Why a Virtual PR Agency is the Best Partner for Your Brand:

It’s no secret that since the pandemic, remote work is everywhere. Industries that once strongly depended on office spaces and in-person interaction have found their new footing with team members clocking in from anywhere — from the comfort of their own homes to scenic vacation spots and local coworking spaces.

In fact, remote jobs now account for more than 15% of total employment opportunities in the U.S. – a number that stood at only 4% prior to the pandemic. Translation: There are three times more remote work opportunities today than in 2020. And with employees in every professional services sector feeling empowered to excel in their careers and pursue the lifestyle they want for themselves, their satisfaction is on the rise too. Recent research finds that 74% of employees feel happier when they work remotely. And any business leader knows: Happy employees stay longer.

This change in the workforce has taken resources that were never available before and places them right at our fingertips. The public relations industry is no exception. The public is more  skeptical than ever, and the need for PR and heightened brand awareness has never been higher. Finding the right team to land our brand in the headlines doesn’t require that everyone live in the same city, state or even country as their agency. It’s possible to source the best talent in the world for your unique business needs.

In this blog post, we’ll dive deeper into the benefits of a virtual PR agency and why it’s the best model for the modern communications landscape — to which our fully virtual team can attest.

The Best Talent Comes from Around the World

Gone are the days of the top talent being exclusively sourced from major cities like Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. Talent can come from anywhere. In fact, during the pandemic, a report found that during the 12-month period from July 2020 to July 2021, more than 1.2 million people left the nation’s large urban counties. The most notable brands in the world have come from diverse roots— from an early computer developer’s home garage or a seasoned entrepreneur’s penthouse suite. The same rings true for the PR professionals who represent these brands.

The best PR agencies today can leverage that and hire their workforce from anywhere in the world. (That’s the approach we take at Trust Relations.) When an agency isn’t confined to a static office location, it’s able to source top-tier talent from any location — and clients receive the added advantage of having a team who knows their local media landscape. A dispersed team also has the right connections to help push their clients to the next level in their business lifecycle and gain the unique audience exposure they need. In terms of logistics, because media opportunities, company news and even crisis situations can move at a rapid pace, sharing a time zone with your agency points-of-contact ensures everyone is communicating in real-time to capitalize on ripe opportunities and pivot quickly, as needed.

Varied Experiences and Perspectives Yield the Best Results

In a traditional office setting, many PR agencies have faced an unflattering truth: There’s often an unspoken “uniform.” In posh metropolitan settings and small-town boutique firms alike, there has been a pervasive trope among publicists that, in order to be successful, one has to look, sound and act “the part.” And while professionalism is crucial in PR, a cookie-cutter approach to hiring is not — especially not in an inclusive world, where people from all walks of life should be welcome. This old-school approach can actually backfire, because churning out employee clones and making everyone compete for the same roles often leads to a culture of exclusion, toxicity and high turnover — all of which damage client outcomes in the long term.

Luckily, the tides in the industry are beginning to change  — and virtual agency structures play a key role in that evolution. When agencies shed their hyper-local staffing models, truly diverse hiring practices can flourish. We’ve seen this to be true at TR — without the confines of geography, we have the privilege to hire the best staff with an incredibly vast range of unique perspectives and backgrounds. 

A remote approach elevates each individual’s unique skills, personality and ideas, and connects teams with varied, well-rounded understandings of each client’s unique industry. And while a good publicist must be empathetic and able to relate to a client’s target market, having a varied, remote team makes an agency hyper-vigilant to the nuances within the consumer demographics their clients are trying to reach.

Ditching Overhead Costs Can Boost Client ROI

Without the office rent and corresponding overhead costs, remote PR agencies are inherently more cost effective. At Trust Relations, our team has been remote since our founding in 2019  — before it was the widely accepted style of work it is today. We take pride in providing real value to our clients and ensuring that talent, especially in the form of senior team members, will actively be a part of their accounts. We’re living proof that when clients’ budgets aren’t going toward keeping the lights on in a luxury office building in Manhattan or San Francisco, instead it can go directly toward staffing top talent and maximizing PR efforts to surpass each brand’s goals and expectations.

Likewise, there is also an enormous level of flexibility that comes with a virtual PR agency structure. The best PR agencies can scale as their clients grow. That requires teams to be adaptable and expandable, to benefit brands that are also multiplying in size, reach and consumer base. Every brand’s needs will undoubtedly continue to evolve with time, and successful PR programs are long-term partnerships. A virtual PR agency has the talent and resources to meet a company’s goals, from its first funding announcement and IPO, to its legacy status as a household name.

Interested in learning how a virtual PR agency can take your brand to the next level? We have the solution for you — reach out to work with us here.