Many businesses and organisations often come to a juncture in their operations at which they have to decide whether to use in-house resources or external agencies for their PR campaigns. Often it’s not an either/or choice, but a matter of what is most appropriate for the company at the time of decision. There are advantages as well as disadvantages to whichever team you choose to engage for your campaign.
Expertise
An in house-team may be very familiar with the target audience and therefore they may know the right “language” to use, exactly where to pitch a campaign as well as key influencers in the group who could be enrolled to carry a message through to people. However, it is also possible for an in-house team to take its tasks for granted and no longer question or challenge old ways of doing things. Bringing an agency from the outside can introduce skills and expertise that may be lacking in-house.
Specialisation
External agencies may be able to bring a depth of specialisation and knowledge of particular spheres of operation that may not be available in an in-house team. For example, engaging an external agency team that focuses on road shows and little else means you’re going to benefit from the strengths and specialised skills that may have been accumulated over a long time. Similarly, if you wish to engage with particular sections of the population, say doctors or GP surgeries in a particular field or area, or schools teachers in a particular category, engaging external agencies which focus in these areas may bring you the best solutions.
Fresh perspectives
An external PR agency can bring fresh perspectives to a campaign as well as innovative methods of reaching target audiences simply because their thinking has not been influenced by the history of past failures. Also, an outside agency is more likely to bring more thinking-outside-the-box perspectives to issues than an in-house team which has been dealing with the same issue for ages. However, fresh perspectives need not be far out innovations that upset everybody and throw out strategies and tactics that may be working reasonably well in a given situation. For instance, for a newsletter or magazine that’s been running for a while, just introducing a makeover with fresh logos, typefaces, newer use of photos, etc. can make significant differences in improving the readership levels or opening rates of e-newsletters.
Innovation
It is also possible that engaging an external PR agency can bring innovative methods and newer ways of engaging your target audience. Increasingly, PR agencies are using social media to engage audiences, including building ongoing direct communication with the public, special interest groups and other target groups. On social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, it is eminently possible to link up with people and groups who have similar interests and create ongoing dialogue on particular subjects, build specific discussion groups, and make a range of other connections. One blogger has termed this creating Proprietary Influencer Networks and attests that some agencies are are using it “to deliver entire networks of social influencers as a package deal to clients”.
Eventually the answer as to whether to use external PR agencies or in-house teams for your campaigns will come down to what you want to achieve and who is best positioned to help you achieve that. In another blog post, we have suggested ways by which you can get the most out of your PR agency. Fortunately, the newer technologies and survey methods as well as specialist business consultancies (like Ticking All Boxes), make it possible to measure and monitor a range of user take up and satisfaction-level statistics. So there are ways and means of assessing the levels of success of your campaigns whether you choose to use external PR agencies or in-house teams.
Tags: External PR, Inhouse PR, PR, PR agencies
