Straight answers, no PR waffle

marco/richards is a PR consultancy founded and run by former national news journalists, with teams in Manchester and London. We help individuals and organisations build their profile, protect their reputation and increase their visibility across the media, Google and AI search. Our services include traditional PR, digital PR, brand and reputation management, social and influencer, founder and CEO profiling, and crisis management. We work with both consumer-focused and B2B organisations and agree clear, measurable outcomes at the start of every programme.

Our head office is in Manchester but we have teams in both Manchester and London who work with clients across the UK and internationally. We work with both consumer-focused and B2B organisations, from startups, growing businesses and founder-led companies to established national brands and high-profile individuals. We have particular experience in the healthcare and wellness, automotive, legal, ecommerce, property, finance and technology sectors, delivering national PR, digital PR, reputation and crisis communications campaigns.

We’ve spent much of our careers on the other side of the desk. Our team is made up of former journalists, with experience spanning local and regional newsrooms to Fleet Street. We’ve written the headlines, run news desks and decided which PR pitches made the cut and which went straight in the bin. That experience means we know what makes a strong story and what journalists are looking for and how to turn an idea into coverage. We’re also unusually accountable for a PR consultancy. We agree clear monthly KPIs, such as levels of media coverage and authoritative links, before a campaign starts and, if we don’t deliver, you don’t pay.

We run national PR and digital PR campaigns for both consumer-focused and B2B organisations. We also represent high-profile individuals from the worlds of business and television. Our campaigns can include media relations, data-led campaigns, expert commentary, thought leadership, founder and CEO profiling, brand and reputation campaigns, product launches, social and influencer work, and crisis communications. Some campaigns are designed to generate national media coverage and build profile. Others are focused on earning authoritative links, improving search visibility, strengthening reputation or increasing visibility in AI-generated answers. Most programmes combine several of these elements, depending on what the client wants to achieve.

We agree clear monthly KPIs before a campaign starts and put them in writing. Depending on the campaign, those KPIs might include levels of media coverage, authoritative links, share of voice, executive profile or other agreed outcomes. We only guarantee what we genuinely believe we can deliver. If we don't deliver, you don't pay us. No ifs. No buts. No excuses.

marco/richards was founded in Manchester in 2013 by former national newspaper journalists Martin Coutts and David Richards. Today, we’re a team of eight PR consultants working from Manchester and London. Our team all have extensive journalism backgrounds, with experience spanning local and regional newsrooms to national newspapers and broadcasters. We deliberately keep the team small and senior. The people you meet at the start are the people who work on your account, rather than handing the day-to-day work down to a junior team once the pitch is over.

Digital PR combines strong editorial coverage with measurable impact on search. We create data-led stories and newsworthy campaigns, and provide journalists with expert commentary that earns national media coverage and authoritative links to your website. Those links and mentions can strengthen your visibility in search engines, drive referral traffic and give AI platforms more authoritative sources to draw on when they talk about your brand. The difference between digital PR and traditional link building is simple: the story still has to be good enough for a journalist to publish. We earn the coverage, and that’s what signals credibility.

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. It is about improving how your brand appears in AI-generated answers from platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI search features. It is not a replacement for SEO. The two increasingly overlap, but GEO places more emphasis on whether AI platforms recognise your brand as credible, understand what you do and can find authoritative third-party sources that support it. Those signals help shape what AI platforms know about your organisation, how they describe it and whether they include or recommend your brand in relevant answers.

Start by telling us about your organisation and what you want to achieve. We’ll give you an honest view on what is realistic, which of our services are most relevant and what we think it will take to get the result you want. PR isn't right for everyone and, if we don’t think PR is the right answer, we’ll tell you. Once we agree the strategy, we set clear monthly KPIs and put them in writing before the campaign starts. And, importantly, the people you meet at the beginning are the people who work on your account. We don’t win the work and then hand it down to a junior team.

Email us at hello@marcorichards.co.uk, call us on 0161 826 0121 or use the contact form on our website. Tell us a little about who you are, what you want to achieve and where you think we might be able to help. We’ll come back to you with an honest view on what we think makes sense.

The cost of working with us depends on what you want to achieve, how competitive your sector is and the amount of work needed to get there. Most PR agencies work on a monthly retainer, a fixed fee for a specific campaign or project, or a separate fee for crisis communications and one-off support. At marco/richards, we don’t work from a standard rate card. We scope each campaign around the results you want to achieve, then agree the monthly cost and KPIs before we start. The important question isn’t how many hours of PR you are buying. It is what you expect those hours to deliver.

We guarantee media coverage within the first four weeks of a campaign. Beyond that, the pace of results depends on the type of campaign, the strength of the story and what you want to achieve. Reputation, executive profiling, digital PR and authority-building campaigns tend to become more valuable over time as coverage, links and share of voice accumulate. We agree clear monthly KPIs before the campaign starts, so you know exactly what we are aiming to deliver and when. Good PR should show early signs of momentum, but its real value builds over time.

Traditional PR is about earning credible media coverage that builds your profile, strengthens trust and influences how people feel about your brand. Digital PR uses the same newsroom judgement and storytelling skills, but combines strong editorial coverage with measurable impact on search. It focuses on earning authoritative links and brand mentions that can strengthen search visibility, drive referral traffic and influence how your organisation appears in AI-generated answers. The fundamentals are the same: you still need a story that is good enough for a journalist to publish. The difference is that with digital PR, we also measure what that coverage does for your visibility online.

Yes. We guarantee set levels of media coverage, authoritative links and other KPIs that are agreed before we start work. We know that sounds unusual because PR agencies often say editorial coverage can never be guaranteed. They are right that no agency can force a journalist or publication to run a story, and we never pay for editorial coverage or disguise sponsored content as PR. Our guarantee is based on experience. We spent years working in newsrooms and know what journalists are looking for, which stories are strong enough to run and where they are most likely to land. Years ago, making that kind of guarantee would have been much harder because newspapers had a fixed number of pages to fill. Online newsrooms are not constrained in the same way. If a story is strong, relevant and worth publishing, there is far more scope for an editor to give it space online. And if one idea does not land, we keep working until we deliver the agreed result. If we don't deliver, you don't pay us. No ifs. No buts. No excuses.

Yes. Healthcare and wellbeing is one of our strongest sectors. We work with private clinics, specialist treatment providers, Harley Street clinicians, health and wellness brands, supplement brands and other organisations operating in regulated or highly scrutinised areas. Our team includes former journalists with direct experience of specialist health reporting, so we understand what health journalists are looking for, the level of evidence they expect and how carefully claims need to be handled. Our teams in London and Manchester provide traditional PR, digital PR, reputation management, expert profiling and crisis communications for healthcare organisations.

Yes. We work with clients across the UK and internationally and, as we have a team in London, naturally many of our clients are based in the capital. A significant part of our work is London-based, particularly in healthcare, professional services, reputation management and senior executive profiling. Our London team works alongside our Manchester head office, so clients get the same senior, journalist-led approach wherever they are based.

Yes. PR can support SEO by earning authoritative media coverage, links and brand mentions from trusted websites. Those signals can help strengthen your online authority, increase referral traffic and improve how visible your brand is in search engines. Digital PR is particularly effective because campaigns are designed not only to earn coverage, but also to create measurable impact online. PR is not a substitute for technical SEO, but it can be a powerful part of a wider search strategy because it earns the kind of third-party authority that is difficult to manufacture.

Yes. PR and digital PR can help improve how your brand is understood and represented by AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. AI systems draw on information from across the web, so strong media coverage, expert commentary, authoritative links and consistent brand mentions can give them more credible sources to use when answering questions about your organisation, sector or services. That does not mean any PR agency can guarantee that an AI platform will recommend your brand. What we can do is strengthen the quality, consistency and authority of the information available about you, which can increase the likelihood of you appearing in AI answers.

Yes. We build, protect and, when necessary, repair reputations for organisations and high-profile individuals. The best reputation work starts long before anything goes wrong. We help you build a positive media profile, strengthen trust and monitor how you're represented across the media, search engines and AI-generated answers. Where outdated, inaccurate or damaging information appears in search results or AI-generated answers, we help put it right. Depending on the circumstances, that can mean approaching publishers, securing corrections or updates, pursuing removal where there are valid grounds, and publishing stronger, more accurate content that reflects your current position. When a crisis breaks, we give you calm, clear advice at the speed events demand. Our team spent years working in national newsrooms, so we've sat on the other side of the story. We know how coverage develops, what journalists will ask next and how quickly a situation can escalate. We help you prepare before a crisis hits, manage media interest when it does, and communicate clearly with staff, customers and the public throughout. The aim is simple: protect your reputation, minimise the damage and rebuild once the storm has passed.

We do both. Some clients work with us on an ongoing monthly retainer, particularly where they need regular media relations, digital PR, reputation management or executive profiling. Others bring us in for a specific campaign, product launch, announcement, crisis or short-term project. We also work with businesses whose PR needs are seasonal, increasing activity around the times of year when media interest and customer demand are highest. The right model depends on what you want to achieve, how your market behaves throughout the year and whether the work is best handled as a one-off campaign, seasonal programme or longer-term retainer.