Atlanta PR Firms: a top value for startups and corporations alike
Atlanta is ranked among the top 10 cities in the country for startups by Under 30 CEO. We are the third densest city in the U.S. for Fortune 500 headquarters, with companies like Delta, Home Depot, Coca-Cola, FiServ and McKinsey calling us home. Plus Atlanta has long been a media headquarters, with Turner Broadcasting, The Cartoon Network, CNN and many others making the city a hotbed of PR firm activity. Write2Market, one of the marketing and PR firms in the city, is ranked among the Top 10 Agencies for Startups, and among the Top 100 Strongest Agencies in the U.S.
Atlanta PR Firm Write2Market – Event
This kind of media, startup, and corporate density makes Atlanta one of the country’s top five markets for PR firms from a value perspective. If you’re hiring a public relations person, looking for a a PR firm, or looking to go into the PR field yourself, here’s what Atlanta PR agencies are all about, and how we rank next to the PR and marketing talent in other top cities.
Facts about Atlanta PR firms and public relations talent
- 1150 people work specifically in public relations in the city, mostly in one of the Atlanta PR agencies.
- Another 4460 people work in marketing, some of whom have public relations responsibilities.
Wages at Atlanta PR Firms
$52.00 is the hourly mean wage paid by Atlanta public relations firms. For marketing, the average wage is $66.00 hour, averaged across agencies and management in enterprise.
Atlanta ranks 9th nationally for PR in terms of employment
Across talent employed by Atlanta PR agencies and companies, Atlanta comes in 9th in terms of number of public relations talent available:
| Metropolitan area | Employment(1) | Employment per thousand jobs | Location quotient (9) | Hourly mean wage | Annual mean wage (2) |
| New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metropolitan Division | 4,590 | 0.85 | 2.02 | $79.10 | $164,520 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division | 3,830 | 1.61 | 3.82 | $72.74 | $151,300 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division | 2,530 | 1.41 | 3.35 | $60.40 | $125,630 |
| Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division | 1,920 | 0.51 | 1.22 | $53.26 | $110,790 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metropolitan Division | 1,830 | 0.45 | 1.07 | $55.41 | $115,250 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metropolitan Division | 1,260 | 1.16 | 2.75 | $67.54 | $140,490 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 1,230 | 0.67 | 1.60 | $52.29 | $108,770 |
| Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metropolitan Division | 1,160 | 0.78 | 1.85 | $53.68 | $111,650 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA | 1,150 | 0.48 | 1.14 | $51.94 | $108,030 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 960 | 0.91 | 2.15 | $41.13 | $85,550 |
Atlanta PR Firms are “cheaper” than national average
However, Atlanta is not in the top 10 for top pay. That’s why Atlanta PR firms are considered a “growth market” in public relations—because higher wage areas like New York and Seattle tend to outsource some of the public relations firm work to Atlanta, where we are more of a “buyers market.”
Atlanta PR Firms and PR jobs average wages
As you can see from the Bureau of Labor Statistics chart below, the ten top paying public relations firms and markets are outside of Atlanta. Most companies in this market consider this good news because it means they can find top talent at a discount relative to national rates. It is a driver of the good value provided by Atlanta public relations firms and marketing agencies.
| Metropolitan area | Employment(1) | Employment per thousand jobs | Location quotient (9) | Hourly mean wage | Annual mean wage (2) |
| New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metropolitan Division | 4,590 | 0.85 | 2.02 | $79.10 | $164,520 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division | 3,830 | 1.61 | 3.82 | $72.74 | $151,300 |
| Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metropolitan Division | 670 | 0.70 | 1.66 | $71.57 | $148,860 |
| Barnstable Town, MA | 40 | 0.36 | 0.84 | $70.71 | $147,070 |
| Edison-New Brunswick, NJ Metropolitan Division | 540 | 0.53 | 1.27 | $69.96 | $145,510 |
| Charlottesville, VA | 70 | 0.68 | 1.61 | $68.79 | $143,080 |
| Philadelphia, PA Metropolitan Division | 720 | 0.38 | 0.91 | $68.53 | $142,550 |
| Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | 150 | 0.51 | 1.22 | $68.01 | $141,460 |
| Wilmington, DE-MD-NJ Metropolitan Division | 150 | 0.45 | 1.08 | $67.82 | $141,070 |
| Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO | 90 | 0.40 | 0.94 | $67.58 | $140,580 |
Our Atlanta PR Firm Team
How Atlanta PR Firms Rank in the U.S.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 57,000 people employed in professional public relations—including sub fields like content marketing, marketing automation, news video and so forth. There are 184,000 people employed in marketing in the U.S., for a total national employment of 241000. That means Atlanta’s marketing and public relation firm employment of 5610 is 2% of the nation’s. The “average” hourly mean wage for an Atlanta PR firm person is $55.48 and the BLS estimates the national average wage per hour in PR is just $48.80.
Atlanta PR firms: a hot market for outsourcing
Relative to marketing and sales, public relations employment is growing slightly faster in Atlanta—driven in part by content marketing and the movement of media to the masses.
Also, some of the award-winning work won by PR firms in New York or Washington are dependent on work created and executed by outsourcing to Atlanta PR firms.
In general, a lot of the top agencies on the coasts subcontract work to Atlanta, and from the numbers, you can see why. This further develops our local talent so that Atlanta PR firms and marketing agencies remain some of the most desirable in the nation.
Experience the value of Atlanta PR Firms
If you’re interested in experiencing the incredible value of an Atlanta PR firm, please reach out to us. Join us at one of the popular PR events at our office and around the region. Read the book we’re writing on content marketing. Or just give us a call.
We’d love to show you how Atlanta provides top value in marketing and public relations.
