Public Relations Retainer Scope of Work Template

For starters, public relations involves managing how the public perceives a brand, company, or person. If you’re a publicist, you help clients land positive press, connect them with partners at mutually beneficial organizations, position them as industry experts, and ensure the public receives the correct information about a brand.

As a freelance publicist, it’s common to work with clients on an ongoing basis so you can continually manage their brand, so it makes sense to structure your services with a public relations retainer. A PR retainer contract binds you and your client together for ongoing work. With a retainer, you typically complete a set amount of deliverables for a set price each month.

A lot goes into public relations and the scope of your retainer can vary, depending on what services you offer. This can make pricing tricky when navigating freelance PR for the first time. Before you send your next proposal, use our Public Relations Retainer scope of work template to help price and pitch your next project.

A public relations scope of work, sometimes called a statement of work, can include a variety of deliverables. What you choose to include depends on a few factors. First, what are the client’s goals for PR? Is it more media coverage? Increased thought leadership opportunities? Outline a realistic goal with your client through your statement of work to set the tone for the project. Second, how much media outreach (or other tasks) will you need to do each month to meet your client’s goals?

To help you see how other freelance publicists put together similar public relations retainer proposals, take a look at our Public Relations Retainer scope of work template. The community-sourced scope breaks down the scope into a seven-month retainer project.

1. Planning
2. Month 1
3. Month 2
4. Month 3
5. Month 4
6. Month 5
7. Month 6
8. Month 7

Each phase includes a range of customizable services that contribute to the overall project. When you use this template, you can use this scope as is or adjust the services and prices to fit your project’s needs.

For freelance publicists and PR consultants, your rates can vary. While some freelancers may choose to charge an hourly rate, our public relations retainer scope of work template suggests using value-based pricing for ongoing monthly work. Using value-based pricing puts a price tag on your expertise and connections rather than your time.

Knowing how to price your services is one of the most challenging aspects of freelancing. With this Public Relations Retainer scope of work template, you not only get access to a detailed breakdown of the services provided but also the recommended prices for each. These recommended prices are backed by crowdsourced pricing data we collected from over 50,000 freelancers, and are kept up to date to ensure freshness and accuracy.

Use the Public Relations Retainer scope of work template to access the pricing recommendations and customize your next PR proposal.

Once you’ve checked out Wethos’ Public Relations Retainer scope of work template, edit the phases, services, and prices however your project requires. When all looks good, save that scope of work to your library by creating your Wethos account. After you’ve created a scope, you can go on and add contract terms, send proposals for client signature, create an invoice, and get paid! 🤑