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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

• When was Stalwart Communications founded? 2006

• Where are your offices? We’re located in Kearny Mesa off of the I-15 and Aero Drive.

• Who are your target clients? While we don’t focus on any particular industry, we generally work with small to medium-sized businesses that have revenue between $2 million and $50 million. We feel these types of organizations are well served by a performance-based PR firm like ours, since they must be able to show quantitative results from such investments.

• How many clients do you serve? Stalwart Communications currently works with 13 clients in a wide range of industries, including defense contractors, health care, consumer electronics, enterprise IT security, retail establishments and professional services.

• Do you serve clients outside of San Diego? We’ve also worked with clients in Orange County, the Bay Area and are most certainly set up to support clients in other markets.

• What are the size of your clients? They are small to medium size and range anywhere from $2-$50 million, but there are also exceptions to that.

• Why the pay-on-performance model over the traditional P.R. model? There are several reasons, but it boils down to two. First, performance-based agencies are more focused on chasing opportunities for their clients rather than punching a time clock against a retainer. Their time is spent on building fruitful relationships with key media, industry and consumer publics instead of logging every phone call they fielded or email they sent.

Second, clients will have a better understanding of what they are getting for their money, because their bill won't come in the form of a purposefully confusing, 20-page, four-color, glossy activity report. Instead, we provide a one-page invoice outlining what results were achieved during the month. PR firms that operate under a pay-on-performance model will most certainly see a rise in client satisfaction, retention and referral rates.

• How does to pay-on-performance model work? We operate on a base and bonus structure. Clients pay a low monthly program fee that’s typically 10-20 percent of what a retainer-based agency would charge. For that fee, we give each client an UNLIMITED set of hours to perform all aspects of PR and marketing work, such as content development, customer relations, marketing strategy development, event planning, media relations and such.

The bonus structure comes from performance hits that we’re able to secure, such as article placements, awards, speaking opportunities, social media followers and more. These type of deliverables and associated fees are agreed upon by us and our clients before we begin work. We believe in acting like a good business partner and part of that is tying the majority of our revenues to our ability to perform. We chase opportunities instead of docking hours on a timesheet and that’s what separates us from other retainer-based firms.

 

• How much is the base? The base varies on the amount of work that believe will be necessary to accomplish the set PR and Marketing goals for each client, typically runs between 10 and 20 percent of what a retainer-based agency would charge.

• How much do your clients typically pay a month? They can pay as much as they would with any other firm, but only if we are successful in securing results. The typical range is between $3,000 and $5,000 per month.

• Why do you think you are the only pay-on-performance agency in San Diego? We honestly don’t know because we’ve been trying to convince other firms to move to this model. The direct competition will make our industry better, because companies will consider PR agencies, as a whole, to be more accountable for their efforts.

We can tell you that the resistance to this model by other firms is fierce. At a San Diego Public Relations Society of America event a few years ago, a fellow practitioner called our business "unethical" and the "equivalent of a used car salesman." We find that laughable; that person's agency puts all the risk on their clients and gets their fees every month even if they don't generate one additional piece of buzz. From where I stand, retainer-based PR firms have a much tougher time justifying their value than performance-based ones, particularly in tough economic times like the one we're facing now.

• How many team members are there? There are currently three full time folks, but we’re looking to hire another employee in the next month or two. We also have experienced independent contractors on “speed dial” that we can use to surge when needed.

• Who will be working on my account? At times, various team members will work together on a project, but you’ll also have one main point of contact that can be reached at any time during normal – and at times extended – business hours to service your needs.