Choosing a PR agency is an important decision. Get it right, and you gain a team that understands your business, supports your marketing efforts, and helps you build the reputation you need to grow.
Get it wrong, and you can spend months wondering why the investment isn’t delivering for the business.
But there’s another side to the process that doesn’t get talked about enough: how companies actually go about choosing an agency.
Having spent years pitching for new business, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the frustrating. We’ve had brilliantly run processes where everyone knows what’s expected, decisions are made promptly and even an unsuccessful pitch ends with a positive relationship. And we’ve seen processes, particularly of late, that seem to have been designed to extract as much information from an agency as possible before disappearing into the ether.
It’s not just us, my fellow agency heads are experiencing the same. It’s kind of cynical when you think of the true value most agencies are trying to bring to the table. If you want passion and truly good PR, you want to work with professionals in a professional partnership.
So, if you’re looking for a new PR agency, here are a few things worth considering. Not just to make life easier for the agencies pitching, but to help you find the right partner that really makes a difference.
1. Know what you’re trying to achieve before you write the brief
“We want coverage on the BBC or in the FT” is not really a PR strategy, nor will it build true long term momentum and growth.
Are you looking to attract investors? Build credibility in a new market? Establish your CEO as an industry authority? Support your sales team? Or simply make sure your company is part of the conversations that matter in your sector?
The clearer you are about the business problem, the better the agency can demonstrate how it would solve it.
You definitely don’t need to arrive with a fully formed communications strategy. That’s partly what you’re appointing an agency to help you develop. But you should know what success looks like for your business, so both sides can have expectations and meet them.
2. Be upfront about the budget
It’s frustrating developing an ambitious proposal only to discover that the available budget is a fraction of what was discussed. Being open about what budget is committed makes it a level playing field with agencies, who can lay out what they can achieve within that investment.
Either way, a good agency can work with a realistic budget. It can prioritise, recommend a phased approach or a project and tell you what’s achievable.
You don’t need to reveal your absolute ceiling, but a sensible budget range helps everyone have a more productive conversation.
3. Keep the shortlist short
Do you really need eight agencies pitching for your business?
By the time you’ve researched agencies, reviewed credentials and had introductory conversations, you should have a reasonable idea of which ones could be a good fit.
A shortlist of two or three agencies is usually enough to compare approaches, chemistry and capabilities.
A concise shortlist gives everyone the opportunity to put forward their strongest ideas rather than turning the process into a numbers game.
4. Don’t expect a full PR strategy in the proposal process
Of course, you want to see ideas. You want to understand how an agency thinks, how well it knows your sector and whether it can find a compelling story in your business.
The best pitches should give you confidence in an agency’s approach, creativity and ability to deliver. The detailed strategy comes when you’ve appointed the team and given it access to the business.
If you’re asking agencies to undertake substantial strategic work as part of the selection process, it is reasonable to consider paying for it.
5. Meet the people who will actually do the work
A brilliant pitch from the agency’s founder or senior leadership team is all very well. But who will be on your account when the contract is signed?
For B2B technology companies, sector knowledge and the ability to understand complex products and markets are essential. Ask to meet the people who will be developing your stories, speaking to journalists and managing your programme.
PR is a people business. Chemistry matters, but so does knowing that the people you get on day one are the people you wanted to hire. Because if they are good, you will hear from them daily.
6. Look beyond the coverage numbers
It’s tempting to choose the agency promising the biggest number of articles, the longest media list or the most impressive collection of logos.
A well-placed article in a publication read by your buyers can be worth considerably more than a dozen pieces of coverage that nobody in your market will ever see. And strategic input, drive and responsiveness counts for so much – so many businesses tell me that they just don’t receive that from their PR team.
Ask agencies how they identify the stories that matter, how they build relationships with journalists and how they connect PR activity to your commercial objectives.
A good agency should be able to show you outstanding references on all of the above.
7. And finally, please don’t ghost the agencies that pitched
Here’s the bit that I feel perhaps needs saying after a period of vanishing prospects.
If you’ve invited an agency to present a proposal, asked it to invest time understanding your business and sat through a presentation, you owe it a response. It’s just the decent thing to do. It’s not a great entry to market when you are trying to build your reputation.
It doesn’t need to be a lengthy debrief. A short email explaining that you’ve chosen another agency, put the project on hold or decided to take a different direction is absolutely fine.
Ideally, give some feedback. Was it the strategy, the chemistry, the sector experience or the budget? Even a few sentences can be genuinely useful. The more you put in, the more you get out, it works both ways.
Silence is the worst and a little professional courtesy goes a long way. The agency you don’t appoint today might be exactly the one you need in 12 months’ time.
The best agency relationships start before the contract is signed
A good pitch process should give both sides the opportunity to work out whether they’re right for each other.
For the company, that means finding an agency that understands its ambitions, has the right experience and can deliver. For the agency, it means understanding the client’s expectations, decision-making process and appetite for genuinely good PR.
And when both sides approach the process with openness, clarity and respect, the chances of building a successful long-term relationship are considerably better.
How you behave when you’re choosing an agency says quite a lot about what you’ll be like to work with when you’ve appointed one.
And that definitely works both ways.
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