How much does it cost to do public relations in 2021?

There is one question I get asked all the time. How much does it cost to do PR? 

It’s like asking ‘how much does it cost to go on holiday?’ The answer is the same. It depends. 

Because like holidays, unless you have more details, it’s impossible to say. You could want to go to camping in Cornwall – or cruising in the Caribbean.  And PR is equally broad in scope. 

PR is the way companies build reputations and authority through the media or through their own communication channels and covers a whole array of options from blog content and podcasts to media coverage; events; sponsorships, community engagement and crisis comms. How much does it cost? Where do we start?!

So how DO we answer it? 

Like a travel agent, we first need to find out what exactly the client wants to achieve. We have helped more than 100 businesses grow by being better known – and have refined our initial fact-finding sessions, because there’s no point in leaping into PR without a plan.  We believe there is real value to doing this planning properly – because it saves you money, by getting right to the heart of the matter from the start, which means we get results that really make a difference. 

So here are four of the most important things to consider, if you are looking to do some PR in 2021. 

1. Who do you want to target? If you want to sell your products – make sure you get coverage where buyers are going to be looking. If you are looking for funding …. well, be visible to funders. Have a really good idea of who is your ideal audience.

2. What are the positive stories in your business? Or do you have an opinion on anything that’s happening in your sector? Why should your audience care about this? PR doesn’t just happen. You have to have something to say.

3. What do you want to achieve – and what will we measure to prove we’ve achieved that? (At this point, please don’t say ‘greater awareness’. It’s too woolly and not a SMART objective. What do you really want to achieve? 25% increase in web traffic? To be in a specific feature in, say, Techcrunch?

4. What is your budget for PR? This is going back to the travel agency analogy. Are you looking at backpacking budget or business-class bliss? There are no rights or wrongs to either – they are just different. One way to look at a budget for PR is to think – if you hit your goals, how much value would that bring to your business? And just as importantly, if you DON’T to PR, what is the cost of that?

Remember, PR enables you to gain positive coverage for your company – it brings you to the attention of potential customers, and reassures existing ones.   There is a cost to it, that’s for certain, but the cost of NOT doing PR might well be even higher.             

If you would like to talk about PR possibilities, book in a 20 minutes call today to get your 2021 off to a flying start, or give us a call on 07881 621143