Retainer vs project PR support. Choosing what’s right for UK SMEs

Most small to medium-sized business owners know they should do PR, but don’t know which way to buy it. Should you hire a freelance PR on a long-term retainer basis or just pay for one-off press releases and projects?

This article will cut through the jargon, explain the real difference in plain English, and help you understand what is right for your business. You’ll get budget guidance, three clear strategies to help you choose between retainer and project PR, learn how to establish real metrics and discover how an SME benefited from a one-day/month retainer.

It’s time to turn your ideas into results.

What retainer PR agreements and project-based PR actually mean

If you’re a small to medium-sized business in Ipswich, you’re probably having kittens at the idea of a retainer contract.

I’d bet good money that the first thought in your head was “I can’t afford that!!”

But you’d be surprised by how affordable PR services can be; thanks to my fixed-price PR packages, I can offer something for different budgets.

But first things first, let’s get the definitions out of the way.

• Retainer PR means ongoing support for a fixed monthly fee. You get a predictable amount of time each month invested in your business: strategy, media outreach, content, monitoring and relationship-building.
• Project-based PR is time-limited and goal-focused. It’s normally used for a product launch, an awards campaign, or a research report with a defined start and end.

Why your choice of retainer agreement or project PR matters

The added value of a PR retainer is that it will build your business reputation over time.

As an analogy, I like to refer back to a client I worked with at the start of my career, 20 years ago.

It was a used car dealership group. Often, the dealership managers would question the need for PR activity, believing it was a waste of time compared to advertising.

But I used to say to them,

“If a customer is looking for a used car and they are more concerned about budget than make or model, then you want them to think of you immediately. You want your brand to be the first company that they think of. Your PR is giving them that immediate name recognition, that understanding of what type of cars you sell, it’s telling them repeatedly where your dealership is located, and most importantly, whether they think you’ll give them a good deal.”

At that point, they almost always understood that the continuous drip feed approach to PR outreach was essential for their local reputation.

In contrast, a project-based piece of PR, whether it’s a short-term burst or a one-off press release, will deliver a short burst of attention.

But there is a risk that your message or story could get lost in the crowd.

Ideally, I would recommend a retainer contract for SMEs who “have ideas but can’t finish them.” That’s because regular retainers will turn your ideas into repeatable, measurable activity and stop PR dying on your to-do list.

How PR pricing and costs compare for retainer vs projects

Retainer PR pricing

You can expect to pay a monthly fixed fee for a set number of days/hours. You will have an ongoing contract which will outline expectations of work deliverables, and you can relax knowing that someone will manage all of the work for you.

Within my retainer PR agreements, SMEs can benefit from the following

• PR strategy and planning
• Ongoing media outreach
• Reactive media handling
• Reporting

My clients know that they won’t have to sit and stress about what they need to do that month. They trust me to ensure that all work adheres to your overall business objectives and customer expectations. What’s more, retainer PR agreements will work in line with your SEO objectives, and written activity will be repurposed for content marketing.

Included in the fee structure is access to all of the paid-for tools I use daily, such as journalist contact databases, enquiry databases and evaluation tools, which saves you money on subscription fees and maximises the impact of your potential outreach.

Project pricing

This is where you can expect to pay a one-off fee for a defined deliverable or campaign. These projects are much harder to establish one-off costs because they depend on the scope of the project.

Typically, project-based PR prices are more expensive per month because the work is more intense from the outset. It’s also harder to establish further value-added benefits (such as social media suggestions, content marketing suggestions, and audience insights).

Strategy 1: When a PR retainer is the right choice for your business.

If you are a small to medium-sized business, or a growing company, and you recognise that you haven’t got time to manage your PR activity in-house, there are a few signs that will tell you that you need a PR retainer agreement.

• You want steady, visible reputation growth.
• You have multiple storylines to push (founder profile, product updates, community work).
• You want to be discoverable by AI-driven chat tools and overview engines that index brand mentions over time.
• You want a consistent number of earned media outputs that help your reputation and support your SEO activity.
• You need ongoing measurement and refinement that shows clear evidence of your brand visibility.

Why not start with a small PR retainer to focus on your consistent activities?

It’s natural to be nervous about starting a PR retainer. If you’re a small business, then every penny needs to be accounted for. If you’re a larger business experimenting with PR for the first time, you need to know that you’ll have measurable reporting mechanisms and a clear justification for your spend.

Too often, businesses talk about the need to invest in PR but are too reluctant to get started. But the longer they wait, the more time they are wasting, which is time that your competitors can be using to reach out to your audiences.

I recommend that if you’re new to PR, then why not start with a small PR retainer to keep things ticking over?

Even one day a month (my bronze PR package) can be enough to focus activity on a specific theme. That might be media outreach, thought leadership, award entries or local community stories.

Then, when you start to see the impact of your PR activity, you can scale it up alongside your business growth.

The case study that shows one day per month is enough to make a difference!

Recently, I’ve been working with a small consumer business, providing PR support on a one-day per month contract.

This growing brand has a variety of phenomenal newsworthy stories to share, and through consistent outreach, we’ve managed to increase traffic to the website, drive enquiries and convert those enquiries into sales.

In just six months, this client has achieved

• 13 pieces of media coverage
• 1 BBC radio interview
• Achieved an audience reach of 3m
• Cumulated a total of 65 brand mentions and 11 backlinks to their website

That’s consistent, layered coverage that search and AI overviews crawl and cite, increasing organic discovery.

Strategy 2: When project-based PR makes sense for your business

There will always be times when hiring a freelance PR to manage a specific project or campaign makes sense.

• You have one clear, time-bound objective (product launch, event, funding announcement, anniversary celebration).
• You need an intensive short-term push and have internal capacity to handle follow-up.
• You want to test a tactic without committing to ongoing monthly fees.

For you to maximise the impact of your PR activity, it’s important to focus heavily on your brief.

You need to be clear about what outputs and success metrics you are looking for. You then need to build a simple distribution plan and assign a client owner for follow-up. It’s then important to think about creating a short handover phase so coverage converts to longer-term results.

One-off projects create spikes of interest, not long-term solutions

PR can have an impact on a short-term basis if you have something strong to talk about. But it’s important to remember that those one-off or ad-hoc projects will create spikes of interest.

Without any follow-up or ongoing nurture, you run the risk of your momentum fading. Those hard-won earned media articles may have driven interest in your business or even driven traffic to your website, but did you have any plan to capitalise on those opportunities?

Here are some of the common mistakes that businesses might make with project PR activities

Issuing a single press release and expecting long-term impact

Many SMEs send out one press release and wait for coverage to roll in. But without follow-up, existing journalist relationships, or supporting content, the release often gets buried. PR works best when it’s layered because one release rarely builds reputation or visibility.

Launching a product without checking website readiness

A successful project-based PR push can drive traffic spikes, but if your site isn’t prepared, you might fail to capitalise on that interest. For example, potential new customers might notice that pages are loading slowly, contact forms are broken, information is outdated, or the mobile experience is poor.

Before investing in any ad-hoc or project-based PR activity, always test your site before launch and ensure analytics are tracking properly.

No plan for repurposing coverage

Businesses often secure great media mentions but don’t reuse them. Without content repurposing (social posts, email newsletters, website updates), that value will fade fast. Make sure you have plans in place so that you can maximise your story as far as possible.

No measurement or tracking

One-off PR often lacks clear KPIs or tracking tools. Without measuring reach, engagement, or conversions, it’s impossible to prove ROI or learn what worked.

No contingency plan for reactive opportunities

One-off PR doesn’t leave room for timely responses to news, trends, or journalist requests. Retainers allow for agile, reactive PR that capitalises on unexpected opportunities.

It’s also worth making sure you have a contingency in your internal team. Is everyone briefed on messaging, tone, or how to handle media enquiries? If you haven’t done your internal due diligence, you can risk inconsistent responses and missed opportunities.

Underestimating lead times

Businesses often expect instant results from a short campaign. It’s worth remembering that journalists work to editorial calendars. In some cases, coverage can take weeks or months to land. That’s why a drip-feed approach builds momentum and keeps your brand top-of-mind.

Strategy 3: A hybrid approach will combine the best of both

Of course, it doesn’t need to be an either/or situation. There is a hybrid model you can consider where you have a small retainer, which allows you to drip feed a consistent source of news and commentary to target media while saving funds for those moments when you need a little extra oomph.

• Retainer + discrete projects: a small monthly retainer keeps the brand visible; project-based support adds firepower for launches or seasonal demand.
• Quarterly retainers, this is where you can have retained support for two months, along with project-based support during a major campaign month. That way, you can make sure that the fundamentals are in place before, during and after, so you are allowing enough opportunity to maximise your impact.

How this hybrid retainer/project PR approach works in practice.

If you know you have a big project or campaign coming up, why not use the time from a small retainer to build your media list and warm up your journalist leads? This pre-campaign research is vital to establishing who you want to speak to in the media and what story-specific outlets will respond to.

Then, you can use your project PR budget to account for the workload spike, before reverting to a small retainer to react to unexpected opportunities off the back of the initial campaign.

PR isn’t a cost. It’s an investment in your long-term future.

Key takeaways

Retainers build a steady reputation and are best for long-term discoverability and AI-driven visibility.

Projects work for single, time-bound campaigns but need follow-up to sustain momentum.

Hybrid models offer flexibility and cost-efficiency; freelance PRs can reduce tool costs for clients.

It’s important to think about it as having a fresh perspective and thinking of PR spend as a “momentum investment.”

Your retainer will compound your reputation; projects will accelerate it.

The cheapest option per mention is often the one that keeps showing up.

Even 1 day per month retained PR can deliver measurable impact; my example earlier on in this article shows clear coverage and reach gains in six months. They are already seeing a demonstrable return on their investment through increased awareness and sales.

The longer you spend thinking about PR, rather than simply getting on with it, means that you’re giving your competitors more time to take advantage of that head start.

Why not book a free 20-minute clarity call to map your first 90 days and see how I can improve your brand visibility and reputation?