You really need to get an audit. No, this isn’t about taxes. It’s about resources.
There are many tools that help public relations professionals do their jobs effectively and efficiently: clipping services help track editorial placement so you can evaluate reach and messaging; news services disseminate news releases to a broader range of editors than can be reached one-on-one; online editor database tools find and track editor contact information, which is critical in these days of oft-folding print publications and quickly-emerging online media. We use these and many more resources, and we recently conducted an audit with Toolshed Partners to evaluate our service providers and their associated fees.
The results were eye opening. Toolshed found that some of our tools had features that we weren’t using, that our staggered contract start dates were resulting in different fees for clients whose needs were the same, and that our mix of products, vendors and reporting processes had room to grow in efficiencies. It’s understandable how we got to this point over the past few years – different account managers have different tool preferences, some clients came to us with contractual obligations to specific vendors, and clients’ varying contractual start-stop dates impacted some of our choices for services. And it’s fantastic to have that information under the microscope; this audit allowed us to look at all our client and account team needs holistically and create for us a resource library that will ensure we have the services we need to both communicate our client’s messages as well as track their exposure. It also showed us that it can be done at a savings to our agency and our clients of tens of thousands dollars.
This was a small investment by us that will help us better extend our budgets and enhance our resources, and I’d recommend it. Trust me, this is the audit that you’ll want.
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