Before You Hire a PR Firm, Read This

A founder I spoke with was about to spend a fortune on a PR retainer.

Great firm, strong relationships, and on paper it made complete sense, especially with those big-name press targets (some likely paid placements).

Her business is doing great with more than enough clients, so I asked what the goal of this PR campaign was. What happens when someone reads the coverage and goes to your website?

Was she wanting more clients? Did she want to become a speaker? Was she positioning for advisory board positions? The ‘why’ wasn’t clear, and subsequently neither was the strategy.

She just felt she should do it because it’s the thing to do.

Digital outlets regurgitating a press release will unlikely lead to meaningful leads if you’re not clear on your goals, and don’t have a way to educate that audience when they land on your platforms.

Paying a PR firm to pitch features when you have very little public/social footprint is a hard sell. Plenty of publicists will tell you that straight and won’t take the client on. But not everyone will.

Whilst PR will bring attention, you need to capture it, have a plan to nurture it, and a place to send it. If you don’t, you’re wasting money whilst inflating your expectations.

We talked through restructuring the plan into phases. First, building a presence through her own channels, then leaning into formats like podcasts and aligned co-promotional posts where her expertise and story could come through in her own voice, and only then moving into heavier pitching.

This way, when traffic arrives, there is somewhere for it to land, a clear path of discovery, content to learn about her founder journey and business mission, and an opportunity for an aligned ‘vibe fit’ so a client, board, or event booker is already sold before the first call.

Look, I get it. Attention can look like momentum, or even progress, but without a clear goal and the infrastructure to capture it, it might be a wasted resource.

I turned down a number of fitting interview opportunities late last year because I know my infrastructure isn’t ready. I’ve learned the hard way in a previous business I co-founded, where interview requests came in frequently, speaking invites followed, and the inbound became something the business was not set up to absorb. It was a brutal and costly growth spurt we barely got through.

If you’re about to invest seriously in PR or marketing, get very clear on why you're making the investment, and have a plan for that attention when it lands.

Ask yourself, why now? What do I want it to achieve? Will this better my business? You might not like the answers, but those answers will land you better results in the long run.

If you're about to make a significant investment in PR or marketing and want a second pair of eyes on the strategy first, book a free 20-minute intro call.