PR Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Choosing to invest in PR for the first time is a big decision. You’ll have many questions about what to expect – with concerns about budgets, outcomes, and how the PR process works, as well as how to find a suitable PR partner.
To set your expectations and answer your questions, Amy has pulled together a useful FAQ guide. This has been broken down into four key areas.
- Cost and Value
- Choosing a PR Professional
- PR Process and Expectations
- PR Effectiveness and Measurement
If you have more questions about the value of PR and what it can do for your business, please get in touch.
PR Cost and PR value
How much does PR cost for a small business?
The cost of your small business PR campaign will depend on how much work is involved. Typically, you can expect to pay a minimum of 2-3 days per month to your external PR consultant. That will allow you to benefit from a drip-feed approach, providing you with consistent and regular activities each week.
For small businesses, it may be more cost-effective to work with freelance PR consultants (like Amy), who has more flexibility to keep prices low.
For her PR clients, Amy recommends a minimum contract of two days per month. Prices start from £1,000 per month.
Is hiring a PR firm worth it?
PR is about your reputation. It’s about positioning you in a way that boosts your credibility and shapes trust from key audiences. You may know your business and your sector. But hiring a PR firm is worth it because they will know how to get those messages in front of the right people.
Your PR firm to help you with a wide range of services including,
- Content creation
- Crisis communications
- Influencer relations
- Media relations
- Speaking opportunities
- Thought leadership
- Website strategy and SEO
Each PR tactic takes a specific skillset, which your internal team might not have the time or resource to devote to. Hiring a PR firm is worth it because you can benefit from those skills and you can rely on someone to focus solely on your reputation management, freeing up your time elsewhere.
What is the average cost for a freelance PR?
The average cost for a freelance PR in the UK is approximately £500+ a day for an equivalent PR Director-level expertise.
Freelance PR costs may vary across the UK, depending on their geographic location, level of experience and sector expertise. Your PR activities should be seen as an investment, so you should try to invest as much as possible because your reputation hinges on it.
If you are looking for further information regarding how much does a freelance PR charge in the UK, we highly recommend this August 2024 article from PR Week which explains how costs may vary between agency, in-house and freelance PR teams.
Are PR firms worth the money?
PR firms are worth the money because their work can directly contribute to new lead generation, stronger reputation and brand advocacy, improve your SEO and generate new sales.
Through proactive public relations campaigns, it becomes much easier to shape your reputation. You can build positive relationships with journalists, and have your story told in the way you want it to be told.
In today’s digital world, PR firms are worth the money because earned media coverage is essential for your SEO and search performance. Through potential backlinks from credible publications, and newsworthy stories packed with brand mentions, your brand will be placed in front of your potential audience.
Is PR worth it for small businesses?
PR is worth it for smaller businesses. Compared to traditional tactics like advertising it can be extremely cost effective. It will help with your visibility and brand profile, and you can also build trust with specific audiences and show your expertise.
Digital PR will also play a hugely important role within your SEO strategies.
How much should I budget for PR?
Your PR budget will depend on the type of work that you want to focus on. You should expect to pay a minimum of £1,000 a month for a regular and consistent PR campaign from a freelance PR specialist.
For example, a media relations PR budget should factor in
- PR consultant time
- Media database costs (e.g. Veulio)
- Media monitoring costs
- NLA or CLA licences
- Journalist enquiry databases (e.g. Response Source, Press Plugs)
- External press photography
If you want to invest in PR stunts or thought leadership opportunities, you may need additional costs for research surveys, graphic design, videography and much more.
When you choose to work with Amy Dawson from Gatekeeper Communications, you will receive a detailed costed plan outlining how much you could expect to pay for your PR budget. This can be broken down into specific campaigns or spread across a monthly retainer agreement.
If you are concerned about your budget, why not read our article, “affordable PR tactics for small businesses.”
How can I check if my PR budget is resulting in additional sales?
PR is a long game; it shouldn’t be viewed as a sales activity like tactics such as advertising.
However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Quite the contrary in fact.
PR is about shaping your reputation and changing the way your audiences think about you as a brand. It helps to inform your potential customers’ decision-making process by explaining who you are, what you offer, what you stand for and what makes you different.
Of course, we know that you want to measure the ROI of your PR campaign, and there are a few ways you can do this.
- Allocating a dedicated phone number/email address to your press outreach
- Using a specific voucher code/discount code (ideal for B2C or eCommerce PR campaigns)
- Tracking the number of backlinks to your site generated through earned media
- Monitoring website traffic/social media engagement
- Tracking share of voice
- Monitoring brand mentions in key publications
Evaluating your PR campaign is a complex subject, and it’s something we’ve explored in more detail in our blog article.
Choosing a PR Professional
Should I choose a PR agency or a freelance PR?
There are many pros and cons to choosing a PR agency or work with a freelance PR. Your choice should come down to who you want to work with. You deserve to find the right person that you trust to work in your best interests, understands your brand and your sector, and is easy to work with.
The majority of skilled freelance PRs start their career working in an agency environment, so you should expect the level of skills and expertise to remain the same.
Why you should choose a freelance PR
- Upfront costs will be lower as freelance PRs have less overheads.
- You will be working directly with one person at all times.
- You can find someone who has the relevant experience you are looking for.
- They can bring in a team of additional freelance creatives to scale up (or down) your activity as needed.
- Working with a project-based PR freelance manager means that you can bring in external support as and when needed.
Why you should choose a PR agency
- They may have a team of people who can brainstorm and collaborate with you.
- There will always be someone available to work on your account, minimising any impact from staff sickness and/or annual leave.
- They may be more readily available to scale up your strategy as and when needed.
What should I expect when hiring a freelance PR?
When hiring a freelance PR, you want to find a collaborative partner who understands your business objectives, your sector and can identify newsworthy opportunities.
Your freelance PR should be someone who can work to your deadlines, is responsive, flexible, has strong media contacts and understands what strategies you are looking for.
Do freelance PRs work with other creatives?
Hiring a PR freelancer is worth it because your chosen person will have a network of contacts across a wide range of creative sectors including videography, photography, graphic design, website development, SEO, UX and conversion rate optimisation specialists.
Those contacts will allow you to scale up or scale down your communications activities as required.
How do I reach out to a PR company?
Before you approach a PR company, think about what your overall aim is from your PR. Is it media relations? Reputation management? Crisis communications? Thought leadership?
Having that clarity will allow you to find the right person.
Then, move onto your budget. You should expect to invest for a minimum 6-month term before you start to see results.
Once you know what your budget is, you can start to find a PR company or freelance support.
When searching for a PR company, focus on recommendations. You want to work with a PR team with a proven track record of delivering results.
Look out for reviews and testimonials and don’t be afraid to talk to different PR agencies or freelancers to get a feel for how they work.
Is it better to hire public relations freelancers or fulltime?
There are many advantages to hiring a freelance team, rather the hiring an internal full-time staff member. Your costs will be considerably lower as you are not paying for employee costs such as national insurance, holiday pay, sick pay and more.
However, it’s important to note that public relations freelancers are not your employees. Freelancers are self-employed PR managers. They will dictate their rates, their contract terms, preferred working patterns, and will manage their own workloads independently, while also working with other clients.
PR Process and Expectations
How do you involve clients in the PR process?
At Gatekeeper Communications, we work collaboratively with our clients. We like to have monthly meetings (often via Teams) to bring in regular updates and to prioritise the work that supports your business strategy.
Through these meetings, we can discuss what projects you are working on, and what parts of your business are your biggest growth areas. This allows us to identify your newsworthy opportunities and build a PR strategy that matches your brand vision.
What to expect from a freelance PR?
Your relationship with your independent PR specialist needs to be based on trust.
You should expect your PR specialist to meet your deadlines, offer a professional experience, offer suggestions and insights into how best to shape your reputation and be prepared to work independently.
When you work with Amy Dawson, your life will become much easier. You can feel confident that your PR strategy is taken care of, and your internal team can focus on other tasks.
How do freelance PRs structure fees?
Typically, freelance PRs will work on retained contracts (and agreed number of time per month) or they will charge you a costed project fee.
At Gatekeeper Communications, we recommend investing a minimum of two days per month for your PR activities. This allows us to devote at least half a day per week to your business, and that time can be spent across a wide range of PR services.
In some circumstances, if you are searching for help for a specific project or campaign, we can offer contract-based PR solutions that are fully costed and agreed up front.
PR Effectiveness and Measurement
How do I know if my PR is working?
You want to know that your PR is having an impact on your reputation, as well as your bottom line.
This is complicated, but you can assess this through a series of tactics.
- Has customer feedback changed?
- Are you receiving positive brand mentions?
- Is traffic to your site increasing?
- Is social media engagement improving?
- Have you had an increase in phone calls/emails?
- Are people talking about you in public forums?
Anecdotal feedback can be just as important as quantitative data, so why not talk to you sales teams and other staff members to find out if they’ve noticed a difference since you began your PR campaign?
What do freelance PRs know about SEO?
Your PR specialist should understand websites and have an insight into SEO practices to ensure that your external media outreach matches search intent, as well as news intent.
For your SEO to be effective, you want to increase the level of earned media coverage, with a target of achieving credible backlinks. In fact, many SEO teams will say that those backlinks are essential and they will advocate heavily for digital PR solutions. However, many press outlets have editorial policies not to provide backlinks.
In Amy’s opinion, there is huge value in having credible news outlets write about your brand objectively. If your potential customers can Google you, and see your brand mentioned across a variety of media outlets below your website, that’s a key indicator that you are reputable and trustworthy.
What additional services do freelance PRs offer?
Freelance PRs will offer a wide range of additional PR services, from SEO copywriting to report writing and white papers.
They will often be able to deliver web design and development services, as well as creative campaigns such as graphic design, photography and videography.
