Why You Shouldn't Pay a Retainer for PR

I'll go out on a limb and say that 97% of the people reading this blog currently have a public relations agency working for their company. PR, after all, is one of the most powerful tools to build a brand. I keep hearing from CEOs of entrepreneurial companies, though, that it's the retainer and the lack of resulting work that continues to be a problem.

I had breakfast about two weeks ago with the CEO of an entrepreneurial company who confirmed that. He told me that he had paid a monthly retainer to a PR firm for six months and had few results to show for the money that he'd shelled out. He felt hoodwinked.

The media landscape has changed. I read in a recent blog that more than 50,000 journalists have lost their jobs. Labor statistics show that the media industry's unemployment rate of ~13% outpaces the national average of ~10%. In the media world it is supply and demand. More companies realize the value of PR and want PR, while there are fewer journalists to write about these companies.

As the media landscape has changed so must PR. Consider pay-for-results PR. Pay-for-results PR is when a company pays ONLY when the resulting article, broadcast, or online article appears in print or on the air or in the ether. For a PR firm to be commission-based says a great deal about its confidence in getting results that matter to your company.

It is time to shift the financial risk of PR away from the client.