Full Frontal PR Report
Jeff Jacomowitz

We all remember when the dot-com bubble burst and marketing budgets were slashed—even at companies that had nothing to do with dots or coms. Today, companies understand that PR is crucial to their business development and growth. Having come to this eye-opening realization, many companies are faced with the choice of creating (or enhancing) the internal PR department or hiring an outside PR agency.

As business decisions go, this is not an easy one. Marketing has to figure out the best use of their PR dollars, looking at the pros and cons of each option. Cost is always a factor, but this is not a case where one option is always clearly more financially sound than the other.

For smaller privately-held companies, bringing PR in-house is often the best option because it means that the public relations part, an integral segment of the marketing plan, can work efficiently with management. The internal PR team can thoroughly understand the company’s business and be prepared to hire an agency when the company’s growth dictates that the tactics required can no longer be effectively executed by an internal team alone. The internal PR team can also create a solid base of PR collateral (fact sheets, bios, FAQs) and identify effective company spokespeople.

For larger companies and those whose business goals are effectively driven by on-message media coverage and more complex PR tactics, an agency provides both “arms and legs” and a range of PR expertise. An agency can also help Marketing demonstrate the value of PR to the Board.

Hiring an agency means that you’re getting a team of PR pros, and the ability to draw from others at the agency who, while not regular members of your team, have valuable expertise. For example, media training of spokespeople is necessary to most ongoing PR programs (someone has to talk to journalists!), and is a service that good PR agencies include in most PR programs.

If your PR needs include broad-based on-message media coverage, an agency that has pros who are specialists in story angle development and pitching will garner better results than adding media outreach to the tasks of a likely-overburdened internal PR department.

When considering in-house vs. outsourced PR, be sure to consider all the services that are available to you from a specific agency, and which will positively impact your bottom line. For example, are you aware of all the published editorial calendar story opportunities? How about speaking opportunities? Are you maximizing PR opportunities at trade shows? Do your company’s most senior executives welcome media coverage, or are they afraid that what they say will be taken out of context and are therefore in need of additional messaging and media training?

The decision to outsource or “in-source” PR is never a simple one; don’t take it lightly. With consideration and counsel good PR happens. That’s all we all want.

Jeff Jacomowitz is a veteran with experience in both agency and corporate PR.