An article was making its way round the social media landscape yesterday that caught the attention of the Red Marlin team and got us a bit rattled. The article in question appeared in an American blog called Business Wired. It claims that the financial cost of producing a press release in 2013 is $7,500! Over £4,800!

According to the article, a press release today would take about “150 hours of collective work,” including “Hiring staff for keyword optimization, content creation, research, analytics, multimedia, embed codes for tracking, and legal fees for regulatory compliance,”

These 150 hours of work will include following up with “journalists, outlets, and readers, answering user feedback from on social media sites growing and extending the content — and adding value to users.”

I’m afraid that we have to disagree. True, the PR and marketing world has changed dramatically over the past few years. Agencies and PR professionals cannot simply send off a press release to journalists and expect that one action to create significant coverage and sales for their clients. The press release is simply the first stage in communicating news rather than the end of the work.

However any agency worth its salt should be able to do this effectively for a far smaller budget. This is because the days of specific PR and marketing roles are over. Today’s PR professionals should be able to employ a variety of skills, including copywriting, content creation, SEO, social media marketing and good old fashioned contact with journalists.

It’s important to hire a team with the right skills set and knowledge of both traditional and modern PR processes as well as dedication in communicating your business’s message across a variety of channels.  It isn’t efficient or necessary to have an SEO team, a copywriting team, and a social media team. The successful PR professional should have ALL these skills at their fingertips. This will mean your business will get the best return on investment.

At Red Marlin we pride ourselves on a having range of skills, expertly and passionately delivered by small team from our base in Leamington Spa, who utilise every available channel to communicate messages. Biggest isn’t always best in delivering effective communications. The right team will be able to create high impact PR from whatever budget.