Trouble-shooting, problem solving, fact finding, crisis communications, corporate communications, issue management, “consulting,” community outreach, event planning, digital advertising, media relations, reputation management…describing what we do on a daily basis can be hard. Because we do so many things.
Everyone has ideas about what public relations means – and many times, everyone thinks they can do most of what we do, themselves. The reality is that, for most businesses out there, the budget is available for one full time employee – and businesses often choose to hire an entry-level person, because that fits the budget better.
Executives then direct that fresh-faced young person to dig into web sites and social media, but those executives don’t have the time to really teach said young person about all the things they learned early in their careers – how to strategize, how and when to use formal language and when it is appropriate to be more casual. The differences between a blog post and a media article. And, importantly, the processes that make campaigns successful. It’s not the fault of the entry-level person, it’s not really the fault of the hiring manager. It’s simply mismatched expectations.
If there is a larger budget available, businesses then hire a more strategic and seasoned professional – but those senior people often don’t want to distribute daily media clips, write social media posts and do more entry level tasks. And many businesses do not have the budget available for both types of employees.
Enter a public relations firm
The advantage you have with hiring a firm, is that clients get the best of all worlds – the seasoned senior professional who can provide strategic communications counsel, along with a mid-level manager guiding the ship in the day to day, as well as the junior person doing some of that grunt work – all for a more reasonable rate, without having to pay for healthcare, social security, and paid time off, which can add as much as 30% additional cost (above salary) for an employee.
PR firms do all these things every day. We are the experts in all types of professional communications – from the casual social media posts to web sites (including how to navigate the new world of AI search bots – otherwise known as generative engine optimization, or GEO), to media relations, reputation management, and helping clients take on all manner of crises.
Problem solving is in our blood, and we’re darn good at it.
We teach and train our junior staff on industry best practices as well – something many businesses do not have the resources to do. Leadership takes on many forms, and many times we spend countless hours training our teams to do leg work, research, phone calls, and crunching data to provide the most information possible to our clients. PR is not just the words we use – we dig into the data and back up every key message or talking point with solid background research to support our clients’ communications. So, when reporters call us, we have that all ready to go to help make their lives easier – and get to yes for our clients to spread their stories to as many people as possible. Our job is to tell those stories and educate people about what our clients do.
The last few years have been a roller coaster – for all of us. Businesses have been cautious about economic forecasting, and many consulting firms have had to roll with the punches of reduced budgets across the board. We provide as much as we can to all our clients – and we want to show the most value possible. However, we cannot do all the things for a value option budget. We keep the full breadth of staff to have available for our clients – and our employees also like to get a paycheck. Funny how that works, right?
So, why hire us? Because we provide that full breadth of services and experience to you for the best value – we can give you the sage advice of a senior executive, as well as the ability to knock out deliverables and get things done – often with contracts costing our clients less than the all-in price of a full-time employee. We specialize in integrated campaigns – full service PR is truly the soup to nuts of everything communications. You can call us and we provide solutions. We are problem solvers, and we always find a way to provide whatever you ask us to do. We don’t pass the buck. We get things done. And, we provide reporting to show that we are delivering for you.
Public relations truly covers all things communications. We go above and beyond for our clients, every time. We pride ourselves on our work product and our clients truly become our friends. Call us today to schedule a consultation – we can help you, in any corner of the world.
If you enjoyed this post, listen to the full conversation with Jaime in the latest episode of the PRGN Presents podcast series here:
