An outside public relations firm can give you a new perspective on your campaign’s needs, strengths, and weaknesses.   They can see your business in a new light.   Plus, PR is their job, they know how to pitch, they have the contacts, and they know how to place stories in the media.  

You’re ready to promote your company.   You know the ins and outs of your business, but you don’t know the media.   So what should your next move be?   You can give it a try yourself (the least attractive option), hire an in-house PR person, hire a consultant, or hire a PR firm.  

All can potentially work.   But as to handling your own campaign, you want to run your business not your campaign; plus unless you’ve done your homework and learned the ins and outs of pitching the media, you can potentially hurt yourself more than you can benefit your company;    An in-house person or a consultant can definitely work, but from my perspective, finding an outside firm who lives and breaths PR is your best bet.

An outside firm can give you a new perspective on your campaign’s needs, strengths, and weaknesses.   They can see your business in a new light.   Plus, PR is their job, they know how to pitch, they have the contacts, and they know how to place stories in the media.   Also, because they are working with a range of clients, they have a large base of media contacts.   Chances are the media looks to them for story ideas, so you have a built in trust factor. Generally, a PR company’s media contact list will be quite a bit broader than that of an in-house person, or a public relations consultant and the more media you’re pitched to, the greater your chances of success. 

But make sure that you pick a company that specifically suits your needs.   Unless you’re looking for a firm to help you put on events, throw parties, and handle your advertising, I suggest you look for a firm that specializes in media relations.   Many large public relations companies offer a laundry list of services, of which media relations is but one.   If your main objective is to place stories on yourself and your company in the media in order to effectively build your brand and reach your target market, you want to find a company that eats, drinks, and breathes media placement.   You want a firm that is talking to editors and producers on a daily basis, one that has cemented positive relationships with every level and type media.   If you are able to find a firm that knows its business and you're comfortable working with, this is probably your optimum choice.   Now you can dedicate the bulk of your time to your business and hand your campaign over to a company whose business is media relations.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2008

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