Investing in Public Relations for your business

By John Masterson.

Back in my days working in Current Affairs in RTE I was often involved in the production of difficult and sensitive interviews. As a rule we found that the more conversation and preparation that we put in before the interview the greater the chance of getting the material we needed for transmission in a way that worked for the story and got the necessary clearances to transmit from all involved. In short everybody knew what they were doing and why.

It has often struck me that the same process has been useful when dealing with new clients who are considering investing in Public Relations. Frequently they are not quite sure why they are doing it. They have not thought out whether or not to advertise where you get what you pay for, or to use PR where the results are often more meaningful but less predictable. They may not have decided what percentage of their budget they want to invest. And typically they have not thought about how much time they may need to put in to working with the PR company and who on the staff would put in that time.

Investing in PR is an important decision for any business. If the results do not show up in the bottom line it is a waste of time, effort and money. The time spent with your PR company clarifying your aims and expectations is time well spent. If everybody starts off on the same page the chances of a productive relationship are greatly increased.