In short
- Ask who will actually pitch your story, by name
- Guaranteed coverage is either paid placement or untrue
- Judge an agency on the questions it asks you
- Coverage volume is the wrong measure — ask which publications matter
Choosing a PR agency in Mumbai is hard for the same reason choosing a doctor is hard: you are buying expertise you do not have, judged on outcomes you cannot predict. Most selection processes therefore default to the two things a buyer can see — the client logos and the price.
Both are poor signals. Here is what I would look at instead, from the side of the desk that used to decide whether any of it ran.
What separates a good PR agency from a bad one?
A good agency starts with your story and asks hard questions about whether it is actually newsworthy. A weak one starts with its media list and promises volume. The first conversation tells you almost everything: if nobody has challenged your premise within twenty minutes, they are selling activity rather than coverage.
Eight questions to ask before you sign
- Who will pitch my story, by name? Agencies sell with seniors and deliver with juniors. Ask who writes and who picks up the phone, and then ask to meet them.
- Which five publications matter for this business, and why? A specific, short answer shows they understand your buyer. A long list shows they do not.
- What is not newsworthy about us? The most useful answer you will get all meeting. Anyone who says everything about you is interesting has stopped listening.
- When did you last tell a client their announcement was not a story? If never, they are a distribution service.
- How do you report? Named placements with live links, or a number of “media touchpoints”. One is evidence, the other is decoration.
- What happens in a quiet month? Every honest programme has them. An agency that has never had one is not pitching.
- Is any of the coverage paid? Ask plainly. Paid placement is legitimate when disclosed and worthless when passed off as earned.
- What do you need from us to do this well? The best agencies ask for access to people, not just approval of copy.
Promises that should end the conversation
| What they say | What it means |
|---|---|
| “We guarantee coverage in X publication” | It is paid, or they cannot deliver it |
| “We have relationships with every major editor” | A contact list is not a relationship; the test is whether anyone returns their calls |
| “We'll get you 20 pieces a month” | Volume on sites nobody reads is easy and worth nothing |
| “We'll write the quotes for your CEO” | Reasonable — but if nobody from your side is ever interviewed, the quotes will sound like it |
| “Our reporting shows reach of 40 million” | A publication's total audience, not your readers. No editor takes this seriously |
On the last one in particular: advertising value equivalent and “potential reach” exist to make a modest month look enormous. Ask for placements, links and referral traffic instead. If an agency resists that, you have learned something.
What a retainer should actually cover
Get this in writing
- Named deliverables per month, not “ongoing media relations”
- Who writes, who pitches and who is available to your team
- Whether press release distribution costs are included or billed on
- Whether any placement is paid, and how it will be disclosed
- What happens to your media list and materials if you leave
- A notice period in weeks rather than quarters
Does being in Mumbai matter?
For financial, entertainment and corporate press, yes — the newsrooms are here, and so are the events where relationships get built. For trade press in a specific sector, location matters far less than whether the agency understands your industry well enough to brief a journalist without you in the room.
Be wary of paying a Mumbai premium for a team that covers your sector from a spreadsheet. Sector knowledge beats proximity every time.
When you do not need an agency
If you have one story a year, an agency on retainer will spend eleven months manufacturing reasons to contact journalists on your behalf, which damages the relationship you are paying them to build. Project work, or a founder emailing a reporter directly, serves you better.
And if the honest answer is that nothing newsworthy is happening, fix that first. We wrote about what actually earns coverage in the piece on digital PR, and about the format itself in how to write a press release.
Our own approach is on the PR and press releases page.