Partner Article

PR Survey - Law Firms Most Sophisticated In Approach

Professional and financial services organisations are most sophisticated in their approach to public relations, according to a poll of senior in-house marketing professionals conducted over the last month (May 2015) by Darlington public relations consultancy Reay Public Relations.

The survey shows that professional services organisations typically have a more complex approach to public relations with an intricate mix of in-house teams, supported by consultancies, working on either a retained or project basis, often backed up with freelance support.

Jonathan Reay, Director of Reay Public Relations says: “Of all the industries we surveyed, accountancy and law firms used the most sophisticated approach when it comes to combining resources to meet their public relations needs.”

Professional services firms also place tremendous emphasis on having the right people working in their PR functions, either in-house or in consultancies; that is people who understand their business and their clients.

However, as many as one third of those surveyed do not believe that their current PR consultancy has a sufficiently high level of understanding about their business.

“It is often not so much about having the wrong PR consultancy, but the wrong people. Clients have to ensure that the best qualified people are working on their account. After a dazzling pitch process, it can be too easy to get landed with an inexperienced junior,” says Mr Reay. However, professional services marketing directors praised the external perspective which consultancies can bring and the additional resources they can offer at busy times, and there were very few complaints about lack of basic public relations skills.

Mr Reay says: “As a PR consultancy which specialises in law, accountancy and property, this confirms what we knew about the sophistication of the professional services industry. However, we were disappointed to find out that there is still a lack of understanding of firms’ PR needs among some external advisers.”

Reay Public Relations is a niche public relations consultancy focussed on the needs of property, law and accountancy firms throughout the UK.

Based in Darlington, it has advised national and regional property developers, property agencies, asset management businesses and house builders, regional law firms and accountancy firms, as well as corporate finance advisers and management consultancies.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Reay Public Relations .