Are PR Agencies Worth the Money?

Are PR Agencies worth the money? I'm doing some research on PR agencies and I know they are heavily used by funded startups and bigger businesses. However, are they worth the expense and do they drive results?

 

I've heard some good and terrible things about PR agencies. Unless you're a big company or want to appear big then stay clear. They will eat cash for little results. Having said that, I always say that press releases are for everyone and and can get you some great results for far less. Plus you have a massive advantage over a PR agency - you know and care about your business.

 

I would have to agree, PR agencies are probably not worth the money anymore. Just submit press releases to a few good PR sites and they will distribute it for you. I would recommend the low end premium services if that is in your budget. If not, the free options will still show results!

Just do a quick Google search for "Free Press Release Services" and you'll be set.

Good Luck!

 

guys do you have any idea how much a company profile for a small enterprise costs? Do PR companies make company profiles??

 

if you can write your own pr try www.headlinesnews.net

free to submit with upto 3 anchor text links and syndicates to Google News

 

for an individual site, you dont really need those agencies. you can just submit your press releases youeself or hire a press release submission service that submit your PR on the free press release sites. you can sign up for paid PR distribution sites yourself and submit there if you want as well. some of them charge monthly and some per post.

 

You don't have to say this publicly but how big is your company? If you're company is small it's (generally) highly unrecommended. The company will very likely just give you a bunch of interns and then charge you north of 5000 dollars a month. Put it this way, if that sounds like a lot of money, then it's probably a poor idea.

 

PR really is common sense dressed as rocket science - with the goal being to extract huge amounts of cash from people that could do it themselves.

 

Gotcha. 5K isn't pocket change but it's not totally unreasonable for my company. I've just heard from fellow startup entrepreneurs that their PR agents have really helped to get them media coverage that one can't get unless there's an established relationship e.g., CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Techcrunch, Mashable, etc. Getting on Techcrunch and Mashable may not be unreasonable for some startups but it's not exactly easy.

I'm wondering if their rolodex is worth it. For instance, what if the PR agent pitching is a really good one. Is their credibility and rolodex worth the cost?

 

A client I worked with ha a treally bad experience. They wer having a launch and engaged a PR company a month before. Fisrt thing they did was send an invoice. At the next meeting they promised all sorts. A week before the launch I got involved and asked what they were doing - they promised the same action, in other words had done nothing.

I'm sure some are good but I would say you have to be able to right off the money they want and view what they do as a bonus.

 

It depends on how attractive your product or service is. I spent £2000 on a worldwide PR through newswire and got very little back other than many high quality backlinks.

If you have a good product then it will likely be worth it.

 

If you want to try a Press release then I think the best value are offered by PRweb and webwire.