Public Relations Agency: How To Collaborate

Are you con­sid­er­ing hir­ing a pub­lic rela­tions agency?

Collaborating with a great PR agency could be your secret weapon.

Having worked at (and with!) many dif­fer­ent types of PR agen­cies, let me give you the basic run­down on how to get it right.

Here we go:

I. How To Work With PR Agencies

Before con­tact­ing PR agen­cies, know­ing which type of col­lab­or­a­tion format you’re look­ing for is wise.

There are typ­ic­ally three main formats for work­ing with a PR agency:

Which format of col­lab­or­a­tion is best for you? 

One stand­ard route is to hire a PR agency for a PR pro­ject. If every­one is happy, the PR agency is put on a primary retain­er, allow­ing ongo­ing PR ser­vices at a more bene­fi­cial fee struc­ture. For any addi­tion­al pro­jects, they’re wel­come to com­pete with their pro­pos­als. If every­one is happy with the primary retain­er and most addi­tion­al PR pro­jects go to the agency any­way, the agency can be “pro­moted” to an agency of record. Being a “pre­ferred part­ner” allows the PR agency to agree on a more bene­fi­cial fee structure.

II. The Benefits of a Public Relations Agency

There are many situ­ations where hir­ing a PR agency is the only way to access cer­tain powers. A few examples would include:

III. Why a PR Agency is Your Secret Weapon

How can a PR agency be a secret weapon?

A PR pro­fes­sion­al doesn’t think the same way as most oth­er white-col­lar is try­ing to steer the con­ver­sa­tion towards products and ser­vices; the PR pro­fes­sion­al will instead cre­ate stor­ies around top­ics that people care about.

PR is dif­fer­ent. And in a wired world over­loaded with a mind­numb­ing caco­phony of mar­ket­ing mes­sages, dif­fer­ent is good.

A PR agency can help an organ­isa­tion break away from the noise and clut­ter of tra­di­tion­al mar­ket­ing tac­tics and forge genu­ine con­nec­tions with its audi­ence. They do this by craft­ing com­pel­ling nar­rat­ives that res­on­ate on a human level rather than resort­ing to hard-sell tactics. 

The PR approach not only makes an organ­isa­tion more relat­able and trust­worthy in the eyes of its audi­ence, but it also sets it apart from com­pet­it­ors. In a world where con­sumers increas­ingly seek authen­ti­city and mean­ing­ful engage­ment, a PR agency can be a secret weapon.

IV. Key Services Provided by PR Agencies

PR agen­cies typ­ic­ally provide ser­vices fol­low­ing the stake­hold­er model:

The Stakeholders in Public Relations

In pub­lic rela­tions (PR), we often dis­cuss stakeholders:

Stakeholders = rep­res­ent­at­ives of vari­ous ves­ted interests dir­ectly or indir­ectly con­nec­ted to a brand. ²Silfwer, J. (2021, January 5). The Stakeholders in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​t​a​k​e​h​o​l​d​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

The PR func­tion is not just about man­aging media rela­tions or mar­ket­ing PR; it’s about com­pre­hens­ively man­aging rela­tion­ships with diverse stake­hold­er groups, each with unique inform­a­tion needs.

Different Information Needs

Why are stake­hold­ers so import­ant in PR?

Marketing is typ­ic­ally tasked with increas­ing an organ­isa­tion’s sales of products and ser­vices. However, many oth­er inform­a­tion needs must also be met.

Establishing and sus­tain­ing rela­tion­ships with vari­ous stake­hold­ers is a sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenge for PR pro­fes­sion­als since their inform­a­tion needs are typ­ic­ally very different. 

This requires under­stand­ing each stake­hold­er­’s situ­ation­al per­spect­ive, interests, and com­mu­nic­a­tion preferences.

The chal­lenge for PR pro­fes­sion­als is effect­ively identi­fy­ing and address­ing these var­ied needs. It involves craft­ing tailored com­mu­nic­a­tion strategies that res­on­ate with each stake­hold­er group while main­tain­ing a cohes­ive core mes­sage that aligns with the PR object­ives.

“Public rela­tions dis­tin­guishes itself from mar­ket­ing by focus­ing on the stake­hold­er-organ­iz­a­tion rela­tion­ship, which com­prises mutu­al ori­ent­a­tion around a com­mon interest point and a mul­ti­pli­city of stakes.”
Source: Public Relations Review ³Smith, B. (2012). Public rela­tions iden­tity and the stake­hold­er – organ­iz­a­tion rela­tion­ship: A revised the­or­et­ic­al pos­i­tion for pub­lic rela­tions schol­ar­ship. Public Relations Review, 38, 838 – 845. … Continue read­ing

The PR Stakeholder Model

PR pro­fes­sion­als have vari­ous spe­cial­isa­tions (based on the stake­hold­er mod­el), includ­ing cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions, investor rela­tions (IR), media rela­tions, digit­al PR, pub­lic affairs (PA), lob­by­ing, intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions (IC), crisis com­mu­nic­a­tions, mar­ket­ing PR, and industry PR (B2B).

“In a cor­por­a­tion, a stake­hold­er is a mem­ber of ‘groups without whose sup­port the organ­isa­tion would cease to exist’, as defined in the first usage of the word in a 1963 intern­al memor­andum at the Stanford Research Institute. The the­ory was later developed and cham­pioned by R. Edward Freeman in the 1980s. Since then it has gained wide accept­ance in busi­ness prac­tice and in the­or­ising relat­ing to stra­tegic man­age­ment, cor­por­ate gov­ernance, busi­ness pur­pose and cor­por­ate social respons­ib­il­ity (CSR).”
Source: Wikipedia ⁴Stakeholder (cor­por­ate). (2023, October 27). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​S​t​a​k​e​h​o​l​d​e​r​_​(​c​o​r​p​o​r​ate)

PR Specialisations (Based on Stakeholders)

PR spe­cial­isa­tions are typ­ic­ally named based on which stake­hold­er type they manage:

Corporate com­mu­nic­a­tions = an organ­isa­tion’s stra­tegic use of mes­saging to shape its repu­ta­tion, artic­u­late its vis­ion, and engage with key audi­ences across intern­al and extern­al chan­nels.

Targets: External and intern­al pub­lics, busi­ness journ­al­ists, reg­u­lat­ory insti­tu­tions, part­ners, sup­pli­ers, vendors, etc.

Investor rela­tions (IR) = an organ­isa­tion’s delib­er­ate com­mu­nic­a­tion efforts to build trust and main­tain trans­par­ency with investors, ana­lysts, and the fin­an­cial com­munity.

Targets: Shareholders, investors, mar­ket hubs, mar­ket ana­lysts, fin­an­cial insti­tu­tions, trade journ­al­ists etc.

Media rela­tions = a brand’s tar­geted use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to foster pos­it­ive inter­ac­tions with journ­al­ists, edit­ors, and media out­lets and to gain favour­able cov­er­age.

Targets: Journalists, edit­ors, influ­en­cers, etc.

Digital PR = the stra­tegic use of online com­mu­nic­a­tion to build brand com­munit­ies, foster engage­ment, and man­age repu­ta­tion in the digit­al space. ⁵Silfwer, J. (2017, November 20). What is Digital PR? Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​w​h​a​t​-​i​s​-​d​i​g​i​t​a​l​-​pr/

Targets: Inbound web traffic, brand com­munit­ies, sub­scribers, fans, fol­low­ers, influ­en­cers, social net­works, etc.

Public affairs (PA) = a brand’s inten­tion­al use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to engage with gov­ern­ments, poli­cy­makers, and com­munit­ies to influ­ence pub­lic policy and social impact.

Targets: Voters, polit­ic­al journ­al­ists, polit­ic­al ana­lysts, colum­nists, interest groups, etc.

Lobbying = the focused use of advocacy and com­mu­nic­a­tion to dir­ectly influ­ence legis­lat­ive and reg­u­lat­ory decisions in favour of spe­cif­ic interests or causes.

Targets: Politicians, legis­lat­ors, gov­ern­ment offi­cials, com­mit­tees, influ­en­cers, etc.

Internal com­mu­nic­a­tions (IC) = an organ­isa­tion’s delib­er­ate use of mes­saging to align, inform, and motiv­ate employ­ees while fos­ter­ing a pro­duct­ive work­place cul­ture.

Targets: Coworkers, poten­tial recruits, etc.

Crisis com­mu­nic­a­tions = a brand’s rap­id, stra­tegic deploy­ment of com­mu­nic­a­tion to mit­ig­ate repu­ta­tion­al dam­age, address urgent chal­lenges, and restore pub­lic trust dur­ing crit­ic­al situ­ations.

Targets: Crisis vic­tims, wor­ried pub­lics, the gen­er­al pub­lic, cowork­ers, journ­al­ists, influ­en­cers, cus­tom­ers, share­hold­ers, etc.

Marketing PR = a brand’s tac­tic­al integ­ra­tion of com­mu­nic­a­tion and pro­mo­tion­al efforts to enhance product aware­ness, drive sales, and sup­port mar­ket­ing object­ives.

Targets: Potential cus­tom­ers, exist­ing cus­tom­ers, trade journ­al­ists, mem­bers, affil­i­ates, etc.

Industry PR (B2B) = a busi­ness’s pur­pose­ful use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to build cred­ib­il­ity, foster trust, and estab­lish thought lead­er­ship with­in its pro­fes­sion­al sec­tor.

Targets: B2B cli­ents, B2B pro­spects, trade journ­al­ists, trade organ­isa­tions, niche influ­en­cers, etc.

Learn more: Stakeholders in Public Relations

For instance, one agency I worked at (Springtime PR) provided spe­cial­ised ser­vices in cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions, intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions, crisis com­mu­nic­a­tions, and pub­lic affairs (PA). Another agency I worked at (Spotlight PR) provided spe­cial­ised ser­vices in media rela­tions, industry PR (B2B), and mar­ket­ing PR. Yet anoth­er agency I worked at (Whispr Group) provided spe­cial­ised ser­vices for digit­al PR.

It would be easy to say that spe­cial­ist agen­cies are always bet­ter at spe­cif­ic types of PR chal­lenges, but the dif­fer­ence between gen­er­al­ist PR agen­cies and spe­cial­ist PR agen­cies is much smal­ler than between good and bad PR agencies. 

I advise pick­ing a good PR agency over a PR agency with a per­fectly matched specialisation.

V. Red Flags When Hiring PR Agencies

Overview of the primary ser­vices provided by a PR agency, such as media rela­tions, crisis com­mu­nic­a­tions, event man­age­ment, and more.

VI. Tips for Choosing the Right PR Agency

Accepting that you must make a few fun­da­ment­al decisions is a good start­ing point. Depending on your spe­cif­ic PR chal­lenge, you should start by decid­ing between these preferences:

For instance, know­ing before­hand that you’re spe­cific­ally look­ing for a Big-Local-Strategic-Generalist-Senior PR agency will guide your decision (and help you ask the right ques­tions!) when search­ing for the right fit for your organisation.

VII. Why Marketing Agencies Fail at PR

Perhaps your organ­isa­tion is already work­ing with a mar­ket­ing agency? Perhaps they can do your PR, too.

I’ve met and inter­ac­ted with thou­sands of mar­keters over the years, and one thing is abund­antly clear: they don’t even know what PR is sup­posed to do. The most com­mon mar­ket­ing belief is that PR is syn­onym­ous with the idea that PR should gen­er­ate pub­li­city on the back of mar­ket­ing campaigns.

But per­haps pub­li­city for your mar­ket­ing efforts is exactly what you’re look­ing for, anyway?

Unfortunately, for mar­ket­ing agen­cies, you can’t use “mar­ket­ing speak” with stake­hold­ers, influ­en­cers, and pub­lics. Not only do they hate it, but they often take offence pub­licly. And now you’re going from want­ing bet­ter PR to get­ting worse PR overall.

Caution: Agencies of all sorts might tell you they’re great at everything — and that you don’t have to make any trade-offs. Err on cau­tion, do your research, and ask fol­low-up ques­tions. This is sound advice for deal­ing with any agency, of course.

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