10 reasons why you should use communications and PR in 2020

As a business owner or manager, it’s natural that you would be protective of your market and want to retain control of all facets of your business. While not every business should – or is ready – to hire communication support, the right agency can act as an extension of your team and bring a wealth of insights to work with you and help you to achieve your goals. 

If you’re considering working with an agency but not yet convinced it’s right for you, here are 10 perks to engaging a professional communications agency.

1. Setting the strategy – PR pros are programmed to think strategically and can provide the ‘big picture’ thinking to ensure all of your communication activity relates to your end goal, whether it be sales, awareness or click-throughs. A good PR strategy requires in-depth planning, creative thinking, market analysis and more to create the plan that will keep you on track throughout the year. What might take you a month to prepare around running your day-to-day business, we can complete in days!
2. Key messages – Having strong key messages reaffirms your selling points, creates consistency and keeps your communication snappy. Your PR account manager can help you think objectively and craft workable key messages that are composed with simplicity in mind, but pack enough punch and/or information to provoke interest and give your stakeholders something to remember. 
3. Storytelling for multiple platforms – Storytelling and content creation are our secret weapons! After all, consumers know when they are being sold to through straight sales copy. We can help deliver your message across multiple platforms, and ensure it helps to softly influence, to create a lasting positive impression.
4. Proactive opportunities – While you’re busy with the day-to-day tasks and concentrating on running your business, a PR agency can be your eyes and ears on the ground. We can create proactive opportunities using the great news you develop within your business, and reactive opportunities by knowing what’s already in the media.
5. Savvy negotiators – There’s strength in numbers, and agencies have a suite of clients on their roster that they can leverage when negotiating advertising rates, venue costs or social media influencer fees on your behalf. Through our relationships, we can often secure a discount or added extras so you get the best bang for your buck.
6. Data deciphers – Agencies often have a dedicated Digital Manager who knows the ins-and-outs of online tools including Google Analytics and Facebook Page Insights to help decipher the data, understand your customers and make recommendations to better target your key audiences on digital platforms. It offers the benefit of having a resource at your fingertips that your organisation might not be able to fund on a full-time basis.
7. Your team of specialists – Hiring an agency means bringing on a full team with different backgrounds in corporate communications, events, journalism, digital marketing, project management and more. This diversity of skills helps to create campaigns that consider every aspect of communication and combines years of experience. It’s a complete package for a similar cost to hiring just one person in-house!
8. Reputation management and crisis communication – Knowing what to say when a crisis hits or how to handle negative comments quickly can make or break your reputation. At a time when your focus will be on all things operational, HR and financial, your PR agency can be relied on to manage external enquiries on your behalf, brief you on social and traditional media updates and protect your reputation.   
9. Regular reports to keep your goals on track – A good PR agency will be transparent and accountable through regular reports and activity status updates. Your agency should be able to report on media quantity, sentiment, reach and much more. KPIs keep everyone focussed and on track, and regular meetings and Work in Progress documents ensure no stone is left unturned.
10. A trusted advisor – Working with an agency allows you to build a team outside of your internal networks that understands your business and can act a trusted advisor every step of the way. Whether it’s a new campaign, competitor analysis or just their two cents, your PR consultants have likely seen a similar situation before and can provide expert counsel to help your business make the best decisions possible to grow.

If this hasn’t convinced you yet that there is value in hiring a PR agency, call the Elevate Communication team on 3180 3666 today and let’s set up a coffee!