Why are businesses bringing their PR function in-house?

The demand for businesses and brands, leaders and founders, to be featured in the media has never been greater. Yet, the number of organisations bringing their PR function in-house appears to be on the rise. The question is, why?

There is no single answer – there are a combination of factors at play. Here are the primary reasons why many businesses are moving away from relying on external PR agencies and opting to do it themselves.

Cost efficiencies

When trading conditions are testing and the prospect of economic growth is unclear, businesses look at where costs can be saved. PR agency retainers are seen by some as being rather expensive and for many businesses - especially SMEs - these costs can sometimes be hard to justify when the return on their PR agency investment is not clear to see.

As a result, a decision is taken to cancel their agency contracts and delegate PR responsibilities to internal teams – usually the marketing department. This makes sense. By absorbing the PR function internally, businesses anticipate greater control over spending and a reduction in overheads.

Greater strategic alignment across multiple touchpoints

The desire for deeper brand integration plays a crucial role. This is the way that all communications – both external and internal – accurately reflect the business’s messaging, tone of voice, brand personality, purpose and positioning. In other words, it is about unified storytelling across multiple touchpoints – from social media to press coverage to customer service.

An in-house team lives and breathes the company culture, possessing an intimate understanding of its values, products, and long-term vision that an external agency might struggle to fully replicate. This proximity often leads to faster decision-making and more agile responses to real-time events.

Cross-functional collaboration

PR often intertwines with content marketing, social media, SEO, and even internal communications – elements that often sit under ‘marketing’. An in-house PR team can more readily integrate with these various functions; thereby, ensuring consistent messaging and a unified brand voice across all touchpoints. This level of intrinsic coordination is harder to achieve when relying on an external partner who might operate on different systems or schedules.

However, the transition to an in-house PR model is not without its significant challenges, and it’s here that many businesses risk underestimating the complexity involved.

While cost savings are appealing, they can be quickly offset if the internal team lacks the necessary breadth of expertise. Building an internal team that genuinely possesses this diverse skill set can be both time-consuming and expensive, often requiring significant investment in recruitment and ongoing training.

MarComs People exists to provide in-house teams with the skills they need to effectively run successful PR initiatives. See our Services page for more information, or email Paul MacKenzie-Cummins at paul@marcomspeople.com to set up a discovery call.