What is the Cost of PR? How much are PR Fees?

How much does PR cost? New calculator reveals cost of PR

By Annalee Tacuri

How much is the cost of PR? Every business owner wants to know the answer to this question. The PR agency, MACIAS PR has developed a free calculator to reveal the answer for any industry.

PR firms typically tailor the price of a PR campaign based on the company’s goals. Since every company is different, a PR firm will customize a PR plan with different strategies. Before we break down the factors that go into the cost of PR, you should first understand the benefits of PR.

Benefits of PR

Public Relations will improve the overall reputation and credibility of your company. Earned media from using a PR firm would bring in the most lasting benefits to your company’s image.  Some of the top benefits of PR are:

  • Impressed Investors: Investors will be extremely impressed to see how your company has appeared in influential media placements. An unbiased journalist writing an editorial on your company will present your company more attractive to invest in.
  • New Business and Clients: Media placements will also build your credibility to new potential clients. A potential client would pay more attention to an editorial article of your company rather than an advertisement.
  • Improved SEO: SEO is important for a website to not get lost in a google search. You gain more organic web traffic and user loyalty.

All of this information leads to the next common question, what exactly do PR firms do?

What are PR services?

Before you see the factors that determine the cost of PR, you should understand what you services you are going to be charged and what do these services entail. The following are examples of the initiatives that a PR firm would typically do:

  • Media relations: Pitch a compelling news story about your product or service for their  media connections to pick up the story.
  • Content marketing: Using blogs and/or news outlets to create high quality content about your product or service in order to market it to the targeted audience and increase the time on page of the website.
  • Digital marketing: Increasing SEO of your website and implementing marketing automations to encourage more organic web traffic and user loyalty to your website.
  • Social media: Build up the company brand through a strong and consistent social media presence.
  • Crisis communication: Implement crisis strategies, such as media training to react to any negative situation or press releases against your brand. 
  • Strategy consulting: Construct a strategic approach that is specifically tailored to the company’s goals in order to maximize media placements.

Now we understand the benefits of PR and PR services, let’s break down the elements that go into determining the price of PR campaign.

Factors that determine the Cost of PR

There is no straightforward formula to calculate the PR fees of a campaign. Similar to the Accounting industry, the PR industry needs to consider various factors. When determining the price of the campaign, PR firms consider the following:

  • Targeted audience: The targeted audience of a PR campaign could be B2B or B2C. PR firms use different PR tactics and resources to target each one of these audiences. So, there will be a variation in price between the two types of campaigns. 
  • Campaign reach: A PR campaign can reach to the local, regional, national scale. Different resources from the PR team will be required depending on how large is the audience range the company wants to reach. 
  • Type of coverage: Another factor on the PR fees of a campaign is how influential are the targeted media placements. Prestigious media placements, such as the national newspapers, require more intense PR strategies to land a story than local blogs. 
  • The product or service: The more unique your product or service is, then the less complicated it would be to create a news angle for media placements. The PR fees for the unique product’s or service’s campaign would be less than a campaign with a difficult news angle to pitch.
  • Website for the product or service: The PR team would use less PR tactics to improve your website traffic if your company has credibility.  A creditable company would have user loyalty that a PR team would be able to build on.

Considering the elements that go into determining the cost of PR, head over to FreePRQuote.com to receive an estimate on your next PR campaign.

Use the free calculator to determine the cost of PR for your next campaign

The founder and owner of MACIAS PR, Mark Macias created this free PR calculator to save time for business owners inquiring about the price of PR. The free calculator will determine the PR fees for your campaign without you hearing a sales pitch from a PR firm on the phone.

The virtual tool is made up of 8 questions regarding information about you company and your company’s goal. A business owner could fill out the Free PR Quote tool in less than 30 seconds. Within 48 hours, a detailed cost and proposal will be sent back to you. Try it out here!

Interested to learn more about Mark Macias and Maicas PR, continue to read along!

About MACIAS PR

In 2017 and 2018, MACIAS PR was named the Strategic PR Firm of the Year by marketing peers. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the Financial PR Firm of the Year based on their media deliverables, expertise and innovation in PR. MACIAS PR has run branding, media and crisis campaigns for tech and healthcare organizations, financial groups, nonprofit organizations, politicians and trade organizations. The firm is based in New York City. MACIAS PR was founded in 2009 by Mark Macias – a former executive producer with NBC, senior producer with CBS in New York and author of the business books Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media and The Tao of PR.

How much is a PR campaign? How much does PR Cost?

How much does PR cost? The PR agency, Macias PR has unveiled a free calculator to determine the fees for any PR campaign. The new tool eliminates the hassle of finding out the cost of pr.

Business owners can do their own calculation and get a PR quote by clicking here.

A PR campaign is similar to hiring an accountant. The cost for their services vary by the complexity of the work and how many resources they need to complete the job. The fee structure is similar to PR services.

Here are three questions to help you determine PR fees.

The cost of PR

  • The cost for a PR campaign depends on whether you want a local, regional, national, or international campaign. The more PR services that are needed, the higher the cost.
  • The complexity of the PR strategy plan also impacts cost for any PR campaign.
  • The best pr campaigns always deliver the right angle of the product or services in order to place it in influential media placements.

What PR Services do you need?

  • The PR services you need depend on your PR value. The PR strategies and PR tactics vary on the purpose of your campaign, such as increase sales, raise credibility, manage a crisis, raise awareness for a product/service, generate leads. For example, PR crisis management campaign would require media training.
  • Rather than discussing pr fees with a public relations agency over the phone, you can use the free an online pr calculator tool. Within 48 hours and without talking to anyone, a detailed cost and proposal will be sent back to you.

Marketing peers named MACIAS PR the 2017 and 2018 Strategic PR Firm of the Year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the Financial PR Firm of the Year. The founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He’s also a contributor with CNBC and author of the books, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media and the Tao of PR.

Media Campaign vs. Story Placement

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By Mark Macias

I frequently meet with tech startups who ask me, “why can’t I do PR on my own?” Many of these smart entrepreneurs tell me they already have great contacts in the media, so why should they hire a PR firm?

Many people wrongly believe securing a story in the news or on TV has everything to do with who you know. Yes – a contact will help but it’s more like an assist. It’s not a slam dunk. I’ve written about that misconception extensively in the past, so I won’t go in-depth here, but there is another PR lesson that the picture (above) better explains. During my time as an Executive Producer with NBC, many publicists tried to woo me with drinks or dinner, thinking it would lead to a story on TV. You can be married to the Executive Producer, but if you don’t have a strong narrative or interesting story to tell, your startup or business won’t get publicity.

I’m not a gemologist, but I know a rock doesn’t transform on its own into a beautiful diamond. It takes time, precision, perfect cuts and polishing to present the diamond in a way that we expect. It’s no different with a story idea – or for that matter – contacts. It doesn’t turn on its own into publicity. It takes the refining of an idea that develops it into a news story. It also takes a craft to develop the pitch in a way that gets reporters’ attention. That requires proper execution. You can write the best media pitch, but if you send it to the wrong reporter, you will fail. It gets even more complicated when you are actually designing and executing a full-scale media campaign.

So if you’re considering doing PR on your own, I will tell you, of course you can do it. The better question to ask is how long will it take to succeed and how many hours will it require?

Macias PR was named the 2015 top “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. The firm was founded by Mark Macias – a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. Macias is a weekly contributor with CNBC.com and author of the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media, which has been featured in the NY Times, Fox Business, NY Post and others. Macias PR has run media campaigns for tech startups, financial groups, service providers, nonprofits and politicians.