When PR is delivered by the right team the results are business changing – shaping hearts and minds, creating fans and followers, crafting rapport, raising awareness and building that all important trust in a brand.

But with around 90 agencies in West Yorkshire and more than 4,000 in the UK, choosing the right people to represent your business can seem like a minefield. So here’s our top tips for what to look for in a PR agency:

  1. PR has to be aligned to your business objectives – what’s the bigger picture? What are your targets? What does success look like? A good agency will ask about your business plan, objectives and want to be fully immersed, way beyond the brief
  2. We have clients in France, the North West, the Midlands, Scotland and in Yorkshire. If an agency wants your business, they’ll happily travel to your meetings on your terms. If it’s the right team, whatever their location is the right location
  3. Bigger isn’t always better. A bigger agency can mean bigger overheads and more ‘departments’ to run. With a smaller agency, who pitches is likely to deliver your PR. And when you’re small, a client’s business represents a bigger percentage of overall revenue… your success is our success. We stand or fall by our results and that’s one heck of a driver!
  4. Industry ‘specialists’. Don’t assume you need someone who specialises in your sector. A good PR team can apply their skills and expertise to any industry and will want to immerse themselves in your world. And a new perspective and different approach could be invaluable to developing your communications plan
  5. To get the best out of your pitch process, have a cost in mind and share it – it allows agencies to plan and advise with realistic activity and outcomes. But if an agency is obsessing about budget and asks the question before anything else… it might just reflect their priorities
  6. PR could stand for Personality and Relationships – crucial when the pressure is on. You’ll speak to your PR team every day. They’ll be your advisors, your firewall, your confidantes, your innovators, your ambassadors. However much they know, if you don’t gel, it won’t work

People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic. – Seth Godin