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When considering a large, long-term initiative to raise their profile in the wider market, some companies instinctively think of hiring a PR agency for help. Others may consider staying in-house, hiring extra full-time communicators as needed. The majority of organizations, however, simply don’t know which route is most appropriate. As the president of a PR agency, it’s easy for me to give the canned outsourcing sale, but in reality it depends on a firm’s unique needs, the stage of a company’s growth and, in no small part, on management’s own preferences and biases.
Do you feel your communications efforts are at a crossroads and you need outside help? Below are some criteria to think about when weighing in-house recruitment against hiring an agency:
â–¶ Industry Knowledge: In theory, hiring in-house help should give communicators a much greater opportunity to learn the ins and outs of your industry—a critical factor in developing any successful PR campaign. However, plenty of agencies (like ours) focus on a specific market niche and can bring decades of experience across team members. The key is to evaluate both equally and when looking at a new hire or a third party, to ask: How much knowledge do they bring with them, and what’s their future capacity for developing a more detailed understanding my business? The answer may be counterintuitive.
â–¶ Perspective: Some organizations initially hire communicators to ensure they can be “in the loop” within the company. Others choose agencies or consultants precisely to offer them the outsider’s perspective. It depends on which is most valuable to you at the time: the insider’s view or the outsider’s?
A smaller company looking for visibility in a new market may value the external perspective. The likelihood is an agency will never fully know what it’s like to be inside your organization and an insider will never develop as complete a picture of the landscape outside your office walls.
â–¶ Accountability: On the surface, knowing whose neck to wring when things go wrong is a compelling reason for hiring PR help internally. Of course the reality is often more complicated, and some firms choose to outsource PR precisely because it enables a more clinical approach to results measurement without the softer elements of people management. Put bluntly, agencies can’t—or shouldn’t—offer as many excuses as employees for not achieving set goals. Another reason firms outsource this function is to ensure they have a third party to take the heat if things go wrong. When it comes time to recall a press release or request a rewrite from a journalist it might be better to have an agency do that for you than a member of staff.
The more important thing is to ensure that, whether in-house or outsourced, your objectives for the program are clear from the outset and there is no room for doubt about expectations.
â–¶ Sustainability: Employing people directly brings risks, the most obvious that they will leave at some inopportune moment. Agencies with team structures offer a theoretical buffer against this risk, but it is critical to interview a potential agency as you would a potential employee. Just as you might look at an employee’s track record as an indication of their future loyalty, ask an agency what their own retention levels are. It may be helpful to compare the two.
â–¶ Cost: Expense is one of the trickiest areas to examine because so much depends on the size of the PR agency, the scope of the work and the professional experience of the full-time candidate. Either in-sourcing or outsourcing could end up costing considerably more or less than the other. One aspect firms often do overlook when making this evaluation, however, is the hidden or escalating future costs of an in-house role. When an agency presents a proposal, its budget should reflect the total cost to the client.
However, many companies forget that agency budgets usually reflect embedded savings on media databases, coverage tracking tools and the other machinery of PR, not to mention healthcare, insurance and paid vacations.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, nor necessarily any right time to do one versus another. Both in-sourcing and outsourcing PR are perfectly legitimate and successful avenues to pursue, but it’s important to first have a thorough review of your organization’s needs—both present and future—as well as the ultimate goals and objectives from a PR program, before making a decision.
CONTACT:
Dan Simon is president of Cognito Americas, a communications agency for the financial services industry. He can be reached at [email protected].