Why This Decision Is More Consequential Than Most
For a blockchain or web3 company, choosing a PR firm is not a reversible decision in the way that changing a marketing platform is. When a PR firm pitches your story to a senior journalist at Bloomberg or CoinDesk, that interaction becomes part of your relationship with that journalist regardless of whether you later change agencies. A weak pitch, a factual error, or a poorly timed outreach can create lasting friction with a journalist you will want on your side for years.
The crypto PR market is also unusual in that it has a high concentration of agencies making similar-sounding promises with wildly different capabilities behind them. The evaluation process needs to be more rigorous than simply comparing pitch decks and case study PDFs.
Start With the Media Portfolio, Not the Agency Deck
Before any conversation about strategy or deliverables, ask for a portfolio of recent editorial placements. Not syndicated press releases, not paid advertorials, not content marketing pieces. Editorial coverage: articles where a journalist at a named publication made an independent decision to write about a client.
Evaluate that portfolio against three criteria. First, are the publications ones you recognise and respect? A list of low-authority crypto blogs tells you very little. Placements in CoinDesk, The Block, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, or Reuters tell you the agency can navigate real editorial standards.
Second, are the articles genuinely editorial, or do they read like press releases republished under a byline? Third, how recent are the placements? An agency that shows you case studies from two years ago may have lost the journalist relationships or team members that produced that work.
Test Their Sector Knowledge Before You Trust Their Network
A PR firm's most valuable asset is not its media contacts list. It is the ability to tell your story credibly to the journalists on that list. That ability depends entirely on how deeply the team understands the crypto and blockchain space.
Ask specific questions in the briefing call. How would they pitch a DeFi protocol story to a journalist who is skeptical of crypto? What is their read on the current regulatory environment and how does it affect what is pitchable right now? Which blockchain narratives are getting traction with mainstream editors and which ones are getting ignored?
An agency with genuine sector depth will have specific, current answers. An agency that has added a crypto service line to a generalist practice will give you vague, hedged responses that avoid revealing how little they know.
Understand Their Process Before Evaluating Their Promises
Deliverable promises are easy to make and hard to verify until after you have paid for several months of work. Process is more revealing and more checkable.
Ask specifically: how do they develop a story angle for a new client? What does the first 30 days look like? How do they decide which journalists to target first? How do they handle a situation where a story is not landing with the publications you both agreed to target?
The answers should describe a structured, thoughtful process. Agencies that jump straight to promising placements without explaining the strategy behind the outreach are likely prioritizing the sale over the delivery.
Find Out Who Actually Does the Work
This is the question that most clients forget to ask and later wish they had. In many mid-sized PR agencies, the senior team closes the deal and then hands the account to a junior account manager. The journalist relationships you are paying for may belong to a partner who will never personally pitch your story.
Ask directly: who will be the primary contact on the account, what is their background in crypto or blockchain PR, and which journalists do they have personal relationships with? Then ask what happens to your account if that person leaves the agency.
In a market where individual journalist relationships are genuinely valuable, the answer to this question determines whether you are buying the agency or buying one person's network.
What Reasonable Contract Terms Look Like
Contract structure in crypto PR varies significantly and the terms reveal a great deal about how an agency views its own work.
Monthly retainer arrangements with a minimum term of three to six months are standard and reasonable for earned media work. Legitimate PR takes time, and agencies that offer month-to-month contracts are often managing expectations by making exit easy rather than confident in their delivery.
Be cautious of performance bonus structures tied to placement volume rather than placement quality. An agency incentivized to maximize placement count will chase low-authority publications that meet the letter of the contract without creating real value for your brand. Quality placements in credible publications should be the standard expectation, not a bonus trigger.
Also review what happens to your media assets, journalist introductions, and brand materials if the engagement ends. Some agencies retain these as proprietary, which can disrupt continuity if you need to move to a different firm.
The Shortlist Evaluation Checklist
Before making a final decision between your top candidates, work through these checks for each agency.
- Verified editorial placements in recognizable publications within the past six months
- Named team members with demonstrable crypto or blockchain sector knowledge
- Clear explanation of their story development and outreach process
- Evidence of mainstream media relationships, not only crypto-native
- Contract terms that align incentives with quality rather than volume
- References from current or recent clients willing to speak directly
- Transparent reporting standards with sample reports available
No agency will be perfect on every dimension. But any agency that cannot satisfy the first four criteria should not make your shortlist, regardless of how polished their pitch is.
Choosing a crypto PR firm is ultimately a judgment about trust: whether the people on the other side of the contract know what they are doing, have the relationships to do it, and will put genuine effort into telling your story to the right people.
At Quorum Media, our crypto PR practice covers both crypto-native and mainstream media, with a track record of placements in CoinDesk, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and 70+ other editorial outlets. Get in touch if you want to see how we approach a new client.