Manufacturing PR retainer versus project fees - how to structure your PR investment

Should you engage a manufacturing PR agency on a retainer or pay project fees? The honest answer depends on your objectives, your budget and how you want the relationship to work.

What a manufacturing PR retainer covers

A retainer is a fixed monthly fee for an agreed scope of ongoing PR activity. For manufacturing businesses, that typically includes regular trade press relations, editorial calendar management, content production, media relationship maintenance and monthly reporting. The retainer model works best when PR is a sustained commercial programme rather than a series of discrete campaigns - which is the case for most serious manufacturing businesses.

When project fees make more sense

Project fees are appropriate for specific, time-limited communications tasks. A product launch, a trade show communications programme, a crisis communications response or a white paper production project are all suitable for project fee structures. The challenge with project-only PR is that it creates gaps between projects during which your editorial presence and media relationships erode.

The hybrid approach

Many manufacturing PR programmes combine a modest retainer for ongoing editorial maintenance with project fees for specific campaigns. This gives you the baseline media presence and relationship maintenance that a retainer provides, with the flexibility to scale activity up around major commercial milestones. It is a sensible structure for businesses that have genuine peaks and troughs in their communications requirements.

What manufacturing PR retainers typically cost

Manufacturing PR retainers for SME and mid-market manufacturers typically start from around 2,000 to 2,500 pounds per month for a programme covering one or two sectors with regular content production and media relations. Larger programmes for national manufacturers with multiple sector targets and higher content volumes will sit higher. Project fees for specific campaigns depend on scope and duration.

Getting the most from your PR investment

The return on a manufacturing PR investment is determined less by the fee structure than by the quality of the brief, the clarity of the commercial objectives and the willingness to give the agency sufficient access to technical and commercial information to do the job well. A well-briefed manufacturing PR programme on a modest retainer will consistently outperform a poorly briefed programme on a generous one.

For a broader view of manufacturing PR, start with our guide to manufacturing PR agency services or read more on building a manufacturing PR strategy.