The Benefits of Close Collaboration with Your External PR Agency

So, you’re thinking of using an external PR agency to provide your Public Relations services (if it happens to be Nielsen McAllister, great choice), but how do you get the most out of this collaboration?

Getting the best out of the relationship with your external PR agency and building a strong partnership requires a focus on regular communication and trust.

One huge advantage of establishing trust with the agency is that it is beneficial for both parties, allowing for aligned strategies, goals and shared opportunities. Maintaining a close working relationship, with regular communication through frequent planning and review calls, ensures that we can keep up to date on any marketing, PR and communications that you need to work with us on.

During the early stages of working with clients, we always try and prioritise meeting clients in-person for a ‘knowledge transfer session’. In this meeting, we want to find out everything there is to know about your business – these sessions offer invaluable insights for us on your target audiences, upcoming PR opportunities, significant company information and also ‘nitty gritty’ details about your products or services.

This is because, unlike other agencies, at NM we take huge pride in thoroughly understanding our clients’ businesses so that our PR efforts are worthwhile and fully aligned with both yours and our own objectives. (You can ask any member of the NM team and they likely know their clients’ history and products in intricate detail, including the surrounding industry!)

As an additional benefit, the fact we are working with multiple clients, across diverse industries, gives us a broader perspective than you could achieve with an internal team. There are story ideas, editor relationships and experiences, that we can carry from one area to another, growing both the number of stories you tell and the opportunities to tell them.

We also advocate meeting in person at least every quarter (where possible) as it provides a great opportunity to sit down and connect with our clients – which is particularly useful when it comes to reviewing quarterly reports or planning PR initiatives for the year ahead. By meeting in person (often over lunch or coffee!), we’re able to facilitate productive discussions, clarify any queries from either side and brainstorm our ideas with you.

Trust is an essential part of your partnership with an external PR agency – and we do understand that handing over the communication reigns to an external company can be daunting. (We’re more than happy to sign an NDA when required!) However, it’s crucial to have confidence in our expertise and know that our work will always ensure the best for your brand’s reputation and success. Any good external PR agency will communicate every step of the way, meaning there should never be any reason to worry. I know I may sound like a broken record here – but regular communication really is the key!

Overall, it’s important to stress that external agencies are always able to provide the highest standard of PR when we are fully immersed in the client’s business, as essentially, an extension of your marketing team. This way, we can do our job to the fullest and ensure you are getting the most out of our talented team.

To find out more about the PR services we offer, click here.