Holyrood PR’s commitment to a clear and easy-to-understand PR fee structure

EVERYDAY is a school day in the fast-paced world of PR – we’re always learning and finding out interesting new facts and information especially when it comes to PR costs.

Despite stuffing our noggins with as much knowledge and insight as we can humanly manage, there are still times when we find ourselves completely stumped.

Here’s an example – after eight years of conducting our annual audit of cost transparency among  Scottish PR agencies, we still can’t find any significant sized public relations agency that is up front about fees.

Why? I’m afraid we are totally nonplussed on that. Basically, we are baffled why the PR sector has such a blind spot when it comes to transparent pricing.

The fact is that our agency, Holyrood PR remains the only Scottish PR agency of scope and scale which publishes clear and transparent pricing online. And we’ve done that since 2012. You can find the full details here – https://www.holyroodpr.co.uk/why-us/cost-charges/

Our rationale is simple – is there anything at all that you would buy without first checking the price? A house? A car? A pair of jeans? The services of a lawyer? A mobile phone contract? The answer is a pretty resounding no.

So why would we expect potential clients to consider working with our PR agency if we weren’t able to give them an idea of costs – particularly since PR contracts tend to be over a prolonged period and require a significant investment.

We love it when potential clients, who have been researching the market for PR services, come to us and say how helpful and refreshing it is to see clear and unambiguous fees published prominently on our website. That happens frequently.

Yet, during our annual audit of PR agency pricing, we find virtually no other PR agencies who publish their fees. It’s a real headscratcher.

So, if you own or manage a business which needs PR services, brace yourself, because the research phase is going to be pretty challenging. You’ll find plenty of PR agencies telling you what they do, how they do and what their results looks like. But almost none of them will give you any hints, clues or tips on what kind of fees you are likely to pay for those services.

How do we know all of this? Because every year for the past seven years we have carried out a detailed audit of more than 70 Scottish PR agencies of all sizes.  For the year 2022-23 we benchmarked a total of 83 PR agencies.

 We have a consistent and well-practised methodology. That sees us carry out a series of checks, including manual research of websites, search engine checks and site-specific searches.

We found only one other PR agency with a clear menu of pricing options. It is a two-person boutique agency serving the Highlands. Well done to them, because they are in a very small and exclusive club.

Clarity and transparency build trust – one of the most important lubricants for modern business.

We don’t make up our fees to what we think our clients can afford – and those clients never have to worry that they might be getting charged a higher rate than more favoured customers. Nor do we hit our clients with unexpected add-on charges and they should never be surprised when our invoices arrive with them.

So, if you want to work with an agency which you can trust 100% to be transparent on fees and charges, then look no further.

Would you like to work with an agency that is clear about PR costs and charges?

Contacting us couldn’t be easier. Phone us on 0131 561 2244 or take a few seconds to fill and submit the simple contact form, below, and we’ll get straight back to you: