Written by Gabby Wright
Published June 13, 2024

Kicking off a new client/agency relationship is like prepping for a first date.

On the agency side, we want to look and feel our best, come prepared by doing our research, and really “wow” them to make a lasting first impression. We also want to look toward the future and maintain those butterflies to build a meaningful, long-term relationship.

It starts with coming to the table from the get-go with a partner vs. an agency mentality. PR “agencies” tend to take direction, execute, and report back.

On the other hand, a PR “partner” becomes an extension of the team. They focus on intentional, proactive execution, are always-on, and live in a constant state of ideation – bringing new ideas to the table to help clients differentiate themselves.

With that groundwork, here are four ways PR partners focus on building successful client-agency relationships.

Principles of Client-Agency Relationships

Establishing Open, Two-Way Communication

Over-communication? Never heard of it.

Open, two-way communication with brands, especially those new to working with agencies, is the first step to getting in the right groove. PR partners should keep brands in the know and never leave them wondering what they’re working on.

In our initial kickoff meetings, one of the first questions we ask clients is their preferred communication method. This way, we can meet them where they are most comfortable. Sometimes that means joining a platform like Teams or getting familiar with SharePoint's ins and outs.

Here’s what our ongoing communication structure looks like when building a successful client relationship:

Slack or similar messaging tools for quick notes, flags, and documents to review. The rule of thumb is that if it can be answered quickly through Slack, it probably doesn’t need to be in a live meeting.
Discussion-based weekly or biweekly meetings focus on strategy, idea sharing and bringing opportunities to life.
One-off meetings as needed to dig in on specific campaigns and brand updates.
Weekly and monthly reports show accomplishments, and what’s in the works and on the radar. This way we never have to spend valuable face time reviewing a laundry list of to-do’s.
“Good News Emails” as coverage happens. These detail the value of the placement – not just the vanity metrics – using the Carve Scoring System (CSS), which gives each hit a score based on criteria like influence, content, tone, and more. We measure these constantly for a view of PR performance over time allowing us to identify ways to improve our results.

Also, something we start from the first day of our partnership is a Central Document, which is a client-facing Google Sheet. This living, breathing document houses our media placements, awards and events, pending opportunities, LinkedIn Executive Communications schedules, and more so brands have visibility into everything. Whenever partners are looking for details, they know how to access them.

At the end of the day, over-communication builds trust and transparency.

PRO TIP: Open communications also means honest communications. Is the strategy working or is it time to pivot? Were there parts of the coverage that could’ve been better? Are expectations realistic? A PR partner is objective – that includes taking off the rose-colored lenses and letting clients know when something isn’t feasible.

Understanding What Matters for the Business

The client/agency relationship kickoff call is a great opportunity to level set on what matters. Some questions we ask to ground our work include:

Tell us an ideal headline or your dream outlet – This helps the team gauge what type of pitch angles are a priority and publications they would view as a big win.
What are the top five industry publications you read? – One client who helps transform product and engineering teams mentioned their favorite Substack – Pragmatic Engineer. It wasn’t one we had worked with before, so we subscribed and followed the author on LinkedIn to find our way in.
How do you stand out versus the competition? – This helps give us an inside look at what the brand perceives to be their market differentiators.
What are you hoping to accomplish through PR? – Most of the time, there’s not one simple answer. And that’s OK. But a client’s off-the-cuff responses reveal priorities that prepared moments often don’t.

PRO TIP: New clients should pass over baseline materials – marketing decks, case studies, messaging documents, customer personas, and more (especially things not found on your website) – so your PR partner can get to work sooner rather than later. This frees up time for agencies to ask smart questions vs. only spending time on Google-able details.

We also spend a generous amount of time during the onboarding process conducting SWOT analyses, scheduling demo calls, and hosting Messaging Matrix sessions.

Those sessions are held within the first two weeks of partnership to align on responses to four fundamental questions – the what, why, how, and who of their business. It helps us all (agency and client) move in the same direction, deliver a consistent message to media, and identify audience-specific angles for outreach.

Committing to Continuous Learning and Experimentation

Beyond the onboarding period, a PR partner also prides themselves on staying current in clients’ industries. PR pros are essentially signing up to do homework for the rest of their working lives – but instead of memorizing the quadratic equation or Newton’s Law, it’s more investigative.

These methods help with continuous learning:

Subscribing to newsletters and trades – Follow those top five industry reads and don’t forget “newer” media like newsletters. With the media downsizing trend, many reporters became independent publishers and in those newsletters, they tend to share insights and curate the most important trends and news of the moment. (Many are also opportunities for influential, targeted coverage.)
Asking non-obvious questions – What are the industry’s biggest pain points? What do people constantly misunderstand about a brand’s product or service? This gives you a sense of what’s below the surface while sparking story angles.
Following the voices of the industry on social – Dig in on LinkedIn or X to keep a pulse on what different thought leaders are saying and sharing.
Sleuthing on the competition – What do their biggest competitors have in the works? Is there white space that the brand can step into?
Attending industry events (virtual and in person) – Two hours or two days surrounded by industry experts, professionals, and presentations take learning far and strike inspiration.

Having a strong grasp on the industries brands play in, the competitor landscape and their priorities helps us build strategies and get results that matter.

Setting Realistic Goals & Expectations

Happy wife, happy life? Nah. More like happy client, happy life.

A successful client relationship is rooted in setting realistic and measurable goals from the start. We work closely with brands to define yearly and campaign-specific KPIs.

Here’s an example of yearly KPIs for a growth-stage, B2B client.

KPIs vary drastically depending on the nature of the announcement and client – it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. PR partners also don’t promise clients a front-page feature in the Wall Street Journal if there’s not anything newsworthy that holds WSJ value. Instead, they’ll suggest realistic media outlets that are better suited for the nature of their news and audience.

Setting realistic expectations within a client-agency relationship ensures brands have a clear understanding of what is achievable, helping maintain trust and satisfaction. No surprises here!

Embracing Change Whenever it’s Needed

Just like any relationship, the client/agency relationship can change over time. Your agency partner should be a master of the art of the pivot.

Some ways we see pivoting play out in PR include:

Pivoting a pitch – in your eyes it’s a perfect one, but reporters may not feel the same. Tweak that subject line, or add value to your follow-up with a juicy nugget or trendjacking moment.
Pivoting a media strategy – a brand may have reached a saturation point in the media with a specific angle/set of outlets. If they’re rocking the consumer trades, shifting to a business/innovation story opens up opportunities.
Pivoting capabilities – Instead of a simple media relations campaign for a toy launch, how about tapping into an advocate program and having parents and children speak on their behalf may be a more authentic play?

One of the main principles of client-agency relationships is keeping a pulse on what’s working and what’s not, instead of waiting for results to plummet. We regularly review our outcomes with clients, compile key learnings from campaigns, and make adjustments to improve performance.

IRL Client Agency Relationship Example → Every April, our client Upper Deck spearheads National Hockey Card Day (NHCD), a celebration to build awareness of hockey collectibles throughout the world. Last year, our media campaign overperformed our KPIs, but we did have a few learnings. Those included increasing local market pitching and considering paid components. As we prepared for NHCD this year, we incorporated those learnings into our strategy.

As a result, we had a 57% increase in media placements and a 447M+ increase in impressions! We also received feedback from local hobby shop owners that this year’s NHCD made a positive impact on their sales, which is important to the brand’s mission of building up these local stores and communities.

PRO TIP: Revisit goals for every campaign. Our sustainable PR efforts for one client are focused on increasing their share of voice in the CMS industry. However, to support the marketing team’s brand awareness campaign our “big ideas” had nothing to do with CMS and everything to do with getting the brand covered in mainstream media.

Managing a successful client relationship is more than just checking off “onboarding” boxes and doing the work. Instead, both parties should work hard to build trust, and the principles above will help. When they are true partners, clients and agencies can build mutually beneficial relationships.

What Makes a Successful Client/Agency Relationship?