HOW TO HIRE A PR AND MARKETING AGENCY: 10 RED FLAGS TO WATCH FOR

January 20, 2025

Whether it’s celebrities singing during the pandemic or OpenAI’s Sam Altman chaos, we all know what happens when you have bad PR and marketing. Hiring the right agency can help avoid these kinds of situations. It can also help you build a good reputation, and get your story told.

 

But hiring the right agency isn’t always easy. Often, you’ll have many to choose from at a wide variety of price points. Plus, the pressure to decide can be high. Especially when hiring the wrong agency leads to frustration and wasted budget when things don’t go as planned.

 

Below, we’ve put together our expert guide to hiring a PR and marketing agency, with tips and tricks we’ve learned after running Liaison for more than 25 years. Read on to learn what to expect, how to spot red flags, and more.

 

The Benefits of Hiring a PR and Marketing Agency

 

If you’re doing interesting work, you’re likely already getting attention for it. Journalists may be emailing you with interview requests. Podcasters could want your CEO to feature in an upcoming show. Or influencers may want to demo your products on a trade show floor.

 

If you avoid all these requests, your company’s marketing and press coverage will suffer. But accepting them without controlling your narrative first is risky. Words may be taken out of context, and your message may not come through as powerfully as it could.


When you hire a good agency, you’ll have a team of experts to help define your communication strategy. They’ll expand on the efforts of your current team and ensure your company messaging resonates as strongly as possible with the public, without getting lost in the noise. The right agency will also be able to write your press releases, advise you on the best PR and marketing opportunities, pitch story angles to press, organize events, and much more.

 

As a result, you’ll see more positive coverage of your company and products. This will then snowball into greater awareness among your target audience.

 

How to Hire a PR and Marketing Agency: An Expert Guide

 

Getting Started

 

Hiring an agency should be a well-thought-out process. Before you start, it’s best to narrow down exactly what you feel PR success looks like. Ask yourself:

 

  • What are your target audience and markets?
  • What do you want to be known for?
  • What KPIs will you set for PR campaigns?
  • How much marketing budget would be dedicated to PR?
  • What upcoming announcements, releases, and events would you like to highlight?
  • Are you interested in paid opportunities such as advertorials?
  • Are you also interested in social media and content marketing services alongside PR?

 

Answering these questions will help you to select an appropriate agency. It will also help you attend all agency introduction calls with a clearer idea of what you’re looking for.

 

Building a Brief

 

After some reflection on what you need and how long you have to do it, you’ll need to create a brief or a request for proposal to give prospective agencies. The former outlines your goals for the campaign to help agencies create their proposal. The latter is an open request for agencies to bid for your project. Decide which is best for your needs and then share it to help agencies tailor a PR and marketing plan for you.

 

If you’re wondering where to start with reaching out to agencies, consider asking any journalists you know which agencies specialize in your industry and who does the best job. Alternatively, look at PR and marketing you admire in your industry, then find out if the company is using an agency. Try searching for the name of the company followed by ‘for immediate release’ on Google and scroll down to find press releases, these should contain details of the agency or team that wrote and distributed it.

 

It’s important for agencies to take an umbrella approach to PR and marketing. So always look for those that have a consistent message going out across all their platforms. Their blog content, social media, and website should reflect the standards they provide to clients.

10 Red Flags to Watch Out for When Hiring a PR and Marketing Agency

 

Once you have your shortlist of appropriate agencies, it’s time to reach out and set up an introduction call. This is your chance to explain exactly what you’re looking for, ask questions, and learn what this agency could achieve with your budget. After the introduction call, expect the agency to prepare a proposal for review.

 

During the call and proposal review process, you should watch for red flags including:

 

  1. High Turnover

Does this agency retain staff for a long time? If not, you may find yourself having to constantly re-adjust to new account coordinators. Every time this team member changes, you’ll need to bring them up to speed on your plans and products, wasting time and budget.

 

  1. Low Expertise

What expertise does the team have? Are there more juniors than seasoned professionals? When you hire an agency, it’s best to find one made up of experienced experts in your target markets. That way, it’ll be quicker to educate them on what you offer. They’ll also be able to keep up to date with industry trends and easily see where you fit into them. This is a common red flag to watch out for. When talking to clients who had a bad experience with their last agency, we typically hear about a lack of knowledge of the technology and the market, inexperienced account coordinators and writers who can’t craft engaging stories.

 

  1. Rigid Contracts

PR and marketing contracts are typically based on either a:

 

  • One-off project fee: best when you only need help for a limited time, perhaps for a product launch or event appearance
  • Monthly retainer: best for when you need maximum flexibility and support for your current team on an ongoing basis.

 

Whichever you choose, this contract should be flexible and made-to-measure for your business needs. It also shouldn’t tie you into an unbreakable commitment. At Liaison, for example, we give prospective clients 30 days to opt out of their contract if they want to go in a different direction.

 

  1. No Proposal

Before you select an agency, you should expect a custom proposal from that agency detailing their ideas, and exactly how they would execute those ideas with your budget. It should always include a breakdown of the hourly rate and exactly how many hours they are going to spend on your account. Run from any agency that simply sends you a list of services without anything more specific to your business needs. Be aware that some agencies will promise the world to lock you into a year-long contract with no plans to deliver the goods, asking plenty of questions is a good way to sniff these tricksters out.

 

  1. Too Many Releases

Another red flag is an agency that only relies on press releases in their proposal. Press releases are a key part of any great PR and marketing strategy, but sending journalists too many can be overwhelming and result in your news being instantly deleted. Instead, expect an agency to blend press releases with creative ideas and opportunities such as PR stunts, thought leadership articles, events, and roundtables.

 

  1. No Managers

The best agencies will assign you an account manager, which will be your primary point of contact in day-to-day work. Before you start working with an agency, you should know who this account manager would be, where they are based, and their background and experience. Ideally, this account manager should not be changed or switched out for anyone else once the work begins.

 

  1. No Past Clients

Unless you’re about to work with a brand new agency, you should expect to see a clear list of past clients. If the agency is guarded about their clients, or won’t be transparent about who they are, this may be a sign of poor relationships or unhappy customers. Similarly, it’s a bad sign if an agency doesn’t hold on to its clients very long. There will always be accounts that come and go, but look for an agency that’s worked with companies over several years as evidence of great relationships.

 

  1. No Case Studies

Just like a past client list, you should also expect prospective agencies to have an online presence as well as clear case studies about their work and the results they achieved. A lack of case studies and results may be a sign that the agency has something to hide.

 

  1. Guarantees and Promises

PR and marketing aren’t short-term solutions, and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Be aware of any agency that offers you guaranteed organic coverage, or incredible results on a tiny budget. The only way to truly guarantee coverage is to pay for it, or to be covered by publications that won’t truly move the needle when it comes to reaching your target audience. Instead, look for agencies that give you realistic results based on their experience.

 

  1. Too Much Focus on Press Contacts

Just as you should avoid agencies that guarantee coverage, you should also avoid any that focus too much on their relationships and how those will secure coverage. While media relationships are important, a journalist won’t publish your news unless it’s of interest to their readers. It doesn’t matter how many years you’ve known a journalist, you’ll only land coverage if the story is right.

 

Want a PR and marketing plan that’s tailored to you? Get in touch today.