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How much does a PR campaign really cost?

Do PR Campaigns Have to be Expensive?

PR Campaigns can vary in price depending on factors such as the size of your company, your PR action plan and what services you require.

A good PR campaign if properly planned, with great PR tools, does not have to cost the earth.

Use JournoLink to get your stories in the press

Easy-to-use, easy-to-learn publicity software built for small businesses.

Here is a summary of what PR Services you can find on the market:

  • Full-Service Agencies

A full-service agency can provide everything from strategic planning though to project management, copywriting, and a creative director who will all be listed as full-time employees of the agency. This means they will have a set salary already in place so any work they do for your company will be based on that starting salary.

The client will cover that cost plus a multiple added on to cover a roughly 20% profit margin and overheads. If your contract is for one year, this cost is divided by 12 to provide what is known as your retainer fee per month. Any additional costs such as hospitality, travel and promotional materials will be added on as expenses.

Practically speaking this means that retainer fees start at around £500 for the smallest agencies, and can go to tens of thousands of pounds for larger agencies.

This is paid regardless of coverage achieved, though professional agencies will give clients results. These kinds of costs mean that it is not an affordable option for most SMEs.

  • PR Distribution Agencies

A PR Distribution agency will write and send your press releases to lists of journalists they hold for a fee. Fees can cost from £100 to over £1000 per press release distributed, depending on the number of journalists you need to reach. 

The fee for a professionally written press release is around £1-200 per press release, sometimes more.

Distribution services like PR Web and PR newswire will also try to maximise web exposure of your press release.

This means that again, this is not an affordable option for most SMEs and start-ups.

  • Create Your Own PR Campaign

Before you start you need to have a clear idea of your aims and objectives. A good understanding of the user experience of your service or product, and the profile of your customers is essential.  With this base, you can do your own PR, with the help of PR software tools.

We designed JournoLink to provide this third option to help SMEs achieve their business goals, even if they have a small budget.

If you know your brand and its USPs and its positioning in the market all you need is a distribution service for your press releases which reaches over 6000 journalists in print broadcast and online media, a working business calendar to flag up important dates and milestones, a mechanism for responding to journalists request for news and interviews, and coaching in the development of your own PR campaigns.

In addition, we offer professional writing services for a fraction of the costs outlined above. This is particularly useful if you do not have much experience or knowledge about writing press releases. JournoLink can also enhance your online profile via SEO and social media marketing, using partners and champions.

Your PR campaign can cost you thousands of pounds a month or tens of pounds a month depending on your experience, your budget and your level of confidence in your product. The choice is yours.

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You can have a look at our competitively priced plans, or get in touch for further information about how you can get more media coverage for your business.

Reach out to JournoLink today at: sales@journolink.com.

Use JournoLink to get your stories in the press

Easy-to-use, easy-to-learn publicity software built for small businesses.

Written by: Tetteh Kofi, Brand Ambassador for JournoLink

Tetteh is a broadcast journalist with credits on the BBC, ITN, LBC and Colourful Radio in news and current affairs. He published newspapers and has run training and crisis management programmes for multinationals and government agencies across Europe.

Use JournoLink to get your stories in the press

Easy-to-use, easy-to-learn publicity software built for small businesses.

We hope you enjoy reading our PR resources!

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