Nonprofits don’t have a reputation for keeping million-dollar marketing departments. Just the opposite. Since nonprofits run on budgets limited by sponsorships, donations, and volunteer labor, they need to choose the most cost-effective options available to them.
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Top Nonprofit Public Relations agency, The Blake Agency, shares a video below on how your nonprofit can effectively hire and work with a PR agency
Cost-effective doesn’t mean “cheap.” It means investing your money into the options that will bring you the most results. In terms of a local community-based nonprofit, this means going local.
Marketing bigwigs will give you a thousand reasons why you should let them handle your PR department from ten states away. However, you want someone by your side that understands the environment your nonprofit is operating in.
The Blake Agency is the ideal combination of experience and proximity. Headquartered in Atlanta, they keep a finger to the pulse of Georgia itself. Their experts construct detailed public relations campaigns designed to take every nonprofit to new heights.
What is Public Relations & How Does it Benefit a Nonprofit?
Public relations is a set of techniques that help form or improve public opinion. It uses creative storytelling and careful branding to shine a positive light on a specific subject. Normally, this is done via unpaid methods such as pitching news stories to media outlets or sending samples to popular influencers.
This is particularly effective when paired with the unique aspects of a nonprofit. Since they are largely dependent on donations for income, creating a public face that people willingly support is more important than in traditional business models.
Additionally, the smaller budgets that nonprofits work with make the best use of PR’s low-cost strategies. There are no paid advertisements or promotions which allows nonprofits to grow their audience and public image without straining resources.
While different top PR firms have varying advantages; Georgia-based nonprofits will find the best results from employing an agency that understands the unique aspects and challenges of this state. Here are three reasons why going local is the right choice for your nonprofit.
Sharing Time
You send an email, and it takes half a day to get a response. Every business owner has dealt with the extreme frustrations of slow communication. It can feel like the world is moving on a time lag.
PR firms want to promote news stories or endorsements as quickly as possible. There are also emergency situations and damage control procedures that need to be dealt with on the fly when things go wrong. This requires a quick reaction time that is only possible if the nonprofit and PR agency utilize shared operating hours.
However, this doesn’t mean that any agency in your time zone is a good choice.
Existing Relationships with Local Vendors and Media Outlets
Due to most nonprofits’ involvement in the community, existing connections are a big part of efficient PR work. If an agency doesn’t have any boots on the ground, then it’s nearly impossible to form meaningful and long-term relationships.
A local PR agency will have a network of contacts they can leverage and share with your nonprofit. They know which businesses would be the most amenable to working with your nonprofit and can get local news outlets to publish your stories faster. More importantly, a local PR agency would know which partnerships to pursue to reach the right audience.
A PR Agency Focused on YOU
Nobody wants to feel like their business is just another box on a checklist. Working with a distant PR firm can leave you feeling like an afterthought. The increased time it takes them to respond and the non-specific ideas they pitch all stem from a lack of local knowledge.
Working with a local service lets you form a closer working relationship. You can meet members of upper management and interact face-to-face with your account manager. This gives your nonprofit many more chances to go over and revise the direction of a PR campaign.
A local PR agency like The Blake Agency can also tune in more precisely with client responses. If your audience had a negative response to the latest piece of content, then a local top PR agency like ours can hear the feedback directly instead of waiting for it to fall through the grapevine.
Conclusion
Working with an Atlanta-based firm like The Blake Agency is more like bringing on a business partner than a service. You interact with the same community, tune in to the same networks, and walk the same streets.
In short, you’re able to work without the hindrances that a culture gap caused by distance entails. This is especially important in the world of public relations where your message has to be accurate and tailored to a specific audience. If you want to know if The Blake Agency is the right fit for your needs, visit here to set up a 15-minute discovery call.
