Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
The PR firm with no PR is a real problem and your prospective clients are Googling you
A PR firm runs on three pipelines: warm referrals from past CMOs and CEOs, on-call crisis work from incumbents who have your number, and inbound from search for specialty queries ('crisis comms Sydney', 'ESG comms consultancy', 'IPO comms Melbourne'). The economics are decided by which engagement signs: a $5k project, an $8-25k a month monthly retainer, a $50-500k major-campaign engagement, or a $500-plus-an-hour crisis-on-call line. The firms who consistently sign the second, third, and fourth one have a PRIA credential shelf, anonymised case studies that show the playbook (the issues-management decision-tree, the spokesperson-readiness work, the stakeholder-sequencing, the media-list discipline) rather than just the airbrushed coverage, a published commentary every fortnight in Mumbrella, PRovoke, B&T, or AdNews, and a Holmes Report or PRIA-Award listing that means something. The market is loud, Edelman and the holding-company shops are spending hard on PPC for the same queries, and the buyers (CMOs, CEOs, CFOs, government communications directors) check your specialty-page coverage and your published thinking before the discovery call. Half of mid-tier Australian PR firms don't have a crisis-comms specialty page and lose the inbound to Sefiani.
Good PR firm marketing is three things, in this order: a dedicated specialty page per discipline (one each for crisis comms, corporate comms, media relations, investor relations, ESG and sustainability comms, healthcare and pharmaceutical comms, government and public affairs) because the buyer Googles the discipline plus city, an anonymised case-study library that shows the playbook (issues-management decision-tree, spokesperson readiness, stakeholder-sequencing, media-list discipline, coverage-vs-message-pull-through measurement) rather than a grid of mastheads, and a published-commentary rhythm (a Mumbrella-PR, PRovoke, B&T, or AdNews comment a fortnight, a LinkedIn post twice a week, a PRIA-Awards or Holmes-Report listing a year, a panel at the PRIA Conference) that names your distinctive POV on whichever reputational issue is hottest. The PR market is a specialty-search market plus a published-credibility market; the firms who run dedicated specialty pages and publish a real POV win retainers from the firms who hide behind a clippings grid.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Builds your annual plan around the specialty you actually want more of (corporate comms vs crisis comms vs media relations vs investor relations vs ESG and sustainability vs healthcare and pharma vs government and public affairs) and the engagement model that pays best (monthly retainer vs major-campaign project vs crisis-on-call vs fractional comms director). Briefs the other agents so the specialty pages, the playbook case studies, the Mumbrella-PR commentary, and the credential shelf all push toward the $8-25k a month retainer plus the $500 an hour on-call line.
Imports your existing site (almost certainly a Squarespace build whose specialty pages are 'crisis comms, media relations, ESG' as three bullets on a services page) and ships a dedicated specialty page per discipline on day one. Ships an anonymised playbook case-study page for every major engagement (brief, playbook, stakeholder-sequencing, coverage-vs-message-pull-through, cleared outcomes, cleared testimonial) with valid Article and Organization schema, plus a credential shelf with PRIA, ACIA, current major-engagement count, and every published-commentary listing surfaced on every page.
Goes through your live site for the things that actually move PR-specialty rankings: specialty-plus-city keyword optimisation ('crisis comms Sydney', 'ESG comms consultancy Melbourne', 'IPO comms Brisbane', 'healthcare PR consultancy', 'government public affairs Canberra'), schema for a professional service, internal links from case studies to the relevant specialty pages, and a Google Business Profile that says 'Public Relations Firm' with PRIA in the description. Auto-applies the low-risk fixes; flags anything bigger.
Launches Google Ads on specialty-led queries ('crisis comms [city]', 'ESG comms consultancy [city]', 'IPO comms [city]', 'healthcare PR consultancy', 'government public affairs Canberra', 'fractional comms director'). Loads 'cheap PR', 'free press release', 'student', 'graduate', and 'press release distribution $99' as negatives so the wrong buyers self-deselect. Switches Meta off because PR-buying happens on LinkedIn and Google, not on a Facebook feed.
Turns every briefing reflection, every Trust Barometer release, every published commentary, every PRIA panel, and every campaign-go-live into a LinkedIn post in your real account: a 24-hour-after-Trust-Barometer take, a reflection from a Friday spokesperson-readiness session, a thank-you to a PRIA panel, a link to the Mumbrella-PR comment you placed yesterday. Posts twice a week from the briefing notes and post-engagement debriefs you'd otherwise never share. Builds the Sefiani-Mango-Cube-grade visibility at a fraction of the time investment.
Drafts the long-form pieces and the Mumbrella-PR / PRovoke / B&T / AdNews pitched comments that catch CMOs and CEOs at the 'do we hire Edelman or a boutique' stage: 'why the 72-hour rule beats the real-time-comms playbook in a regulated recall', 'when a fractional comms director outperforms a full-time hire', 'the spokesperson-readiness session your CEO needs before AGM', 'boutique vs holding-company PR: an honest comparison'. Two long-form pieces a month plus one quarterly pitched comment into the trade press.
Your first 30 days.
- Dedicated specialty page per discipline indexed: crisis comms, corporate comms, media relations, ESG, healthcare, government and public affairs
- Three anonymised playbook case-study pages indexed, each with cleared outcomes and cleared testimonial
- Annual plan focused on lifting retainer book past $10k a month average, delivered by Sam
- Credential shelf (PRIA, ACIA, current major engagements, published-commentary listings) visible on every page
- LinkedIn cadence at two distinctive-POV posts a week from briefing reflections
- Mumbrella-PR / PRovoke / B&T / AdNews pitched-comment pipeline live with one comment in the queue
- Google Ads live on specialty queries with cheap-PR and press-release-distribution negatives loaded
- 'Boutique vs holding-company PR' and '72-hour rule in a regulated recall' cornerstone explainers drafted
PR firms get the briefs their own specialty pages and their own published commentary signal for. A site with three specialty bullets on a services page, a clippings-grid case study from 2023, and a LinkedIn that's been silent for AGM season signals 'maybe past peak' and the CMO Googling 'crisis comms Sydney' books the Sefiani discovery instead. A site with seven dedicated specialty pages, three anonymised playbook case studies, a fortnightly Mumbrella-PR comment, and a Wednesday LinkedIn POV signals 'this is who we hire for the $25k a month' and the retainers follow.
Comms firms are particularly badly served by the alternatives. Agencies are too dear and the optics of a PRIA member hiring a holding-company digital shop are bad. Tools are cheap but you already run on Cision, Critical Mention, and Beehiiv and you still never quite ship the specialty pages. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the specialty pages, draft the playbook case studies, run the crisis-comms ads, pitch the Mumbrella-PR comments, and post the briefing reflections. You stay in the driver's seat, two taps to approve, minutes a day. Stop losing 'crisis comms Sydney' to a firm whose specialty page is just better than yours.