Key takeaways
• The right PR agency relationship depends on how your team is structured, not just the services you need.
• Internal ways of working are often invisible to the people inside them, but important context for an external partner.
• Before deciding what to outsource, consider where an external partner can create the greatest value.
• The best client-agency partnerships complement existing expertise rather than duplicating it.
One of the questions we’re often asked during agency selection processes is: “How will SE10 fit into our team?”
It’s an important question, but before we can answer it, we need to understand something first: What does your team look like today? Because there is no single way for an industrial organisation to manage communications.
Some businesses have large, experienced communications teams with specialist expertise across different areas. Some have marketing teams but no dedicated PR or corporate communications function. Some have one person responsible for everything. And some SMEs (small-to-medium-sized businesses) have no internal marketing resource at all and need an external partner to provide much broader support.
None of these approaches is unusual. The challenge is that internal ways of working are often invisible to the people inside them. What feels obvious to one organisation can be important context for an agency.
The perspective you gain from working across different organisations
At SE10, we work with many different industrial organisations, each with different structures, priorities, skills, and resources. That means we see a wide range of ways businesses choose to approach communications and one thing becomes clear: the same service does not always require the same agency relationship.
Two organisations might both ask for media relations support. One might need an agency to act as a press office, managing ongoing media activity and identifying stories from across the business. Another might already have an experienced in-house communications team in place and simply need additional capacity, specialist sector expertise, or help expanding into a new market. The service may sound the same, but the role the agency plays is not.
Start with the partnership, not the service
Many of the RFP (request for proposal) briefs we see, naturally begin with the activities the client wants: media relations, content creation, social media management, or campaign support. Those requirements are important, but they only describe what needs to happen. They don’t explain who is best placed to do each part of the work.
Where does your team already have expertise? Where are people stretched? Which activities need specialist external support? Where would an outside perspective add the most value?
The answers to these questions help shape an approach that uses everyone’s strengths effectively.
The wrong model creates unnecessary friction
Without that understanding, it is easy to design a relationship that creates unnecessary friction. A client may end up paying an agency to deliver work their own team already has the skills and experience to do. An experienced communications team may spend more time managing the agency than benefiting from its support. Or an agency may build a proposal around assumptions that do not reflect the reality of how the organisation operates. None of those outcomes represents the value an agency partnership should create.
The aim is not for an agency to replace the capabilities that already exist inside an organisation. It is to add the extra capabilities, capacity, and perspective that needed to help it achieve its goals.
Building the right relationship
Hannah Kitchener
Associate Director
About the author
Hannah is an associate director in the UK, leading strategic campaigns for industrial clients across the EMEA region. A professionally qualified journalist (NCTJ), she combines specialist sectoral knowledge in construction, energy, and materials handling with a strong network of trade media contacts to secure valuable coverage. Her expertise in inter-cultural communication, honed by degrees in modern languages and translation, is key to executing campaigns that succeed across diverse European markets.
