What Can a Freelance PR Do For Me?

Posted by runmark on 31/01/2010 under Blog

If you’re a small-to-medium sized company looking to widen your audience you may be undecided as to whether to hire a PR agency or an experienced freelance consultant. There are pros and cons to both, but as a freelancer who has spent eight years within agencies I can tell you why I believe the PR freelancer model is probably the right one for you. This is why:

• PR agency day rates (eight hours) can cost anywhere between £800 and £1,000. Freelancers’ rates could save you 40-50 per cent on that fee, meaning you get roughly twice as much time for your money as we don’t have the overheads of offices and commutes
• If you’re a small fee payer to a PR agency you may well find yourself steamrollered when a bigger, ‘more valuable’ client has a crisis or major product launch. A freelancer stands or falls by their reputation – plus they probably have a mortage to pay or kids to feed – so every client should be highly valued and you won’t find yourself ignored
• Good PR freelancers will have years of experience and contacts in their field and will be able to prove their credentials. Many PR firms engage in a tactic called ‘pitch and switch’, where a senior team will come in to pitch their agency to you, but once you’ve signed you find they’ve palmed your account off to a newly-graduated ‘executive’. Would you trust your brand to someone with little or no business or industry experience?
• Many freelancers will have left agency life due to creative constraints – their agency or client may have wanted them to ‘play it safe’ rather than counselling what they thought would really create an impact for the client
• An agency will tell you that they’ve got more heads and therefore can do a better job than a freelancer. As Cole Porter wrote; “It ain’t necessarily so”. Make sure your PR freelancer has a mix of traditional PR and digital media experience, and that they can write good copy. Where they may have a skills gap they will more often than not know someone that can help out in that area for a similar fee, again, making sure you get the best value for money

At the end of the day, selecting a good PR, marketing or new media professional to promote your company will come down to credentials and chemistry. For more on this subject, listen to our podcast with Stu Campbell of FIRE PR on selecting a PR agency or freelancer.