Public relations is an essential part of how your business is perceived, and to get it right, we always recommend hiring a specialist.

A Public Relations specialist can have tangible benefits for your long-term success. This is because public relations can establish your business’ identity in the minds of your potential customers. It can help people understand what your business stands for, what it cares about, what it can achieve and what personality, or culture, it has.

All this information, which may not directly advertise your products or services, is used by individuals when making a decision about whether to trust a business. For this reason, it is a fantastic form of indirect advertising when handled well.

Not to forget that, a PR specialist can help you mitigate any negative impressions of your company. This requires swift intervention and a control of the story and the ‘angle’, to emphasize the positives and preserve the company’s positive perception.

With this many different facets to juggle effectively, it is important that your PR specialist is someone with the right attributes to get you the results you need.

What’s more, you need to be able to evaluate these results in the way you would for any other form of advertising or promotion. That is, using a cost to benefit ratio. The cost to benefit ratio is a way of evaluating how important sustained positive perception is to the company’s success, based on measurable and agreed upon factors.

Today, we’re going to look at how you can identify, interview and work with a PR Specialist to create the success you are looking for.

Hiring A PR Specialist

Making the right hire is of course the single most important decision in this venture. Believe me, I’ve made the wrong decision before and been bitterly disappointed as a result. Here’s how to avoid making the same mistake.

Cost

I’ll start with this because it’s really going to define the lens through which you see all the other factors. You need to know what you can afford to spend on PR. Hiring a dedicated PR person internally means a whole other salary – for many SMEs this is not feasible. Not to mention the training cost that will be involved (except if PR is the core offering of your firm). As such, you need to look at PR services and pay attention to their rates. Make a shortlist of those you can afford before looking any further – there’s no point getting excited only for the price to disappoint you.

A word of warning, however. Never go for the cheapest price – those with lower end price tags have to work for many clients to make ends meet, diminishing the quality of service you experience. Make sure you’re willing to spend up to the maximum of your available budget to get the quality you’ll need.

Specialism

The next tool you can use to narrow your search is to try and find PR firms that have specialisms in your particular field. For instance, consumer PR emphasises new products and services to the public, while financial PR emphasizes gaining exposure with investors and developing relationships with news sources used by experts in that field.

If you export industrial agriculture products, a consumer PR specialist isn’t for you. I’ve referred to this role as a ‘specialist’ throughout because that’s how important it is to get someone from the right field. Agencies may have multiple specialisms thanks to their range of consultants – make sure you look through these to make sure they have someone with the specialism you need.

Reputation

Before you commit to contacting those on your cost/specialism shortlist, you should take some time to consider their reputation and how they are perceived in the wider industry. Remember, perception and reputation are the biggest factors of their job, so their own reputation and perception should wow you.

Make sure you can see who their client list is. You should aim for companies with clients one level above where you are now – after all, you’re trying to be aspirational by hiring a professional. Also make sure there are no conflicts of interest with competitors. Finally, do some real research and check for online reviews or stories from previous clients – you can even reach out to them for a reference.

Expertise

Experience (which will talk about in a second) counts for a lot, but it isn’t everything. The definition of idiocy is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, and this is what many firms can get by doing on behalf of unwitting clients.

You need to make sure your PR people have real expertise in their field. What qualifications do their people have? What continuing professional development are they engaged in? How are they being innovative in the field and what evidence do they have that it’s working?

Expertise is demonstrated by results and results are made clear through data. Don’t be afraid to ask for KPIs when you contact them.

Experience

You might think a freshly minted graduate with a diploma in PR will be no replacement for someone with 20 years of experience and proven results. However, a newly minted graduate will be hungry to establish a reputation and will have been upskilled in the best methods for the current paradigm. Veterans may be dining out of a hard-won reputation by using outdated techniques that no longer enjoy the same success.

Equally, someone who is still wet behind the ears may be unable to deliver the prestige results you are looking for, as they will have been unable to establish influence with a network of high profile journalists in your field. You have to evaluate both of these possibilities before you make your final decision. Just remember – with experience comes expense.

Communicate With Your PR Specialist

Now you have all the insights required to make a sensible hire, you need to know how to get the best public relations strategy out of them. It is important to remember that you are as responsible as they are in ensuring you get the outcomes you are looking for. To do that means having an efficient and effective dialogue. Here’s what that should include.

Goals

Your goals need to be SMART. Specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-based. For PR, this could be – X features with key influencers in my market inside X weeks.

Simply saying “we want to increase our market share” is too global a goal, you need to get granular, and figure out what the journey to that end-point looks like.

Each step of that journey is a goal, and you need to make sure which ones a PR can actually help you with and which ones they can’t.

You should be talking about your goals from the outset. You need to define expectations alongside your PR specialist, so you can hold each other to the same standards, and have accountability for outcomes.

Remember, you are the expert on your company; your PR specialist is the expert on how to get the word out. You need both.

Create Waypoints And Communicate Frequently

Creating a set of goals is not enough in itself to ensure results. You need to be actively communicating with your PR specialist to make sure they are hitting the milestones you have set out, to get insight into what they are doing on your behalf, and provide your own insight into what would serve the company best from the options available.

As your program is being deployed, make sure to give feedback on each stage. I have seen CEOs go ballistic once something has gone out because they were ‘hands off’. By that point it’s too late. Getting involved in each stage means everyone stays on the same page, and the goals are accomplished according to your expectations.

ABC: Always Be Constructive

No one responds well to “this is terrible”

If you have criticism, consider the Praise – Improve – Positive method.

First, focus on the strengths of what you’re seeing. Take the time to find one, even if it’s just ‘the right idea’ and all the content is wrong.

Then, focus on areas for improvement. Don’t talk about these in negative terms, instead, share what you’d like to develop them into instead.

Finally, explain that this development will strengthen the piece going forward. Giving praise where it is deserved is essential to keeping your PR specialist motivated to fight your corner. Remember, they are the champion of your brand – they need to want to fight for you.

At the same time, you are the customer, and you can be resolute about your criticisms. If a PR specialist can’t convince you as to the advantages of their preferred messaging, they have to be prepared to work with you to create what you are happy with.

Cycle

I don’t mean cycle to work. I mean work in cycles. As goals are achieved, set new ones that build on them. As ideas evolve, be prepared to adapt your strategy to respond to them. If your PR specialist can exceed your expectations, make sure you have stretch goals ready. Having an iterative process like this saves you mental time and energy, and facilitates you doing things strategically. Shoot from the hip, and you shoot yourself in the foot.

Thanks for reading this article. I’ve just shared some of my takes on getting and working with the perfect PR specialist for a business. Do you have any tips on working with PR specialist? We would love to hear them. Share with us your experience!