Hiring a public-relations firm for your business is a lot like entering a relationship, and it can be one of the most difficult business decisions to make.

There’s no guarantee that a PR campaign will produce the desired results, and the costs can be quite high. Yet, a successful campaign can help you expand your business in ways you never could on your own.

But you damned the consequences anyway; you’ve long since been engaging with a PR firm, but you somehow no longer feel up to it? Here is how to know when you’ve had enough, and quit right over.

Or perhaps you are considering engaging a PR firm soon…

Wait! Look out for these 5 red flags before you sign on the dotted line:

They can’t demonstrate real results

Choosing a PR firm is like choosing a wedding planner. You want your campaign to be a memorable success, you want the agency to represent you in a way that fits your character and style and most importantly, you want to be the undeniable star of the show.

If you are a tech startup you want to hire a firm which has experience working with startups, understands the ecosystem, the way that startups work and who also has extensive media reach of startup audiences.

If you are an accounting firm, you want to hire a firm who has extensive knowledge of accounting as a profession and which employs writers who are able to express themselves clearly using the jargon and technical language used within your industry.

It’s not just about choosing the most affordable option.

But if you’ve just began speaking with a DIY (Do it yourself) PR agency with no previous nor current clients, has vague or next to no ideas for your upcoming campaign or what communications they suggest would be most suitable for your announcement; and doesn’t offer a structured onboarding process before any payment is made, then, keep on walking.

Before choosing a PR firm, it’s important to look at their current and previous clients, and be sure that they have worked with companies in the same industry as yours.

Any respectable firm should be able to produce examples of successful campaigns for clients from a range of industries, and then offer a strategy based on previous results that will work for your specific case.

The firm is not transparent with you

Bad practices have led to PR being tarred as a profession full of “fluff and flair” where information is misrepresented and every company is the “best” and “the most innovative” in their field.

For this reason, you should write off any company which guarantees results on leading publications, and offers to promote any announcement you have regardless of whether it is newsworthy or not.

If you’re currently engaged with a “Yes man” PR agency that is ready to mold together a narrative that will excite the press or impress the audience, even at the expense of truth and PR ethics; then such agency can’t just be trusted. On to the next!

The new school of PR professionals agree that the three “Ts” of a great PR experience are Truth, Trust and Transparency. A company should be willing to maintain a level of transparency with you, from start to finish.

They should also keep you up to date with the process of your campaign, and allow you to edit/review pieces of work, which they aim to pitch to the public.

Remember, they are publicizing your company, your product or service and most importantly your aims and values, so you should be made an integral part of the process itself.

They are proposing marriage without dating you first

You are engaged with a PR agency that has put you on a 9 months retainer or more with them, from the word Go, without you assessing their services first. So, you are expected to pay up to nine months up front for their services, on top of on-boarding fees and expensive monthly rates.

Some PR firms will put you on retainer, requiring an upfront payment so they will be available to offer their services as needed. But you want the option of getting out of such an arrangement.

Usually, a review after three months is ideal; if they are not delivering after 90 days, you know whether it’s going to work or not.

The only way to truly test the value and expertise of a PR firm is by trying them out, and you don’t want to be stuck paying for another four to five months if your first cycle goes awry.

This is not to say that you should change firms immediately you don’t yield a million sales on your first cycle. But, at the end of the day, if the firm’s process doesn’t click, fails to communicate efficiently; or poorly portrays your values and vision, it’s always good to have an escape chute to call it a day early on in the process.

However you should note that a full cycle PR campaign can take anything from six to eight weeks in total, so don’t throw in the towel if your phone isn’t ringing off the hook in the first week.

You don’t feel like you’re in love anymore

If you’re currently engaging an agency and you just don’t feel connected; maybe because there are some grey areas in your contract with them, or you don’t know exactly what their services are worth, you don’t feel they’re competent for their engagement with you; or something is just off the hook.

Then, you may need to audit that relationship. Check more on how to dress for your first date-night with your PR firm

It is important that you like the team you’re hiring. Of course it is important that they are qualified and will do a great job, but it is equally important that you like the PR firm, and want to work with them.

It’s really no different from hiring people to work within your own internal team, you want to be excited to work with them every day!

They don’t know how to make things work

Whether it’s traditional media placements or online promotions, your PR firm needs to know precisely which media platforms would engage your target demographic most effectively. You also want a firm that has experience with both old and new media if you plan a variety of campaigns.

But right now, if you are currently engaged with an agency that is completely clueless about what media platforms to engage your audience on; keeps coming back to you for ideas on how you think they should run your promotions; is not open to you about the specific strategies they are planning on deploying for your publicity; and if you altogether just feel like something is not right; then you really need to use the door.

What Now?

Be sure to engage with a PR firm that has got you covered.

The choice of engaging a PR agency for your business, can potentially make or mar your business efforts. So, you want to be sure to do it well.

By “well” meaning, having the right agency, for the right reasons, with goals set to deliver a positive impact.

If you’re currently experiencing the above deal breakers in your relationship with a PR firm, and you’re looking to change agencies; you should begin to Rethink your Engagement here