Everything start-ups and entrepreneurs should know about PR and communications

Public Relations (PR) is what you do, what you say and what others say about you.

A 2014 study by Nielsen, on the role of content in the consumer decision-making process, concluded that PR is almost 90% more effective than advertising and marketing.

“Good advertising is what you pay for; good publicity is what you pray for.”

PR should be an ongoing activity built into the business development process.?

?What do I want from Public Relations?

?Before embarking on a PR campaign, it is recommended you answer a few questions.

1) Why do you want PR and what you hope it will achieve? You’ll be surprised at how many organisations, large and small, have no idea why and just do because they think it is something they should be doing!

2) Now you know why you want PR and what you hope it will achieve, who is the audience you need to target and communicate with to make this happen?

3) Now we know our target audience, work out the messages to always include in your communications. Do not over complicate by having too many messages. Three messages should be enough.?

4) Work out your positioning statement. This is often described as the single most important feature of a business’s vision and plan. This is because it is one line that sets you apart from your competitors by saying what it is you do that they don’t. The positioning statement is how you want the market to perceive you and how you will introduce your business in all your written work.

5) Create a boilerplate. This is attached at the end of all your written communications to journalists and should just be a paragraph or two that provides a brief history of your venture, its uniqueness and any outstanding achievements. It is important the boilerplate is clearly written and kept up-to-date.?

6) Have you done your research? Study how your competitors and the brands you admire do all the above. Think about what you can take from their approach and how you can better it. Study your competitors to see where they are being reported and by whom. Build a list of journalists who have reported on areas and subjects that are in your industry. The website www.journalisted.com is a useful free tool that shows you contact details of journalists and the articles they have been writing. Build a media list of publications and broadcast media that covers your industry and what you think your potential customers are reading. Become familiar with these media outlets and the journalists.?

7) What’s your news? Work out your news – it has to be sufficiently interesting, original and able to tell a journalist’s audience something they did not already know. Prepare a news calendar for the coming six months, updating it as you go along. This will help you manage your news flow and keep to deadlines.?

8) Which social media should I use, if any? Look at social media and decide if it is something you can use and if it will be of benefit. Social media is great for connecting to people and organisations and sharing news and thought leadership. However, it takes time to build a network. Be prepared to be patient as you develop your social media outreach. Again, study how others use it, you may want to emulate elements of their tone and style.?

To prevent your PR activities from going stale and to keep them synchronized with your business development, it is good practice to review these questions every 6 to 12 months.??

Should I do Public Relations in-house or should I use a PR agency or freelancer??

While PR is not exactly rocket science, preparing, implementing and running a successful PR campaign does take time. Can you do it yourself? Do you have the time and resource to do it yourself? Can you allocate resources to running PR in-house, and, if so, does that person(s) have enough PR know-how and experience to make it worthwhile? Would investing in outsourcing your PR activities to an agency or freelancer be wise??

If you want PR to achieve maximum impact these are the type of questions all ventures should address well in advance of any launch. Preparation is key.?

If you decide to outsource your PR, do your research.?

Study and, when the time comes, consider PR agencies and freelancers who operate in your industry, as they should already have the good journalist contacts you need. Also, consider PR agencies and freelancers who have previously worked with your competitors.?

Don’t be limited by geography. You may be based in London, but the best PR agency or freelancer for your venture could be located in Scotland. Face to face meetings are crucial and recommended in the early stages of the relationship, and these should be maintained throughout the course of that relationship, but thanks to technology, such as Skype, actual face to face meetings can lessen off.?

Before speaking to an agency or a freelancer, make sure you have answered the questions listed above. This will help speed up the selection process by giving you a better understanding of exactly what you are asking the agency or freelancer to do and achieve. That level of focus and preparation will make it easier for you to decide who measures up to what you are looking for and who doesn’t.?

Choosing an agency or a freelancer to look after your PR requirements has to work for you and be on your terms. Ask to see examples of their work. Set out your objectives and goals from the start and don’t hold back from asking questions and posing certain scenarios if it helps you arrive at your decision. You need to understand how they work and how they will work for you. Ideally, your PR agency or freelancer should become an organic extension of your operation.?

When you’ve made your choice, the agency or freelancer needs to be kept informed and up-to-date of your activities. Quickly work out the best way for you to keep them informed. The more notice they have, the better their work should be. You also need to ask them what it is they need from you to be better able to serve you and gain you the coverage you want. Always try to make their job easier by giving them the tools and resources to help you.?

You also need to temper your expectations with an appreciation that this process takes time and they may not necessarily obtain meaningful results straight away. There is an unspoken rule that you should not expect to gain any media coverage in the first six months of engaging with PR professionals. Remember that if you are launching a new venture you are a new and unknown entity to journalists, so why should reporters write or talk about you? ?

Doing your own PR?

Who knows your venture better than you do? Who is better equipped to talk about your venture than you???

There are a variety of PR tools you can use.?

1) Press releases. The headline and opening paragraph are the most important sections of a press release. It is your opportunity to capture the imagination of a journalist. Fail to do that and there is every chance the journalist reading your press release will read no further and move on to something else.?

The opening paragraph should provide a journalist with all the details of your story - everything they need to know. It shouldn’t be long, either. The opening line should namecheck your venture, include the positioning statement and say what your news is.?

The rest of the release should be used to explain your news in extra detail. Try to give supporting facts and figures where possible. Always name the source of these facts and figures, even if it is just your own market research. The release can also contain a quote, or quotes, that support and enhance your news. Before issuing your release always obtain the approval of anyone you quote by letting them read the release first and saying whether they are happy with the context you have used their words.?

Write the release in a simple and clear way. Try to avoid complicating it by using jargon, too many acronyms and complicated language. Do not issue it straight away. Let others read it first and give you their feedback on spelling, grammar and ways it might be improved. Return to it after a period of time and reread it yourself. With fresh eyes you’ll be surprised by what can be improved.?

When it comes to issuing your news, try telephoning the journalists who are high on your list of targets. Introduce yourself and explain that you are calling to see if they would be interested in your story. They will either say ‘no’ and you can move on to calling the next journalist, or they will say something along the lines of ‘sounds interesting, email it to me’.?

Email your releases over to journalists. Don’t attach pictures or other documents. Instead, at the end of your press release, say images, interviews and further information are available.?

Don’t assume the journalist is not interested in your news story if you do not receive a reply. Leave it about a week before sending a polite email enquiring as to whether your story was of interest and if further information is required.?

Case studies?

Written, filmed and/or audio case studies work well in e-shots and on your website as a means of promoting your successes and good work. You can also try offering your written case studies to magazines or websites that you think would benefit from being featured in or on.?

Typically, case studies illustrate how your product or service has benefitted a customer. You have to tell the story from the customer’s point of view. To do this you need a customer who is happy to talk about their experience of being your customer. You can sell them this idea by explaining it will give them free publicity. Also, find out in advance if they would be happy to do phone interviews if journalists ask.???

Case studies need a good angle – it can be a topical one, or can take a look at a particular business issue, or it might reveal a human back story, or it could be a combination of these.?

Your case study needs to entertain as much as it educates. Describe the challenge(s) your customer faced and the solution(s) they found through using your products and/or services. Highlight, with statistical evidence, the returns on investment they have experienced and any other additional benefits. Keep talking about yourself and your venture to a minimum. If you would like a magazine or external website to publish your case study you want to avoid it reading like advert for you and your venture.??

Contributed articles?

Websites and magazines are always looking for quality content to fill their pages. This presents you with opportunity.?

Select a number of magazines and websites you think your venture would benefit from by being featured in. Then think of 3-5 ‘thought leadership’ subjects you feel confident that you can write about and on which you have something new and original to say. Do keep in mind that editors have certain standards and want content that says something new to their readers.?

Once you have identified your subject areas, write a brief paragraph on each that outlines what the article will be about and say. Then contact the magazine or website by telephone or email and ask if they would be interested in accepting any of your ideas for a contributed article.?

If you are asked to provide a magazine or website with an article, they will give you a word count and deadline. Keep to both. Any deviation from word count or deadline will create problems for editors and, especially if you fail to hand in your article on time, it will leave them with a hole to fill and this may instantly damage the relationship you have worked so hard to cultivate.?

Also, you can damage those relationships by handing in copy that is not up to scratch. If you recognise that you are unable to write the article, hire a copywriter or freelance PR professional to do it.?

Editors will probably also ask you to supply a picture. Try giving them a professional looking head and shoulder shot. If it is for print media, the image has to be at least 600dpi to work.?

The overall aim is to become a trusted source for thought leadership articles that will see you regularly appearing in targeted websites and magazines.?

Arrange meetings with journalists?

Contact journalists on your target media list and ask if they would like to meet to discuss your venture and what you have coming up on the horizon. This will enable you to build personal relationships. Meeting a journalist for the first time is an opportunity for you to give them background documents and marketing materials for their records, and for them to ask questions, learn about your venture and to discover its human side.??

Providing comment

There is always breaking news or burning issues happening in your industry… do you have a relevant comment to add??

If your comment is used in reported news you will be seen by others as someone worth listening to, someone with a useful opinion. Comment often enough and journalists may start seeking you for comment.?

Also, if you are aware of events, issues and announcements that are on the horizon, have a comment prepared in advance. This will speed up your ability to provide comment and will increase the chance of it being used.?

Social Media?

Social media is an inexpensive way for you to network, share your news and views, and to keep others updated with your venture’s story and progress. Use it to direct people to your website to view your latest article, case study, press release or product or service. Use it to engage with others. Build rapport and relationships. Use it to gauge opinion. Be interesting. Be polite. Take an interest in what others are doing. Take the opportunity to share other news and views that may be of interest to your audience – people don’t like it all to be ‘me, me, me!’?

There are various types of social media. Check what your competitors are using and doing and what brands you like and admire are using and doing. You’ll notice that different brands have different style, tone, customer response times and more. Draw ideas and inspiration from these to develop your online personality. Always think about how you want to sound and appear on social media before tweeting or posting for your business.?

With so many social media channels to choose from, it can be overwhelming to get started. Pick the channel most relevant to your audience and start to build up a presence and following there. Once you have a solid level of followers and interaction, you could consider adding a new social media channel – provided you have the capacity to manage it. If you find you don’t have the time to post regularly and respond to queries, consider whether another team member could step in, or even outsource this responsibility to an agency. Don’t feel that you need to set up on all channels immediately and then find you have no content to share regularly – there’s nothing worse than a barely used account, as this doesn’t reflect well on the brand.?

Awards?

Winning an award, whether it is for customer service, innovation or something else relevant to your venture, gives your venture marketable prestige and excellent exposure. Judges have recognised your venture’s outstanding brilliance over all others by selecting you for their top prize.??

Create a list of awards you think your venture would benefit from by being a finalist in or winning. Study previous winners and the reasons why judges chose them. If needed, liaise with a copywriter or PR professional experienced at writing award entries to help you write your entry. ?

Public Relations do’s?

Identify your audience(s).?

Identify your messages.?

Learn from your competitors and the brands you like and admire.?

Be strategic. Each audience and target media may need different strategies.?

Use the PR tools that best suit your goals and audience.?

Always be newsworthy.?

Remember this is PR and not advertising.?

Make your written work accessible. Write clearly. Avoid jargon and complicated language.?

Be proactive.?

Be patient.?

Be persistent.?

Look for opportunity.?

Build relationships with journalists.?

Always be honourable and polite.?

Make your PR activities a sustained effort.?

Review your focus and activities every 6 – 12 months. What works? What doesn’t? What can be improved and how?

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