View from the inside: How to be the agency partner every client wants

As long as there have been PR budgets, companies have hired agencies. And as long as there have been agencies, there have been client relationships that range from good, to bad, to ugly and back again—often in the span of a week.

As someone who spent two decades in agencies before going in-house, only to return to the agency side, I’m here to share a few tips to help agency teams be better partners and help clients make the most of their agencies.

For PR agencies: 

Your client didn’t hire you to tell them a bunch of stuff they already know. They hired you to be their eyes and ears to the world outside their company. They hired you to know when they have a story, and more importantly, when they don’t.

As agency partners, it’s our job to understand our client’s business and give them the tools they need to help their internal stakeholders understand the power of good communications.

Think about the meetings your client is in day to day (trust me, they are in a lot) and give them one smart thing to say. Whether it’s an insight on the industry from your daily news scan, something a competitor did or said, or even a hot tip about Clubhouse, your outside perspective will pay the retainer 10 times over.