Now that you’ve decided to embrace PR as part of your marketing communications mix, how do you know when to keep PR work in-house or outsource it? Here are some pros and cons of both:
In-house
- An employee will devote every ounce of effort solely to your company.
- Intellectual capital is preserved for later use.
- One-man department limits professional expertise.
- An onsite employee eliminates employee-to-contractor communication.
- Internal resource provides greater budget control.
- Creativity limited to accepted company thinking.
Outsourcing
- Onboarding talent is easy with a contract that helps you avoid long-term risk of hiring an employee.
- An agency that covers the full breadth of needs can help smooth out internal workload peaks and valleys.
- A PR firm has broad experience with clients in many industries that can help determine what would work for your company.
- Outsider perspective provides objectivity about products, fresh creative ideas, and new approaches that challenge, “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
- Established media relationships make firms attractive sources for reporters working on stories and thus bonus opportunities for covering your company’s products and people.
- Even when working with a large agency’s junior team members, you have access to their experienced superiors.
- Boutique firms solely offering experienced talent are more agile than their larger counterparts and able to deliver projects more quickly.
Situation matters
Here are some additional factors to be considered in determining the viability of hiring, outsourcing, or blending the two:
- Scope of your challenge –If you’re a small in-house team tasked with creating huge change, you probably need the experience and bandwidth of a PR firm.
- Your culture –An agency’s ability to be an effective can be limited by a hyper-secretive culture. However, a non-disclosure agreement opens the door to share essential information for plotting communications. If your culture is exceptionally unique, dedicated in-house resources may make sense.
- Your budget –Outsourcing gives you access to someone/team with more experience/depth than hiring someone for the same amount. A popular compromise is hiring a relatively junior in-house PR person and backing them up with a more experienced agency.
Best of both
There are many moving parts to a PR initiative – strategy development, media relations, social media, events, awards, content creation, product review programs, etc. The company person overseeing PR and the budget should determine which parts make sense to outsource and which should be handled in house. Some projects may merit employee ownership while others may be better off with external management. Even within a particular project, a small part may best be handled externally while the rest is managed internally.
A blend of internal and external resources is also desirable for delivering the control, convenience and continuity you may be looking for in your PR function.
Still up in the air about your decision? We’re happy to help you find clarity.