Let’s begin by stating the obvious: Yes. Chemistry PR and Multimedia would like your business. Seeking out and serving clients is, after all, at the heart of what any business does. But with that said, you may be looking for a different fit. Figuring out that fit is vital. So, how do you Choose a PR Firm?
You are not looking for a vendor. You are looking for a partner who helps you make better decisions, tell better stories, and become more successful.
The right communications firm gives you more than press coverage or content. It gives you clarity. It gives you confidence. It gives you control over how your organization is perceived. When strategy and storytelling are led by senior-level expertise, you gain alignment across your leadership team, stronger messaging across every channel, and fewer costly mistakes in public.
You do not need more noise. You need direction.
You do not need more content. You need connection.
You do not need activity. You need measurable impact.
The right firm helps you protect your reputation, sharpen your positioning, and accelerate your growth. You are not choosing a PR firm. You are choosing a strategic advantage.
Know The Sandbox You Want to Play In
Before you hire a communications partner, you need to define the outcomes you want.
Start with the bigger picture of communications. This may include:
- Public Relations
- Crisis Communication
- Video Production
- Media Relations
- Social Media
- Media Buying
- Brand Management
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Graphic Design
- Web Design
- Branding
- Event planning
- Training
Whew! There is a lot there and something was almost certainly left out. That is the point. The first thing you must do is identify exactly what your business needs. It could be all of this, half of this, or maybe even a single category mentioned on this list. There are advantages to laser focus just like there are advantages to the firm that can do it all.
You are not buying services. You are buying results.
You may need focused expertise, or you may need a turnkey solution. A specialized partner gives you depth. A strategic, full-service partner gives you speed, alignment, and consistency. The right choice helps you reduce risk, eliminate wasted spending, and create stronger outcomes across your organization.
When strategy, storytelling, and senior-level thinking guide your communications, you gain:
- Clearer messaging
• Faster decision-making
• Stronger public trust
• More effective campaigns
• Better return on your investment
Your sandbox is not defined by tactics. It is defined by your what you can offer your clients.
The Broad Net
There are some companies out there that simply want to hire on their marketing and communications abilities. These are firms that have amazing expertise in places that have little or nothing to do with communications and PR, and they simply want to focus their energies on what pays the bills. At the same time, these are the groups that understand marketing and communications efforts are vital to a successful business. Running a basic search on what that spending should look like for an organization produces results that may surprise you:
- Small businesses: 5–7% of gross revenue
- Mid-sized businesses: 8–10% of gross revenue
- Enterprise businesses: 12–15% of gross revenue
- B2C companies: 5–10% of gross revenue
- B2B companies: 3–7% of gross revenue
And that’s just one set of suggestions. Some argue those with high profit margins should go as high as 20%! Yes, these are significant amounts of money to invest. Those who are ready to make that investment often feel they get more “bang for their buck” by bringing in one firm that can meet most of their needs and handle farming out the rest. The advantages here include getting more people with greater expertise working on your projects for a given price. Also, if they need to bring in someone with a specific skill set not in their organization, they tend to already have developed a list of freelancers that are strong in those areas. The downside to the full-service agency approach is, they don’t just work for you, therefore multiple projects for multiple clients of that firm may put your work farther back in the cue than you would like. That said, if you are the biggest customer, you will get the most attention.
Internal Management of External Resources
Some choose to meet in the middle. They will hire a director or C-suite level person to guide their efforts, along with an additional employee or two who meet the most common internal needs. This leader is given a budget to hire a firm to handle a big chunk of the remaining work. This allows you to have an expert in the building that will always prioritize your needs and can handle some of your work in-house. They will then provide assignments to the agency on an as-needed basis, allowing them to draw on the outside vendor’s greatest strengths to compliment the things they can handle well. The agency becomes “a yin to their yang.” This also may change the way you select an agency. For example, if you are strong on graphic design internally, but don’t have much media relations experience, you might want to focus your search on the latter. Speaking for Chemistry, if you needed someone with that strong media relations piece, we would be perfect. Conversely, if you need graphic design as a top strength, you’d be best going somewhere else. We have people we use, but they are not in our building.
The Build Your Own Agency Model
Of course, the largest firms have enough budget to hire multiple people to handle their communications needs. The advantage here is your work will always be at the front of the line. The challenge is there will almost always be an area of expertise that you need, but don’t have. Your department will be smaller than many agencies. This is an area where you can be even more focused on project-based hiring. This will inevitably prove frustrating for the uninitiated, high-level manager, who will want to know why he still needs to send work out when he is paying this room full of people. We all know there is usually a logical answer to this question. You just need to be certain you have that high-quality response ready when the question is asked.
A Word on Chemistry PR and Multimedia
Our team at Chemistry has filled all of these roles for different types of clients. One thing that makes us stand out is the fact that we are a PR firm that also has full video production capabilities in-house. When you build a list of potential partners it shrinks down a great deal when you put PR and video components together. Are we the place to re-do your website? If that is the only task you have, you should probably look somewhere else. Same goes for a project that is exclusively graphic design. But if you need general PR, media relations, or crisis communication and nothing else, we will put or experts up against anyone. The same goes for video production. The fact that we have specialists in all those areas also makes us a fantastic fit for the company that wants that first option above: a turnkey solution to take a budget and be your communications department.
At the end of the day, the goal is not to be louder. The goal is to be clearer. When strategy, storytelling, and senior-level experience come together, your organization gains more than visibility. You gain trust, credibility, and momentum. The right communications partner helps you think sharper, speak stronger, and move faster. And that is what turns good organizations into great ones. The difference is not volume. It is chemistry.
The Big Picture
When it comes down to it, you need to know your field, your competition, and where communications, PR, and marketing fit into the equation. If your top competitors are spending significantly more than you are, you risk being left in the dust. If no one is spending all that much, you have an opportunity to attack a weakness and jump ahead.
No matter the business, you can be certain that in an increasingly digital world, your ability to communicate with stakeholders and customers is likely to be a deciding factor in your success.
And yes, the people at Chemistry PR and Multimedia would love to help you achieve it. Check out some of Chemistry’s work and clients or learn What We Do by clicking the links.
