Hiring a PR agency is one of those decisions companies often make on gut instinct. They might see an agency name they recognize, get a referral from a colleague, or be swayed by a compelling pitch deck.
Those reasons can all be great, but what happens when you are starting from scratch and have no idea how to choose? In this blog, we’ll break down how to find an agency that works for you. We’ll cover what questions to ask, how to understand what a strong fit actually looks like for your company, and how to identify certain red flags that should prompt you to walk away.
What Questions Should I Ask Before Hiring a B2B PR Agency?
Start by asking about the agency’s experience with your market and target audiences. What other work have they done for similar clients? Do they have any case studies or customer success stories they can share? Ask how they measure success, and push past “media placements” as an answer. Find out how they measure share of voice and what type of tools they use to gauge metrics. Talk about measuring social media engagement, audience sentiment, brand sentiment, and so on. Ask how often these metrics are measured and how they’re reported. Coverage that doesn’t reach your actual buyer isn’t a win, it’s a vanity metric. Ask who will actually work on your account day to day, not just who’s in the pitch meeting. Ask how they’ve handled a slow news quarter, because every account has one, and how an agency responds when there’s nothing obvious to pitch tells you a lot about how they’ll perform long term.
Put them through the paces by asking about how they’d handle a hypothetical situation. For example, “our biggest competitor just had a major crisis – should we respond and, if so, how?” Or, “we’ve got a slow news quarter coming up – how do you suggest we fill it to keep up momentum?”
Finally, ask about their media relationships in your specific space. A generalist agency with broad media contacts is different from one that has built real, ongoing relationships with the reporters who cover your industry. Look for an agency with longstanding, trusted contacts..
How Do I Know If an Agency’s PR Team is a Good Fit?
PR is all about relationships, and one of the most important relationships you’ll have is with the people who will work on your account. But who you see in a pitch meeting and who you end up working with every day may be two completely different things. It’s important to know upfront who you’ll be interacting with on a regular basis so you can get to know them..
A lot of agencies will invite their most senior people to the initial presentation, and then quietly have those folks fade into the background once you sign on. You probably don’t want that, especially if this is your first experience with a B2B agency. So, when you invite the firm for a pitch, make sure to specify you want the participants to be the team members who will work on your account day-in, day-out.
At the end of the day, you’re going to be seeing these people a lot. You need to make sure that you and your team mesh with them immediately, setting the stage for a good working relationship.
Red Flags to Watch for When Hiring a B2B PR Agency
A few signals are worth taking seriously during the evaluation process:
- Vague answers about measurement. An agency should be able to clearly explain how they’ll define and report on success.
- Overpromising on guaranteed placements. No agency can guarantee a specific outlet will cover your story. One that promises this outright is either inexperienced or not being straight with you.
- A generic pitch. If an agency’s proposal reads like it could apply to any company in any industry, that’s usually because it can.
Choosing the Right Partner
The agencies that deliver results are the ones that are able to deliver the right combination of industry knowledge, relationships, analysis, and strategic acumen. Asking sharp questions up front is the fastest way to find out which agency actually fits that description.
If you’re evaluating PR partners and want to talk through what a good fit looks like for your industry, REQ’s public relations team is a good place to start.
