Colette Ballou is the founder of Ballou PR. With a client roster that includes Eventbrite, Seatwave and Shopping.com she is well placed to give us the inside track about what to think about before hiring a PR agency.

It’s heartbreaking when an agency-client relationship doesn’t run smoothly, and one of the number one causes is that expectations aren’t aligned. So here are a few things to think about to make sure this doesn’t happen to you, and a few bonus tips on how to be an irresistible prospect for a PR agency.

First and foremost, PR takes time: count on six to nine months to really gain traction if you are starting from scratch. It’s a long-term investment; one-off projects here and there are not fully effective. You can’t just show up with your press release and get coverage – that happens about 5% of the time, and only if it’s really interesting news – a huge fund-raising, a truly breakthrough product or service, or it ties into current news or trends. It usually takes months of educating your target press about what you do and it’s value before you can get coverage.