Agency or not agency? That is the question here.
There is often heated discussion in companies as to whether media and public relations should be handed over to an agency.
However, hardly any companies discuss whether advertising measures should be outsourced. Also, in technical areas like website programming or search engine optimization as well as in the CPC area with Google Ads it is a matter of course to outsource these services. However, when it comes to PR, companies often weigh much longer. Why actually? And what are the advantages of outsourcing PR? In this article we try to summarize the advantages.
Agencies can create content
For the creation of content, an PR agency can bring new ideas and a breath of fresh air. Agencies don’t get everything directly and up-to-date due to the spatial distance to the company. However, there are various channels such as telephone, video conference and e-mail with which this distance can be overcome. Visits to the company also help to understand the culture there.
Is PR outsourcing more expensive than doing it in-house?
A frequent criticism of agencies is the higher costs. If you calculate this per hour, there is nothing to be said against it. Of course, an agency costs more per hour than an in-house employee. However, this can be a milkmaid’s bill: Do PR activities justify a full-time job? Then hire someone if you are willing to bear the risks mentioned above. If the answer is no, then it can actually be cheaper to hire an agency on a smaller basis.
PR agencies offer flexibility
If you perform an activity frequently, you will become faster with time. We are PR professionals: We are fit in dealing with our tools and techniques and mostly simply faster, because we do nothing else all day long. In addition, we have additional experts for graphics, social media, events, etc. If an in-house employee has other tasks in addition to PR, it is our experience that some tasks remain unfinished. As a result, PR cannot really be sustainably operated or even expanded because it is not the main task of the executive.
Another advantage of an agency over an in-house solution is the non-existent risk of failure. If a company has only one person for PR, this person is sometimes on vacation or sick.
The decision does not have to be either/or
We do not have to take the all-or-nothing approach. We are also happy to provide support where the going gets tough, so that every company can exploit the available potential. We are also happy to provide advice, in the form of training or coaching, to make colleagues on the company side fit.
Conclusion
The decision cannot be taken on a flat-rate basis. One cannot say: PR is always better off on the agency side. Nor does in-house PR work better and cheaper. It has to be weighed up. What is the benefit of PR in the current situation? If things have to go quickly, the agency has already built up know-how and is usually able to implement it quickly. But if, for example, you are a group with several brands, it can make sense to set up your own team and only outsource individual jobs to an agency.
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