[caption id="attachment_105" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Asking for a PR budget is not hanging you out to dry!"][/caption] “How much should I spend on public relations?” is a tough question, especially for those contemplating using PR for the first time but also, if they are honest, for corporate marketers. The PR industry has an unenviable reputation for “puff and spin” or “smoke and mirrors” and this suspicion can affect budget discussions with PR agencies.  Don't hide the budget   People often leave the budget out of their PR briefs, deliberately, with a view to minimising the quotes from public relations consultancy candidates. Stating an honest and clear PR budget is desired by agencies NOT in order to help them ‘spend up’ to the max but in order to scale their proposals appropriately.  Without budget boundaries proposals are theoretical, and will differ widely. Each PR consultancy will make wildly different assumptions about the budget. Each may spend a huge amount of time and resource on responding to a request for proposals, only to find out that the PR budget is unfeasibly small or that it is disproportionate to the challenge. PR is part of the marketing plan Setting a PR budget is understandably difficult and there are no hard and fast rules. Putting thought into it before embarking on a PR brief is essential. For one thing, PR should form part of the wider marketing plan. The budget for marketing should be created alongside the business planning and be proportionate to business sales and growth targets. How much to spend on PR? How much of the marketing budget PR commands should reflect how important it is to your business. PR must be considered in relation to the state of your reputation and how your business might benefit from improving it or by raising your brand’s visibility. The PR budget also needs to reflect your competitive situation – if your main aim is to rival a competitor’s presence in the media, then you must allow for sufficient activity to create and maintain your own presence - a very different challenge from a product review campaign. Longer term budgeting can help Public relations is not usually a ‘switch on, switch off’ activity but depends on enhancing visibility, momentum and reputation over time.  Some activities can be undertaken as projects such as campaigns to communicate particular messages or the creation and management of events. Production projects also work, such as the writing, recording or filming of content to make you look smart or extol the virtues of a product or service in a creative way. Underlying this should normally be a ‘background level’ of PR activity and growing relationships with media. Don't forget the bus tickets Once you reach your ballpark figure for what you need to and can afford to spend on PR (and have written your PR brief) the anatomy of the budget use must be borne in mind. Your overall budget will need to allow not only for the fees of an agency but also the costs of doing PR. There are basic day-to-day costs that a PR agency will incur including subscriptions or research magazine copies, clippings costs and distribution charges. Recent tightening up of rules by bodies such as the Newspaper Licensing Agency means that agencies are taking on more and more core costs, and some are inevitably or necessarily passed on to the client. There are further costs involved in creating events or producing multimedia content. Product marketers may also need to budget for sampling, review product or giveaways. Whatever you decided to spend on PR, one thing is certain: as with any aspect of marketing, measurement is vital. Contrary to popular belief you can measure PR in a number of ways - especially now that social media is such a major factor - and any agency should be able to build measurement metrics into its plans. With a considered PR brief, a well planned PR budget and good measurement you can be confident that you will be able to see a clear return on your investment.