Reasons to Hire a Public Relations Firm 1 -9:

So, why would these two venerable trade publications tout the relative strength of public relations versus the other marketing disciplines they cover? While its star has been ascending for some time, this moment in time has created perhaps public relations' greatest opportunity to shine.

"For business public relations is an increasingly vital marketing tool—especially as traditional forms of advertising struggle to catch consumers' attention." The Economist (2)That observation from The Economist was supported in part by a landmark study conducted by marketing giant Procter & Gamble in 2005. When P&G employed a marketing mix model for six brands over a one to three year period, it found:

• PR drives sales, often on a par with advertising;

• PR delivers stellar ROI (275%), much greater than advertising;

• PR Provides a halo effect over other marketing tactics.

If you need to convince your company that a public relation firm is in the organization's best interest, this article provides a rationale: "7 Reasons to Hire a Public Relations Firm."

1. Ever Ready: The reputational stakes have never been higher for businesses the world over. As if battling an historic recession wasn't enough, companies today must perform in a virtual fishbowl at a time when the actions of corporations are being intensely scrutinized.

Monitoring the conversations taking place about one's company, and being prepared to act on negative or potentially damaging news is a daunting responsibility in its own right, even more so when added to the myriad other responsibilities of today's corporate communicator.

2. Objective Expertise: Public relations firms commonly serve as an extension of their clients' staff and are ever ready to provide services that achieve agreed-upon goals. Firms provide a critical perspective for their clients, keeping them abreast of all manner of news and chatter, advising them on the best ways to respond, or in some cases to simply listen.

3. Storytellers: Trained to be advocates, the ability to persuade through clear explanation is at the top of the hierarchy of skills public relations firms offer their clients. Further, public relations firms have a legacy of integrating the voice of the customer into communications initiatives. Voice of the customer (VOC) is an important concept today and PR practitioners are highly suited for gathering customer input and reflecting their stories in their true voices.

Agency personnel are expert content creators who author Web sites, speeches, bylines, position papers, op-eds, brochures, Q&As and, of course, press materials. Public relations firms help their clients' garner third party credibility from "earned" media — the classic strength of public relations vs. other marketing functions.

The credibility that public relations and editorial content provide has only become more valued as marketing noise increases and companies search for ways to cut through the clutter. In all this clutter and fragmentation, it falls to public relations professionals to lead companies into this conversation between consumers, mainstream media, employees, analysts, investors, bloggers and competitors around brands.

4. Creative Platforms: Whether it's figuring out the most appropriate message to present to the media, or developing a comprehensive communications strategy, clients want the best idea, period.Creativity often inspires and informs the communications strategies proposed by public relations firms. This flows naturally to the tactics implemented in various public relations campaigns, including, but not exclusive to, events, web design, experiential marketing, collateral material, and the always-important media relations.

The "earned" media aspect of public relations — unlike the "paid for" placement of other marketing disciplines — has to meet a very high, built-in standard. It must pass through the skeptical filter of producers, reporters, bloggers and citizen journalists before it can reach the public.

Each of these media and online conduits evaluate each public relations tactic and pitch, then decide whether it's important, interesting and — ultimately — newsworthy to their audience. That's a very high bar. But it forces the public relations firm practitioner to continually fine-tune the relevance of every marketing effort, public relations campaign, public affairs initiative and/or crisis response.

5. Speed to Market: Public relations firms are built for speed and are conditioned to work in the 24/7 Information Age. Just as they were configured to work with traditional media's deadlines and requirements back in the day, today's firms have incorporated the ethos – and the dialect - of the digital age into their workplace culture.

6. It makes financial sense: Relative to the cost of doing business, hiring a public relations firm can be extremely cost effective. For organizations to develop in-house public relations and communications specialization, the cost can be prohibitively expensive. Additionally, pubic relations firms typically work across multiple industries, geographies and cultures, enabling them to cross-pollinate ideas, providing their clients with more robust offerings that can be tapped as needed.

Public relations firms are also able to provide peak-load capacity, which can scale up or down as programs ebb and flow.

7. The risk of inaction: Information has never moved so fast or reached so many people. And people consume their (preferred) information form and test their perceptions quicker than ever. Even during tough times, when it comes to communications in general, and implementing a public relations strategy specifically, doing nothing is often not an option for any serious business or organization.

Today's public relations firms work at the highest level of strategic consultation down to the critical ‘tactical' work being done in the trenches, always making sure the client is prepared and competitive.