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Planning and Implementing PR: An Inside Job or an Outside Chance?

As corporate America reinvents the way it does business, companies are finding advantages in outsourcing not only manufacturing operations and call centers, but entire departments, from HR to PR.

Making the decision to use an outside agency to handle all or a part of a company's communications can be a complex process, but it's one that offers the chance for adding considerable expertise, professional skills and activity to the company's PR function. Executives must determine how much of the PR effort should be outsourced, which functions should be retained in-house and which agency is the best fit.
In examining the value of inside vs. out-of-house public relations staffing, corporations should consider the following advantages and disadvantages of each alternative and reach a blend of outsourcing and inside capabilities that works best for them.

The Advantages of Handling PR with In-house Staff

Convenience: Having someone nearby can mean the difference between getting it done today and waiting for a phone call tomorrow. This also allows for immediate follow-up and quick response time in crisis situations.

Understanding the "client": In-house PR departments are directly affected by their actions. Aspects ranging from managing their overhead to understanding their organization's needs are factors that an outside PR firm often cannot provide. The more familiar people are with their client, the more likely they are to aim for greater results.

Responsiveness to opportunities: An in-house PR professional is on site when developments occur. A trained PR specialist who participates in company meetings to discuss future programs will be able to point out possible opportunities that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.

The Disadvantages of Relying on In-house Staff for PR

Can't do it all: Organizations may be closing their eyes to advances in public relations and marketing technology by relying on one person to be good at, and keep track of, current technology and practices. Individual companies may not subscribe to the sophisticated databases of news reporters and editors that agencies maintain. Nor may they have expertise in current methods of measuring the effectiveness of PR efforts through electronic access to articles, online focus groups and other techniques that are economical for agencies because they are employed for multiple clients.

Demands of the Job - As public relations programs mature, they demand more time, more points of view and more person-power. With companies showing reluctance continuously to increase the size of their PR staffs, public relations programs handled in-house can fall victim to their own success, withering for lack of resources. Agencies can provide a team that grows with the program.

Outsourcing PR to an Agency-The Advantages

Defining the PR messaging, understanding a client's business and the ever-changing dynamics of their respective industries, all while targeting the correct media, is as important, if not more so, than the tactical execution of those strategies. While a company may be able to relegate simple technical functions and telemarketing to an agency in another country, integrating them into cohesive and effective PR campaigns requires special expertise. This is the kind of expertise that an agency can bring to a company.

A team of professionals: Often a company can get sidetracked when designing a campaign, because it becomes so caught up in style over substance. This means too much concern with designing a slick media kit or eye-catching graphic to draw media attention, forcing the company to spend less time on the development of its key messaging. By outsourcing to these specialists, businesses need not worry about compromising their message for the sake of publicity; because they have well-respected, well-established professionals on their side.

Media and vendor relationships: One of the keys to successful media and PR work is having long-standing relationships with members of the media. By outsourcing PR work, companies have the immediate relationship with the media members, allowing them to get better results faster. Additionally, agencies through their many employees can put a client in touch with a wide universe of media and provide a breadth of media contacts that an in-house PR department cannot.

The outsider's perspective: Being outside of the client's organization means that the agency is less involved in the company's internal politics. It's easier to ask an independent party to sum up the image of the company than to ask an internal PR person, who may paint a picture stamped with bias. Moreover, an outside professional works with a number of clients, generating a wider perspective on an industry and a deeper understanding of the issues confronting it. As a result of this knowledge across companies and business sectors, an agency executive often can recognize the potential for partnership opportunities.

The Disadvantages

Agency fees and the cost of vendor services: Some agencies mark up services that they provide through their vendors, either by adding a certain percentage to the cost of a job or by charging extra project-management fees. Many companies have turned to the idea of outsourcing to freelance PR professionals for individual campaigns, often to work alongside the in-house PR person.

Division of time and labor: Account executives are often assigned multiple accounts; and depending on the financial level of a particular client's account, its assignments may consistently fall to the bottom of the "to-do" list or may not receive all the attention they deserved.

Perfectionist complex: Often it's difficult to outsource PR to an agency that doesn't necessarily specialize in the client's area of expertise. It becomes much harder for an agency to produce results or to advise a client, because the client knows the business better.