Working with a PR Agency. Creating a comprehensive brief for the PR company you’re working with is extremely important. Think of it as if you’re building a house. You need to be specific with how you want your house to look like and how many bedrooms you need. The same logic applies to PR, the more clear your brief is the more you will get out of working with a PR agency. At the end of the day nobody knows your business as well as you do. At its core a PR brief is a job description. It provides all the necessary information such as the values and goals of the company.
A detailed brief.
A detailed brief would include up to date information about the company such as its position in the market, current turnover, key senior figures, brand ambassadors and its biggest competitors. You should also ask yourself how long you would like your campaign to run for. Including which audience you’re targeting and what is your budget. You should also know what your brand is all about and its values. If your company has dealt with PR issues previously then it would be advised to be upfront with the agency. They will need to know about any issues you’ve had in the past in order to give the best advice.
Have objectives.
It is extremely important to add your objectives onto the brief such as where you would like your brand to be. Emphasizing your goals will allow the agency to deliver and achieve all the listed objectives. You also need to discern whether you want to innovate and take the company into a new direction. Another great tip would be to also add the company’s existing key messages to trigger inspiration. This will provide the agency a solid foundation to tailor their proposals to your liking. Give a clear time frame, if you’re planning on doing a launch then you must provide the agency with ample time to execute this seamlessly. The best PR is carefully planned with enough time to develop ideas with the perfect message.
Allocating a budget.
Allocating a budget is also very important and the sky’s the limit in PR. The more budget there is, the more creative the team can be. Allocating the right budget allows the agency to be as creative as they can be and develop ideas that work perfectly for the brand. It’s always helpful to give the agency your budget so they can advise you and come up with the best possible plan.
Do your research.
As a company you need to do your research and figure out the cost and benefits of working with a PR agency, use your brief as a guide to help you make an educated decision. Once you’ve issued your brief, meet with the agency in person and allow them to ask you questions. These meetings are necessary because it allows the Pr agency the opportunity to understand what direction the campaign is moving towards. It also allows you to see if there is any chemistry between you and the agency. After all public relations is all about building and maintaining a good relationship with the client.