How to choose a PR agency for your business

When researching into finding a PR agency that you and your business want to work with, it is of the utmost importance that you find the best possible fit.

Aligning yourself with a PR company that is not right for your business could actually pose as a detriment, bringing more harm than good to the growth of your brand. You need to ensure that a PR agency will provide growth and further your brand, meaning that it is difficult to choose the right fit for your business. When looking at choosing the right PR agency, you need to take into consideration a number of questions-

• Do you have similar shared values?
• Does the PR agency have the right experience that is relevant to your company?
• What would the long-term benefits be from working together?
• Would you genuinely enjoy working with their team?
• Is the PR agency credible and reputable within their field?

Shared Values

Having similar shared values and professional and moral ethics is vital in any potential partnership. If you both have a similar image of what outcomes you are looking for, then your collaborative effort will grow a lot more seamlessly. A shared mindset ensures potential growth as both parties are striving for the same result, meaning that you will gain a lot more from the professional transaction.

We pride ourself in our ethics as a company and our fair practice, with transparency being a significant indication of if you share the same ethical values. What is important for your business, may not be upheld with the same importance by somebody else.

Experience

When looking at working with any potential PR agency you need to work out if they have the right experience, that is relevant and beneficial to your company. If the company has the correct experience, then they will be able to provide you with a lot of niche knowledge that you would be unable to find elsewhere. Although it is not always necessary to work with a company that is knowledgeable in your exact field of expertise, if they have dealt with similar challenges and hurdles in the past, then they may still be a valuable asset. At Admire PR we deal with many forms of PR, meaning that we have a wide range of expertise to suit a plethora of individual clients. Ultimately, if you want to work with a PR agency they need to be well versed with a magnitude of forms of PR so as to be of the most amount of use to your business.

Long term benefits

You also need to look into the long-term benefits of working with a PR agency. By understanding the implications of how you think this decision will affect your business in the long run, you will be able to gauge whether or not it might still be beneficial. How do you think working with a PR agency is going to benefit you in the next five to ten years? By laying out the pros and cons and assuring yourself that this partnership will be positive, you will gain the confidence that this is the right decision for you and your business. If you do not think that you will gain any long-term benefits, then you may have to rethink your choice of agency, or even rethink if you want to work with one at all.

Enjoyment

Branching off from the question of if you think you have similar shared values, you also need to ensure that you would genuinely enjoy working with the PR agency and their team. A personal compatibility is essential to any business partnering- if you genuinely enjoy the company of the person you will be dealing with, then everything else will fall seamlessly into place. Not only making the whole experience a far more positive one, but also one that is useful. When working in a positive environment you will be able to yield positive results.

Credability

Finally, you must also ask yourself if you think that the potential PR agency is credible and reputable within their field? If the agency has won awards, is well established or has a strong team, then you will be confident that you are working with a professional company. Having the knowledge that the work they produce will be of a high standard, means that you can confirm positive results. When a PR agency comes with strong references and a large amount of credibility, you can be assured of their good practice. 

Conclusively, a strong set of questions and answers can help you to infer whether you feel that a PR agency is the right fit for you. A bit like a tick box exercise, if you are able to deduce a professional compatibility by asking yourself if you share similar values, or if they have the right experience etc, then you will be assured that you are making the best decision. When making such a big decision for the progression of your business, you need to be sure that any partnership will be useful to you.