Public relations, Mumbai
A PR agency in Mumbai measured in coverage, not in releases sent
Finding the story in your business a journalist can actually use, putting it in front of the right ones, and turning what lands into something the rest of your marketing can use. Troika Tech, from Mira Road East, since 2012.
The honest version
What PR can and cannot do for you
More businesses are disappointed by PR than by any other marketing spend, almost always because of what they were told at the start.
What it does
- Puts a third party's credibility behind your claims
- Gives sales something to send that is not a brochure
- Makes you findable when a buyer searches your name
- Builds the reputation that makes every other channel cheaper
- Compounds — coverage keeps working years later
What it does not
- Produce enquiries next week the way an ad does
- Guarantee any particular publication, ever
- Work without something genuinely newsworthy to say
- Repair a product problem or a bad review profile
Most pitches are declined. That is the job working normally, not failing. An agency that promises you a named publication is either paying for it, in which case it is advertising, or telling you something it cannot deliver.
The work
Six things in a PR retainer
The quote says which of these you are buying, and roughly how much of each month goes where.
Story development
The part that decides everything else. Most businesses have three or four genuine stories and do not recognise them, because what is routine internally is often exactly what is interesting outside.
Media lists
The named journalists who cover your sector, what each actually writes about, and when they are receptive. Kept current, because reporters move constantly.
Press releases and notes
Written as news, in the structure a desk can use without rewriting. Most releases are rejected on the first line.
Pitching and follow-up
Individual approaches rather than a blast, then the follow-up that most of the value actually sits in. One polite nudge converts a surprising number of silences.
Founder profiling
Comment, quotes and bylined pieces that make a person quotable on their subject. Slower than product news and far more durable.
Awards and listings
Submissions written properly and entered on time. Unglamorous, predictable, and a reliable way to build third-party proof.
Timeline
What the first six months look like
PR is the slowest of the four channels. Knowing the shape of it prevents the conversation where month two is judged as a failure.
Groundwork
Story mining, media list building, messaging and the boilerplate. Often little or no coverage, and that is expected rather than a problem.
First placements
Trade and regional press usually land first. They are easier to reach, they publish faster, and your actual buyers read them more often than people assume.
Momentum
Relationships start returning calls. Journalists begin approaching you for comment, which is when PR gets considerably cheaper per placement.
Compounding
National and business press become realistic because there is a track record behind the pitch. The earlier coverage is doing the persuading for you.
Afterwards
Coverage is worth more than the day it lands
Most PR value is thrown away in the week after publication, because nobody is responsible for the next step.
Into social
A placement becomes a post, a story and a founder comment within days, while it still feels like news.
Into sales
A link in the follow-up email does work no brochure does, because someone else said it.
Onto the site
A press page, properly marked up, so your name searched brings back third-party coverage rather than only your own pages.
Into search
Links from real publications are the ones search engines still weigh most heavily. This is where PR and SEO stop being separate budgets.
Pricing
What PR costs in Mumbai
Published Mumbai and India-wide rates, so you can sense-check a proposal. PR is priced by retainer because the work is continuous — relationships do not pause between campaigns.
Inside the fee
- Story development and messaging
- Media list building and maintenance
- Writing, pitching and follow-up
- Interview preparation and handling
- Monthly coverage reporting
Billed separately
- Award entry and listing fees
- Wire distribution, where it is worth using at all
- Press events, venues and travel
- Photography and video for media use
- 18% GST
Figures are drawn from published Indian PR rate cards and agency guides, checked October 2026. Paid placements are a different product from editorial coverage; if a proposal does not say which it is selling, ask before comparing it with anything else.
FAQs
PR in Mumbai: common questions
How much does a PR agency in Mumbai cost?
Published figures put boutique and specialist retainers from about ₹80,000 a month, growth-stage briefs at roughly ₹1,50,000 to ₹2,50,000, and the large multinational firms in Mumbai starting around ₹3,00,000. Across India the full range runs from about ₹30,000 to ₹5,00,000 and beyond. Award fees, events and 18% GST are separate.
Can you guarantee coverage in a specific publication?
No, and nobody honest can. Editorial coverage is earned because the story is worth a journalist's time. What can be committed to is the angle development, the pitching, the relationships and the follow-up — and being straight about which publications are realistic for your sector and stage.
How quickly will something appear?
Usually weeks rather than days for a first placement, and the first month is often groundwork with little to show. Trade and regional press land sooner than national business press. Anyone quoting you a placement in week one is describing paid placement, not PR.
What is the difference between PR and paid placement?
Paid placement is advertising that resembles an article, and it is usually marked as sponsored. PR is editorial: a journalist chose to write it. Readers treat the two very differently, and so do search engines. Both are legitimate, but they are not the same purchase and should never appear on the same line of a quote.
We are not doing anything newsworthy. Can PR still work?
Usually yes, because most businesses are poor judges of their own news. Data you already hold, a hiring or expansion decision, a seasonal trend you can comment on, or a founder with an argument worth making are all workable. If there genuinely is nothing, we will say so rather than take a retainer to pitch silence.
Do you handle crisis communications?
Talk to us early rather than at the point of crisis. Useful crisis work depends on relationships and preparation that already exist; an agency appointed mid-storm is starting from behind.
How is PR reported?
By coverage, named publication by named publication, with the reach and the link. Not by releases sent, which measures our activity rather than your result, and not by an advertising-equivalent figure, which is a number agencies invented to flatter themselves.
Can PR help our search rankings?
Yes, and this is underrated. Links from real publications remain among the strongest signals in search, and they are extremely difficult to obtain any other way. It is a large part of why we think PR and SEO should not be bought from two different suppliers.
Do you work in Hindi and Marathi media?
Yes. Regional and vernacular press reaches audiences the English business press does not, and for a great many Mumbai businesses it is the more valuable of the two.
More
The rest of the system
PR earns more when something is waiting to catch it.
Social Media Marketing
Where coverage becomes content the same week it lands.
→All services
Social, PR, search and paid media against one brief.
→Digital marketing in Mumbai
How the four fit together, and what the whole thing costs.
→Talk to us
Tell us what you think the story is. We will tell you honestly.
In detail
Guides and cost breakdowns
Written for people comparing quotes, using published Mumbai rates rather than ranges we invented.
Tell us what you think your story is
We will tell you whether a journalist would agree, and which publications are realistic, before anyone signs anything.