Technology public relations agencies typically onboard two types of client engagements: One-off projects whereby PR support is perceived to be needed for a short period of time, and retainer-based PR services whereby the client secures PR services for a longer period – from months to years. Depending on the goal of the engagement, both scenarios can be advantageous for both parties. But a closer look into these dynamics reveals some complicating factors that may impact the success of your PR program. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons.

Short-term projects can give clients the opportunity to “test drive” an agency to see how they perform, and can be helpful for startups launching into the market when their budgets are understandably tight. Or perhaps when industry tradeshows eventually return, you’ll want to make a big splash in venues where industry influencers will be congregated and immediately accessible, albeit for a limited period of time. In addition, for an agency like Rainier with a stable of talented writers on staff, we also often see clients come to us to develop important pieces of marketing collateral, and other content, paid for on a per-piece basis.

Another area where we often see successful one-off project engagements is in strategic messaging summits, whereby a client invites Rainier in to lead a single or multi-day session to distill its top-line messaging down to its essence. There can be so much value derived from this type of exercise, when a client recognizes the value of inviting a neutral, dispassionate, expert third party to assess its messaging from the outside looking in. Rainier has onboarded many of these types of engagements in recent years, and the eye-opening experiences afforded to clients when they participate in Rainier’s ‘Market Engineering™’ sessions have proven invaluable to them. In many cases, what begins as a one-off project evolves into an ongoing, retainer-based relationship whereby Rainier implements a strategic PR program built around the core tenets of the original messaging exercise.

That said, there can be drawbacks to the one-off PR project approach, and this is why we generally prefer the ongoing, retainer-based PR service model.

Tech PR agencies and clients alike have learned through the years that PR is a journey, not a destination (unless your goal is to be acquired – and Rainier has plenty of experience guiding clients toward liquidity events). The best PR programs are built on sustained momentum, ever-strengthening media and analyst relationships, and a steady cadence of news and content that demonstrates to your customers and prospects that you have the desire, vision and wherewithal to propel your innovation and brand forward. They want to see a continuous drumbeat of progress and success, so they know they’re investing in the products and services of a forward-looking, fiscally healthy vendor that’s able to cogently articulate its value proposition in every available forum.

For clients that have test driven a PR agency in the form of a one-off project, it’s also understood that your agency has invested considerable resources to scrutinize your technology, market opportunities and audiences in great detail, while simultaneously cultivating influencer relationships on your behalf. This is what’s required to be successful, and the best PR agency teams will welcome this challenge, often doing so on their own dime so that you don’t pay for their learning curve. Your agency has put in the hard, up-front work to cultivate this expertise on your behalf. Leverage it to the hilt on a go-forward basis to maximize the value of your PR investment.

There are many other reasons why retainer-based PR engagements are mutually beneficial, but among the colder, harder realities of the business world is the simple fact that the expert PR team you’ve identified and trusted to lead your successful one-off PR project…might not be available to you if or when you decide to build a long-term program. We all have businesses to run, and PR agencies are no different in that we must prioritize and allocate staffing capacity for defined, recurring program budgets. We always want to work with you, so let’s carve out the time and budget required to make sure that we can.