alvin c croft

The one-of-a-kind how-to book that puts effective agency management strategies at your fingertips

The classic text that describes in detail how to successfully manage and market a public relations firm, has been completely updated with three new chapters and is now more than 50% longer. This one-of-a-kind new edition is bursting with creative tips, instructions, philosophies, theories, and guidance, all to help you steer your firm to success. It demonstrates how to market, promote, and sell a firm to attract, win, and hold the right clientele. You will learn how to manage a new or existing firm so that it is productive and profitable and has a long-range future.

Information in Managing a Public Relations Firm for Growth and Profit, Second Edition is based on author A. C. Croft’s extensive experience in the field-almost twenty years as a consultant to PR firm principals and more than 25 years as an employee or principal of three medium-sized successful PR agencies. Croft begins each chapter with a brief profile of a seasoned and successful PR firm principal from a mid-sized firm. These professionals tell of their successes and also relate early mistakes that you would do well to avoid. The text includes tables and figures to make data easily understood.

The extensively revised Managing a Public Relations Firm for Growth and Profit, Second Edition discusses pertinent topics such as:

• keys to new business success

• developing a marketing plan

• serving clients

• communication to prospects

• management strategies for success

• installing efficient systems and procedures

• managing staff productivity

• forecasting income

• management systems and procedures

• managing profitability

• client and agency budgeting

• recruiting, training, and retaining staff

• crisis planning

• planning the future of your firm

Covering everything from billing practices and self-promotion to the use of computers and student interns, Managing a Public Relations Firm for Growth and Profit, Second Edition is one guide you are sure to refer to again and again for practical advice. It is must reading for owners of small- and medium-sized PR firms; senior managers of small, medium, and national firms who wish to expand their management knowledge and ability or who are considering starting their own firm; lower-level staff members who want to increase their knowledge of agency management; and university public relations professors who would like to include a primer on PR firm management in their classes.