One of my all-time favorite Broadway scenes is in the show “Chicago” when Roxie Hart’s lawyer preps her for the witness stand to portray her as an innocent damsel who, in reality, murdered her lover. The lawyer, Billy Flynn, said, “Give ’em the old razzle dazzle,” referring to the media and jury. And razzle-dazzle them he does, while making a lot of money doing it for many other not-so-innocent murderesses in the Cook County jail.
This is a similar scenario that many companies describe to me as their experience with hiring public relations firms.
I’m the first to admit, PR professionals have a terrible reputation. In fact, a survey from 2015, carried out by research firm Reputation Leaders, interviewed more than 2,000 adults and found that 69 percent of respondents did not trust public relations, while only 12 percent said they did. What’s more, most PR firms charge like attorneys (by the hour), which can really rack up the expenses! In response, my entire business model for Pitch Publicity is designed to counter a bad experience—from the way we charge for services to how we deliver. Regardless, I still find myself doing a lot of apologizing on the behalf of the PR industry for taking advantage of companies who have been “razzle-dazzled.”
All that said, there are some really good PR practitioners out there and some very good PR firms, but in order to find them you have to do your research, ask some tough questions and avoid being swept into a “razzle-dazzle” sales pitch.
First Steps
When you set out to hire a PR firm, the first step you need to take is to sit down with your team and clearly think through your purpose for hiring a PR professional and objectives. What is it that you need them to do that you can’t do as well internally? What areas do you need the most help with? What are your expectations of the PR agency? What type of results are you looking for them to deliver, within what timeline? What is the budget you are willing to spend for public relations? If you do not take time for this self-assessment, you are doomed. It’s like going shopping for a puppy without any clear idea of what kind of dog you want. It’s almost guaranteed you are going to walk out with the first one that licks your face.
Once you have a clear plan in hand, spread a wide net and interview more than one PR firm. It’s important for you to interview at least four to five firms so you can have a fair comparison. If the product or service you are promoting is national, interview firms from all over the country. If your product is only available in one or two cities, then keep your search radius for firms in those specific cities. Interview firms that are known within your industry and a few that are more general in scope. You can use an RFP (request for proposal) method, but I highly recommend you actually talk to the person that runs the firm and the person who is going to be your day-to-day contact, as RFPs don’t always tell the whole story. If the firm is large enough to have a sales team, you probably won’t speak to the owner or account executive initially, but if you are ready to take the next step with them, insist on it because the salesperson is most likely making a commission off your contract and is not going to be answering to you once you become a client. Even if you speak to the owner or partner of the agency, who also clearly has a stake in signing your company, still insist on a meeting with the account executive who will be assigned to run your campaign. That’s the person at the firm who will be able to tell you if your expectations for publicity are realistic, as well as if your product or service is newsworthy. In speaking to this person, you will be able to see their level of enthusiasm to represent whatever it is you are expecting them to promote. If they don’t seem too excited, or are aloof or confused by what you are saying—consider it a red flag and that you will have an uphill battle with your campaign.
Before hiring an agency, be sure to ask these questions:
How many clients do you have? What is your maximum client load?
Insider tip: Remember it’s not bad to hire a small firm, because sometimes you will get more attention than at a larger agency. Just make sure their client load is manageable for the amount of people they employ to execute on the campaign.
What percentage of the firm works on the public relations campaign? How many people will be assigned to our campaign?
Insider tip: At larger agencies, it’s typical to offer marketing, advertising and public relations services. Usually in these situations, the PR team is the smallest at the agency, but ask to make sure. If publicity is primarily what you want, it may be overkill to hire a large firm if you plan on only using one of their services. Equally important is to know exactly how many people will be working on your campaign at once, and what their roles will be for the duration of the campaign. If all the work is being assigned to one person, it may be more economical for you to hire a freelance PR practitioner to do the work.
Who will deliver the interviews for my publicity campaign? Will you work with key opinion leaders or spokespersons?
Insider tip: It is another red flag if there has been no discussion of who the spokesperson will be or who will actually be conducting the media interviews. Ideally this should be sorted out before you sign a contract so you do not waste two months of the campaign trying to find the right key opinion leaders to deliver the message you are trying to communicate to the public.
Do you offer any personal guarantees on your service? What’s the average amount of exposure you typically secure each month for a company in our industry? What happens if we get no media exposure during the campaign?
Insider tip: When it comes to earned media, no one can guarantee exposure, especially specific exposure as PR practitioners are at the mercy of journalists to accept or reject a pitch. However, if the agency is successful in gaining earned media exposure for their clients, they should have a general idea of how much exposure to expect on a similar industry campaign and also have a plan in place to revamp the campaign if what they are pitching is not resulting in media exposure.
Tell me about a publicity campaign you executed that did not gain very much media and how did you turn it around or make good on it for the client?
Insider tip: Counter the PR “big game” talk by asking them to tell you about a campaign they struggled with and how they turned it around for the client. Very similar to a strength/weakness standard interview question, this will tell you how they overcome adversity in pitching. Every good PR practitioner has struggled with at least one campaign in his or her career. If they haven’t, it is also a red flag that they haven’t been pitching for long.
How do you charge? What are the miscellaneous fees I can expect? Are there any hidden charges that you can disclose?
Insider tip: The three most popular ways PR agencies charge for services includes: retainer, pay-for-play and pre-packaged, all-inclusive project fees. All methods have their advantages and disadvantages for both the client and the agency, but understanding why the agency uses a certain form of billing will help you understand their business model and shed light on how day-to-day interaction will look like with the client. If the price seems too good to be true, ask probing questions, such as how much do they typically charge for miscellaneous fees each month and what are examples of those fees. Also ask for full disclosure on hidden charges or markups that can sometimes be padded in the expense of outside vendors, contractors and spokespersons. Many times, it’s worth paying the upcharge so you don’t have to handle these details, but not knowing what those upcharges are upfront is dishonest and a foreshadowing of how they treat clients.
There are many more questions that should be asked of a PR agency before you commit, but these questions are great to start with and will let the agency know that you know enough about the service to not be razzle-dazzled with pie-in-the-sky promises or wining and dining. In the second half of Act II from “Chicago” there is a disheartening scene when Roxie Hart is alone in her jail cell crying out to her lawyer Mr. Flynn for help, but he’s already moved on to another more exciting client. Roxie’s cellmate, Velma Kelly, turns to her and says, “How does it feel, kid? Pretty soon we couldn’t find your name in the papers.”
Don’t be like Roxie Hart and lose faith with publicity and public relations if you’ve been razzle-dazzled. There are good PR firms out there, but like any good relationship in your life, it takes time to find the right person or team to match your goals and expectations. Most importantly, when you find the right PR firm that is getting you results, hold on to them and be wary of moving on to the latest “razzle-dazzle” firm that may only last for one act. NIE
Amy Summers launched Pitch Publicity in 2003 in the face of a rapidly changing climate for communication and media relations. She has 20 years of experience working with major clients in the natural products industry to increase visibility and exposure to targeted audiences through national publicity exposure across all mass media outlets, high-level fundraising campaigns and developing key strategic communication strategies. She serves on the board of directors of the University of Florida Alumni Association and the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Public Relations Advisory Council. Pitch Publicity is based in New York City. Receive free daily pitch tips from “The Pitch with Amy Summers” flash briefing on Amazon’s Alexa, Google Play, iTunes and Podbean: www.PitchPublicityNYC.com/ThePitch. For more information, visit www.pitchpublicitynyc.com.
