You’re a tech startup, post seed and pre series B. You’ve stood up marketing and have early customer traction. Bravo! The growth engine is shaping up and you haven’t yet invested in any publicity, post initial launch. Thought leadership is important as you create a whole new approach to solving an age-old problem and so far customer feedback is really positive.
So when should you invest in publicity and media relations?
If you’re like most startups, the budget is tight and you have a small team working on lots of initiatives. The good news is you likely have organic underway to promote the steady stream of content and followers are steadily growing. What if you put more amplification behind that and told your unique story more broadly to capture more eyes and ears?
PR is a long game. Start as soon as you can.
According to recent industry stats, about 90% of startups fail with only 1% reaching a unicorn level status. Also 45–50% cease to exist before or during the fifth year. The stats are pretty grim. Failure reasons vary hugely, from product-market fit timing, level of investment and how productive sales and marketing are, to name just a few.
The adage “sales fixes all” becomes focus #1, once the product is ready for prime time. For that very reason marketing gets focused on pipeline and watching conversion rates. Some channel combination of organic, social, email, events and maybe thought leadership content is the mix to attract new buyers. For the most part PR and media relations gets pushed out until “sometime later”.
Publicity = awareness. If you couple your brand storytelling with your demand building, you will improve your chances of success. Why would you not improve your chances of success now by starting this practice early?
The reach of a publicity announcement goes much farther than social posting. Also, when you publicly announce something, you couple it with other channels. Here’s the distinct benefits if you invest in PR early:
You can’t avoid honing your top line messages.
Get picked up automatically and reposted by relevant news channels.
Focus on a specific segment and relevant followers and writers.
Get the attention of the media for future interviews and an exclusive, at the right time.
Build relationships with important media outlets and writers, even freelancers.
Get your leaders personal brand into the market quickly.
Grab the attention of your closest competitors. Yes, that’s a good thing in the long run.
Potential partners pay attention and follow.
Future investors looking for innovative approaches will see what you’re up to.
The trick? Keep a consistent steady beat
Most young startups don’t believe they have a steady stream of organic news yet and so don’t believe that PR will pay off. You’d be surprised how much news-worthy content you actually generate. Bear in mind that not everything warrants a press release. If you have something to say once a quarter, then PR is definitely a worthwhile investment.
News releases can of course vary by topic. Everything from a product release to a partner announcement, new customers or even a company milestone are worth sharing to keep all stakeholders updated.
The trick is in how you pitch the news. A great third party PR team will know how to do this. That’s what you pay them for. It’s important to set the context and address the bigger market problem that you solve, focus on what’s unique, defensible and back it up with data or better yet, testimonials.
Reporters crave third party evidence
Likely one of the hardest parts of issuing a timely news release is securing back up or social proof from a partner or customer. This takes cycles and energy and sometimes requires you to call in a favor. If you’re asking a larger public company to step up and endorse you, that will take even longer and is fraught with some risk.
Don’t leave it until the 11th hour. Start early and reach as many endorsers as possible. Bear in mind that customers may not want to be quoted in the public press release but will be happy to provide a quote for landing pages or follow up with organic likes. This is why it’s important to plan all steps ahead before the news release hits the wire.
Consider pitching thought leadership articles and podcast interviews
Most reporters cover a really wide spectrum of industries or topics and it’s impossible for them to conduct 1:1 interviews and write a piece from scratch. Those days are gone. Instead news outlets are eager to receive contributed articles on hot topics as long as the basic ground rules are followed.
It’s best to submit the topic, idea and an abstract or if you have blogs written that are unique and highly informative, they are great fodder for pitching out as dedicated articles.
Keep it informational and avoid any self promotion at all costs
No credible content news outlet will publish a piece that is an obvious vendor promotion. That’s off putting for readers and in fact it doesn’t do you any favors when trying to build relationships with important news writers.
The best approach is to figure out what the readership is most interested in. As long as it’s timely, highly relevant and compelling, you have a chance of getting some attention.
The world of communications has blurred lines
Most PR agencies worth their salt will know how to publicly launch and garner the right coverage but they will also know how to set a cadence of thought leadership articles and leverage organic as a promotion channel, in addition to engaging experts that are already blogging or podcasting.
Additional scope includes award and event speaking submissions. Of course it depends on your budget and business goals but start out with a steady drumbeat of news and article pitching.
SEO Referral traffic will go up
More content and a wider reach will help your SEO goals and especially if garner coverage on highly trafficked sites. This is your classic referral channel for SEO investments. Any published article or news piece written about you receives more impressions and views that you couldn’t easily achieve on your own as a small, young startup with limited resources.
It doesn’t have to break your budget
Some PR agencies will work with you on a project basis although many prefer a monthly retainer model. Remember we said it’s a long game and it’s one that requires a consistent steady drumbeat of content and coverage. There are some amazing agencies with excellent reach and relationships but with tighter budgets, you may not be ready for a top tier award winner like Fleishman Hillard, Hill & Knowlton or Edelman but that doesn’t mean there aren’t smaller agencies that conduct excellent work.
As a startup head of marketing, I’ve used JMacPR and OffLeash PR (recently named by Forbes as one of America’s top PR agencies), both excellent and I’m happy to refer you.
Finally, PR is a services business and it’s ultimately about building a strong relationship and doing great work together.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know at: https://marketingengine2.com/