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Since so much has been written about how to go about finding a PR agency, I thought it timely to examine the process from my perspective – a consultant who is also a PR headhunter.

Throughout the U.S. there are thousands of PR firms of all sizes who claim to specialize in dozens of different specialty categories.

As the person designated within your company to identify and hire a PR firm, where do you start? What do you look for? How much should you pay? What characteristics of the PR firm differentiates it from others – and are those differences important to your company? What size firm should you hire? What about account conflicts? Is the firm’s location important? Who’s going to work on your business? What about performance and results? What should you reasonably expect and how do you measure success?

These are only some of the questions that will undoubtedly arise in your quest to hire a firm.

From my experience, all of these questions should be asked and answered before signing on with a PR firm. However, the real issues that become important should be evaluated within the context of your company’s needs and goals. Chances are the answers will fall somewhere in the proverbial gray area.

Going solo

Should you decide to identify a PR firm on your own, there are many reference materials available which can help you quantify the players. However, without the tools and the inside knowledge of how PR firms work and which will work best for your company, the task can be difficult to qualify.

Many solo searchers rely on references from colleagues, industry sources and the like to help them target a group of likely PR firms. The tough part however, is evaluating the relationship between members of your company and the PR firm. Additionally, not every PR agency is listed and quantified in every directory. New ones are popping up all the time and others are merging, being acquired or just fading away. When working with a limited knowledge-base, evaluation can become problematic.

The key to any successful PR agency search lies in the depth of the research expended. The greater amount of time spent researching the agency, its people, culture, working style, etc., the better chance you have of bringing home a winner. Also, it’s easy to be distracted by fancy promotion and lose sight of the agency’s key elements.

Sometimes the identification of a winning PR firm can be a slam-dunk. More often, it can be like nailing Jello to a tree.

Slam-dunk

If your company produces a highly specialized or technical product, chances are there will only be a few PR firms that will fill the bill. Whether it’s engineering, biotechnology or baby toys, your choices will be limited. Add to that the numerous other specifications that you will invariably want to see in your new PR firm.

It’s a slam-dunk if your product or service touches on issues such as abortion, guns or smoking. Options will be limited if your PR budget is unusually small or restricted, or if when your PR program is narrowly focused on, say, major mentions in key business publications, or, interviews for your CEO with major network media.

It’s probably a good idea to go solo when the budget is small, the PR program is limited and targeted to a highly technical audience or, when the agency’s geographic location(s) is restricted. Of course, if management’s view of PR is archaic or unrealistic, then the chance of a successful agency union is rather slim under any circumstances.

Not so fast

In my PR agency identification experience, the two most difficult parts of evaluating an agency are costs, (both actual and projected), and team identification and evaluation. Each tend to resemble a moving target that’s hard to keep in your sights for too long.

As a general rule, PR agencies don’t advertise their fees for services they perform. They tend to promote their expertise and experience in the business of PR and then charge you based on the size of your budget. By knowing that beforehand, they can tailor their services to your specific needs and stay within your budget – or, so you would hope.

However, clients often complain that their agency goes over budget. This is especially true during economic boom times. The firms usually argue that you, the client, have either implicitly approved of the extra work that was done on your behalf, or, that circumstances mandated that your account be “over-serviced.” The budget and over-service issues are less pronounced when business and the economy is slow.

As any other business, agencies must stay profitable. Just like management consultants or lawyers, PR people parcel out their expertise in the form of hourly charges. Whether you’re paying a “flat monthly retainer” or hourly for services rendered, the agency will calculate the time spent working on your behalf in increments of hours to remain within profitable guidelines. Agency client management employees usually have an “hourly rate” that is levied against the time they spend on behalf of their client. That rate is usually a function of the employee’s title. Obviously, the higher the title, the higher the rate.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Well, not so fast. There are many variables that impact this rather neat little picture. Variables such as employee promotions, employee title inflation, freelance consultants, the changing nature of your account, fee increases, out-of-pocket expenses, economic inflation or recession, conflicting accounts that pay higher fees, result measurement, client vs. agency expectations, irreconcilable differences and much more.

On the occasion of having to leave a pet at home and looking for puppy sitting services with the help of a computer, pet lovers rarely understand how to track down the perfect companion for their “best friend”. What to do – scour their facebook friends, community bulletin boards, or ask an acquaintance at starbuck’s or the gym? How should they know who to entrust their pet with and who might be the right person for the job? Perhaps the easiest and most reliable technique for handling this trying situation is to use an online matching service that can fit the needs of families and sitters.

Find Now Puppy Sitting Services – Click Here!

Prior to engaging the services of puppy sitting services, you need to be clear about what the specific duties are as well as what you expect from your sitter. The list should include things like the desired experience level and pay range. Which duties would you like him to perform? Are there issues with children or other animals? Would you like your sitter to have a quiet, calm demeanor? Write a checklist which clearly, accurately and specifically describes all of the requirements that you want to find in a sitter.

Once you have defined the sitter duties, the second step is to determine an easy, and most importantly, reliable way to find the perfect candidate for you and your pet. One of the easiest ways is to register with a computer-based pet caretaker service. Care-giver match-making firms are adept at giving you the tools you need to access many reliable and conveniently-located pet sitters who are looking for a job caring for your pet.

Locating puppy sitting services that meets your needs is not an impossible task – take advantage of one of the many search engines out there; enter the most important items in the search: your location – the city you live in, and the type of caregiver profile you are looking for. Out of the results that have popped up for you to choose from, you pick out those candidates that seem to most completely satisfy your requirements. Compare the pro and cons of each one and select the one (or ones) who is available when you need to leave your pet.

A reputable agency should always give you an assortment of options: a no-cost search of the sitter database by region, and a look at their online file, where you can see a photo and read about the caregiver, all at no charge to you. If they offer a free trial program, normally on a limited time and use basis; register while you can you just may find a sitter who’s a perfect match for you and your pet.

In order for businesses to become the “go to” site for their product and service offered, hiring a Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO Consultant as necessary as developing a web site in the first place.

SEO means search engine optimization. Simply stated, when you search a search engine for a product or service, a list of sites will pop up, followed by pages and pages of similar sites.  The first pages of results are considered the most popular and relevant to the search engine utilized. A Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO expert will ensure that business take the right steps to be found by search engines and web surfers, and that their business sites are at the top, or close to the top of that list. 

Internet Marketing & SEO consultants and experts are plentiful right now, so value shifts to finding the Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO Consultant that’s right for you, and your business objectives. The best Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO Consultants are knowledgeable as to how search engine algorithms promote top search engine rankings within the most popular search engines used on the internet such as Google, MSN and Yahoo.

The Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO Consultant you hire, may be responsible for the development and design of your company’s website, as well as optimizing your site so it is found, thru the placement strategic site links, the creation and submission of on-line articles that contain key words used by web searches, and also via pay per click strategies to attract and track visitors to your site.

The world of search engine optimization is dynamic, changing day by day.  It is important to oversee the activities of your Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO Consultant, and be a true partner with your SEO Consultant, providing informative and relative content pertinent to your industry that will impact blogs, articles, and relative link. When you hire a Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO Consultant, transparency is the key to avoiding the ones that claim to be SEO experts, but are not. The Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO Consultant should be able to explain the exact steps and services provided to help improve your search engine rankings and attract business on-line., and the associated pricing.

Services may include: article copy writing and submission, case studies, press releases, white papers, pay per click campaign development, social media marketing, blogging, key word tracking, relevant link exchange, email campaigns, creative copy, database development, results assessment and more.

The bottom line is hiring a Philadelphia Internet Marketing & SEO Consultant that you can Trust with your web site. Trust can be earned by examining the track record of the SEO Consultant. Past successes will show how this will relate to your goals. Ask about references demonstrating past pay per click statistics, google ranking improvement, and sales results.

Take time to review the many options available. Don’t rush into the SEO hiring decision. Establish a budget and goals, and by taking the necessary steps to find the right fit, you and your business will profit on the web!

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