Public Relations for Companies Without a Dedicated Team Member

There can be several reasons why a company does not have a dedicated PR team member. It could be because the company is still too young, or too small, or it could be because it feels that there is no need for PR, in the first place. Likewise, it could be because management believes that today’s digital technology can replace a dedicated PR team completely.

But as Stephanie Smirnov, Managing Director of Brand Practice at Edelman puts it: “Classic PR is not going anywhere. [It] may look different in 2018 … digital is just how we live and communicate.” What’s more, if you or one of your employees spends more than 15% of their time working on marketing or PR-related matters, it’s long past due since you had to do something about the issue – namely to delegate that work to a dedicated resource.

Scalability

One of the first benefits that come with a dedicated resource is the possibility of scaling your efforts. Unfortunately, however, generalists can’t help you achieve that. It’s only through specialization that you can make the first step towards true scalability.

Having an employee handle your PR and marketing, all the while their job description says they should be handling sales, will result in an employee that will be a jack of all trades –  master of none. By definition, a person that is in charge of too many things will not be able to provide any real value in any department.

Cost Reduction

One of the cheapest ways to have your cake and eat it too is to hire a consultant on retainer. For starters, this will help you avoid any payroll taxes, liability, and other overhead costs.

Secondly, it’s important to remember that well-done public relations and social media marketing are time-consuming processes. When you hire a PR firm, you will have access to a highly-specialized set of skills.

Among these skills, we have things like effective social media handling, recognizing newsworthy stories, content generation, crisis handling, etc. Lastly, there’s also a matter of tools and software required to do the job adequately. As it so happens, many of these are quite expensive, but PR agency clients can benefit from these without actually having to purchase them, in the first place.

In short, an expert PR team is better equipped to handle these fields, and they are also less expensive than a makeshift in-house team.

A Different Perspective

Public relations, regardless of business or industry, will always benefit from an outside perspective. An extra pair of eyes will help you generate new ideas and will help you in discovering new approaches and practices that you would, otherwise, not think about.

Ideally, a PR firm will be your trusted business partner, which can bring valuable insight into all of your strategic initiatives. In other words, PR agencies will not only help by keeping the ball rolling but will also provide you with diplomatic support, valuable insight, and different ways to approach various issues or situations.

Conclusion

If you are not professionally engaged in marketing and PR, you are missing out on a huge component of a healthy sales funnel. PR teams can turn your company into an industry expert, which will see people turning to you for advice on various issues. If you are interested in acquiring the services of a professional PR agency, do not hesitate to contact us directly.