PR is worth the money when there is a story that can travel on its own and reach people who might buy. It is a waste when you are paying someone to manufacture news that does not exist.
The retainer is easy to sign and hard to justify later, so decide what a win looks like before the first invoice arrives.
Fundraising, launches, category creation, and reputation repair are the moments where press still moves the needle. Each one gives a reporter a reason to write that has nothing to do with you liking the coverage.
In each case, the coverage is a means to something else. The story exists to help you raise or sell, not to fill a press page.
Paying a firm to pitch a product nobody wants is expensive silence. If the story is only interesting to your own team, no publicist can fix that.
Small lifestyle coverage and award programs rarely pay for themselves. Buy them because you want them, not because you expect a return.
Ask what you would do with the retainer if you kept it. If the honest answer is something more useful, keep it.
A publicist can amplify a story that exists. Nobody can amplify a story that does not.
Be wary of anyone guaranteeing placements, since credible outlets do not take orders. Pay for strategy and relationships, then judge the results over months rather than days.
Ask for a clear scope, a named team, and examples of reporters they have actually placed. Vague promises of big coverage are a warning sign worth taking seriously.
Get the fee structure in writing and understand what is billed. Hourly confusion is how small budgets disappear.
Early on, founders often pitch better than agencies because they know the story cold and can answer a reporter in seconds. Use a firm when you need reach and relationships you do not have.
Blend the two when budgets allow. Keep the founder pitching the core story while a small team handles the logistics and the follow up.
The founder pitch has one advantage no agency can copy. You care about the answer, and reporters can feel that in a line of email.
PR is a slow asset, so resist judging it week by week. One good relationship can pay off across several launches.
At the end of a year, compare the coverage and the cost against the deals and hires it helped create.
If the math does not work, change the approach or stop. Spending on PR without a reason is just an expensive habit.
Before you hire a firm, try one launch yourself. You will learn what a reporter needs and where your story is thin.
A small paid experiment, such as a single launch or a focused month, tells you more than a year of guessing from the outside.
Spend real money on PR once the story has proven it can travel. Then a firm amplifies something that already works.
If the experiment fails, you have lost a month and learned what to fix. If it works, you know exactly what you are buying.
A press kit earns its keep when a reporter can pull facts in two minutes. Here is what to include, what to cut, and how to keep it current online.
A one page press release respects the reader. Here is the structure that keeps a reporter reading all the way to the closing quote and the offer.
A good pitch is short, specific, and written for one person. Here is how to pitch journalists so your email earns a reply instead of a delete.
Analyze a channel, extract its structural DNA, and generate scripts engineered from patterns that actually work.
Analyze a Channel