Set out a top-line budget

This is very important – you should make a budget for hiring a public relations firm, and you have to stick to the budget. PR firms are quite expensive to hire; you should have that in mind while creating a top-line budget that may include overages, expenses, and incidentals.

Continue on to find out ways to promote your business without the big budgets of the past.

PR activities can help spread the word about your business for much less money than traditional advertising.

This checklist explains how to promote your business through the press.

· Decide which audience you are trying to influence: customers, potential employees or the local community.

· Clarify your objectives; most PR aims to build your reputation with customers and increase awareness of your business or products.

· Establish your timescales and budget; consider alternatives (advertising, for example), particularly for short-term objectives.

· Decide who will be responsible for PR; establish how other employees should deal with press inquiries.

· Consider whether you should involve a PR agency, particularly if you have a budget or want exposure in national media.

· Provide any necessary training in producing effective press releases and handling the media.

· Identify media that reach your audience and which are likely to give you coverage (eg local press, trade journals, niche websites).

· Investigate their requirements: the types of stories they cover, their style, and their publication deadlines.