5 Things to Get Right Before Hiring a PR Firm

One of our main focuses at Hype Lab is helping startups define their brand, message and story. They’ve done the hard part and built amazing products. The challenge for us is to help their target audience understand why they need to become customers.

Public relations can be a substantial investment for early-stage companies, but developing a winning message at a pivotal time is more than worth it. We’re also not in the business of wasting our time or our clients’ money, so we like to hit the ground running — which is especially important for startups operating in founder mode.

You wouldn’t deliver an important pitch without doing some prep to maximize your odds of things going well, and it doesn’t make sense to start paying for PR without getting things lined up ahead of time. That’s going to help your PR firm move more quickly and achieve higher-end goals, your team engaged and your money well spent.

Your Pre-PR Checklist

Here are 5 things to nail down before engaging a PR firm (like founder-friendly Hype Lab). Thinking through these will certainly make any PR partnership much more effective and efficient.

1. Audience

You obviously want potential customers, investors and collaborators to know who you are, but that’s not specific enough for a real PR strategy. Are you looking to introduce yourself to the general public in a certain geography, or are your customers going to be corporate executives in charge of purchasing? These are distinct audiences that require distinct approaches.

2. Message

This seems self-explanatory, but it’s a different question than “what does your company do?” Your company might technically make software for medical professionals, but you want your audience to know that it makes their doctors’ notes more accurate. Think of this more as defining your company’s personality as much as defining its business.

3. Call to Action

Do you want people learning about your company to visit your website, attend an event or go to a certain store? Making someone aware of your business is only half the battle.

4. Narrative

We believe there is a lot of power in having founders and visionary leaders speak directly or in trusted venues to their key audiences. However, there is a lot of variance in the comfort level of founders with different types of media and communication — and even in public communication itself. Think about your spokesperson or spokespeople (or if you don’t have the right people in place, how to get them), because the messenger can sometimes be as important as the message.

5. Go Public

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, and you never want to serve a dish that’s not fully baked. If you’re still working out some of the answers to these previous questions, it’s probably not the right time to announce yourself to the world. But if you have a good product, a clear idea of your audience and some momentum, it may be time to add the force multiplier of PR.

Looking for help with your Pre-PR work? We would love to chat.