In truth, PR for startups is frequently an afterthought. It’s frequently the last thing on their minds until they see a competitor listed on Techcrunch. Or discover they’re having trouble hiring outstanding developers because they don’t appear in search results.
When done well, PR for startups can have a tremendous impact on your startup. Whether it’s enhancing your ability to generate sales, getting in front of marquee VCs like Accel Partners or Greylock, or keeping your employees proud to work for you. Great PR has both tangible and intangible benefits.
PR for Startups: Advantages of Taking Control
Taking control of your PR outreach has the advantage of allowing you to see who is responding, what is working, and what isn’t. Instead of waiting for your PR firm to contact you at the end of the month and say, “If you only remain with us another month, we’re on the verge of a breakthrough.” Do it yourself.
Another advantage of doing your own PR outreach is that you can automate many portions of it once you’ve fine-tuned the process to the point where it regularly delivers results. You could, for example, hire a virtual assistant to help you fill out those press contact lists.
So, what are your options? What kinds of campaigns can you run to achieve high-impact PR for your startup?
Partnership News
This is an approach that startups sometimes ignore, but it may be quite useful. Especially if the partner in question is a well-known, successful company.
If you rely on partnerships as part of your commercial strategy and can sign a large number of them in a short period of time. Partnership announcements can be very successful.
You’ll also notice that the news of one agreement can have an impact on your ability to do comparable deals in the future. This is especially true if the company with whom you partnered is in a highly competitive field. You want your PR to reach as many people as possible.
Data Stories
The media has an insatiable appetite for data. If your company or product is data-driven and you can provide unique insights into what’s going on in a certain area. You can tell fascinating tales to the media.
For example, a real estate technology business that used their data to construct a tale about summer migration patterns in the United States. They were able to connect that tale to a larger narrative about individuals fleeing Silicon Valley owing to escalating housing prices. The story was picked up by a local newspaper.
3rd Party Research
Third party research is when you collaborate with a large research firm to do a study on your clients, consumers, or industry. In this scenario, the data isn’t always yours or unique to your product, but it is unique to your industry. Companies and governments do this all the time to raise awareness about their industry or product. As well as to influence government policy.
For example, Lyft, the popular ride-sharing app, commissioned research with the Land Econ Group this year to examine the economic impact of their ride-sharing company on local economies. Which they do every year. The purpose was to determine the impact of Lyft on local economies in terms of increased income generated by passengers in the local economy.
This data is not only important for Lyft, but it also has a clear public relations benefit by demonstrating the monetary value of Lyft traffic to local economies.
The key to establishing thought leadership is to conduct this type of research on a regular basis. Try to conduct this type of research once a year so that the media can begin to track changes in your data over time. These experiences, as well as the statistics you gave, become even more interesting after 3–4 years. They can help you establish yourself as the industry’s go-to expert.
Personal stories
Here, your goal is to find a story about how your product or service has a positive impact on a customer’s life. Personal stories are being used by brands large and small today, and they may be a great method to connect with customers on a deeper, more emotional level.
They assist customers form stronger bonds with your goods and move them up the Brand Pyramid, closer to the essence of your brand. The media occasionally picks up on these kinds of stories and amplifies them. Resulting in free publicity for the company in question.
Maintain the integrity in your narrative by keeping it genuine, honest, and true. Don’t try to make things happen or make up stories that aren’t true. Look for and document real-life examples of how your product is having an impact.
Perfect Your Landing Page
There’s nothing worse than getting a lot of press and having a 99 percent bounce rate. Get Optimizely to A/B test your landing pages to evaluate which copy is more effective at persuading your audience to perform the desired action.
In addition, your design strategy should be based on a “one page, one conversion goal” approach. As in, your landing page should be largely focused on encouraging visitors to take one specific action. Such as downloading your app, signing up for a trial, or giving their email address. Only one thing to do.
If you’d like to read more about Utilising PR for Your Startup – Startup PR: Secret to Success
Conclusion
It’s difficult to figure out how to do PR for startups. But it is possible.
There are a plethora of ways to present your organisation in order to attract press coverage. Whether you work in a dull industry or run the hottest tech startup in Silicon Valley. You must follow these steps to create a successful public relations strategy.
Once you have the formula that has gotten good response rates, you can simply start tweaking that same winning template over and over again.
Amit Khanna, 7startup Founder
Amit has 18 years of experience in the industry and an MBA. He supports entrepreneurs with every aspect of their business including concept and product development, investor presentations, and fundraising. Amit & 7startup assist startups in the pre due-diligence process and help connect them to our vast network of investors. Reach out to us today and see if we’re a fit!
