Generally, businesses hire PR companies to inform their customers (current and would-be) about their products and services or the business itself. This can be a cost-effective method for impacting target audiences. PR agencies play a vital role in creating and maintaining a desired image for your business in the public eye. They also help to improve employer-employee relations within a company. However, to reap the optimal benefits of hiring a PR agency, you really have to work on getting the most out of their services. Central to this is building a strong relationship between your firm and the agency.
Transparency
To make any type of relationship successful, clear communication between both parties is essential. It’s no different in the world of public relations. When you work with a PR company, you need transparent communication to make sure your relationship is a productive one. Your agency is there to provide you with valuable and balanced insight into situations. As a service hired from outside of your company, they are gifted with the “bigger picture” level of perspective and clarity which can often be lost within a company, especially when management and staff become too narrowly focused on issues at hand. And if a crisis strikes or unexpected incident hits your business, your PR agency can help you formulate an appropriate crisis communications plan.
Trust is key
One way of remaining transparent with your PR agency is by integrating their expertise into your business as much as possible. This means bringing your consultants into the fold, entrusting them with information that enables them to develop strategic and creative PR plans. Hold regular meetings to let the PR team know what is happening in your business, involve them at all stages of planning a campaign and give them access to your other marketing agencies to help programme integration. Being open about things such as budgets, business goals, challenges and expectations will help to cement the client/agency relationship.
Your agency will need as much relevant information as possible to develop the public profile that for your business. Working to maintain the profile is an ongoing process and the expertise of your PR agency will be required to determine the right moves to make and the most appropriate vehicles to use in order to reach, engage with and influence your target audiences. Nowadays the strategic use of social media is likely to be included in the mix.
Feedback and constructive criticism
Transparency and feedback don’t function on a one-way system. Your PR agency will provide great service if you let them know what’s happening within your business and you are agreed on what you need from them. This requires ongoing and constructive dialogue with the agency about their ideas and performance. This means regular interaction; clear briefs; realistic budgets; feeding back on proposals; approving plans and promotional materials on a timely basis; updating the team if things in the business change that could influence a programme; and letting the team know immediately if you feel things are not moving in the right direction. They would much rather know if you’re concerned!
Strong management
of any PR campaign relies not only on great ideas and execution but also sound information and efficient management of the relationship with the agency team. The agency is there to help you succeed and they can only do that when your relationship with them is strong, transparent and well-managed. Ideally, you should hold strategic review meetings with your PR team, say, every six months and give them feedback. Gain input from colleagues to find out how campaigns are perceived and how effective they are for each department. As campaigns are rolled out and you get enough data to assess how you are doing, new objectives and targets may need to be set for the coming year’s campaign.
(Photo: sqback)
Tags: agency relationships, client and agency relationships, communications, PR agencies, PR agency, PR consultancy
