PR For Start Ups

·??????The best person to head PR for a start-up will always be the?'founder'

·??????They are the most enthusiastic about their brand

·??????Founders have been there since the story began

·??????In addition, they are involved in both the everyday running of the company as well as the company’s milestones.

Start-up PRs dos and don’ts

Start-ups struggle a lot to get visibility in the sea of existing fierce competition - from establishing a presence, gaining credibility, and winning customers’ trust, start-ups need to work on many facets of their business

According to research, “nearly nine in ten people say that learning about a business through news coverage is more credible and influential than seeing a company’s advertising”

PR is a cost-effective way to shape your audience’s impression of your brand – inform, educate and create a climate of approval

Before you start planning and executing a start-up PR strategy, you need to do a spot of housekeeping. Start with your own media channels – your website needs to be the finished article and fully functioning

Follow the three Ps of storytelling

Product – Purpose – Passion

·???????Product: Define exactly what your product or service is and/or what it does, and where its niche offering currently fits into the existing industry landscape. In order to truly define your product, you need to know how it’s different, so do your competitive analysis at a very early stage if you haven’t already.

·???????Purpose: Identify your company’s “reason for being.” What problem does your product or service solve, and for whom? You exist because of your target customer, so you need to have a detailed understanding of who they are and what they care about

·???????Passion: Use an enthusiastic, authentic tone that captures the passion, vision, and culture of your start-up. You’ll want to present your story and company as human and relatable, so use real characters and events to shape your story. Honesty and vulnerability go a long way

Do’s Of Public Relations

Get your brand message right

The foremost thing in your PR approach is to decide what message you want to convey to your target audience. Think about how you want your brand to be perceived in your niche

Build your brand’s message on your product/service, value proposition, purpose, and vision

Define your value proposition – how your business is different from your competitors?

State your purpose – what problem your product/service can solve

Reach out to the press

Think like a journalist to grab a journalist’s attention

Developing your 3P story allows you to position your start-up in a clear and concise way. However, no matter how exciting you believe your 3P story to be, a journalist won’t find it interesting unless you give them a reason to. If you start thinking like a journalist, you’ll dramatically increase your chances for success.

And that means making your story newsworthy.

Journalists are always on the lookout for stories, so don’t shy away from approaching them. Before that, do some research.?

Make a relevant media contact list. Prepare a press list Including journalists, reporters, media influencers, and bloggers that could be interested in covering and writing about your brand.

Most media lists include the following:

·???????First name

·???????Last name

·???????Media outlet/blog name

·???????Role (journalist, blogger, influencer, etc.)

·???????Beats covered

·???????Location

·???????Email

·???????Social media account

·???????Recent articles covered

·???????Contact number

·???????Style of writing (analytical, humorous, critical, etc.)

·???????How they prefer to be contacted

Contact the journalists in your niche with pitches and leads on your brand or its product/service.

To get media coverage, your brand story should be newsworthy, valuable, and relevant.

Stay up to date with the press

Stay abreast of what topics and what kind of stories your relevant media usually publish. Understand what your target media write about the most

Follow the journalists, influencers, and bloggers in your industry. Know what type of stories they usually cover

If you know the journalist, go back into the writer’s history to see what they covered. Journalist beats can change over time. Some journalists stick to a particular press for many years. Investing time in research will provide you with a deeper understanding of their most recent pieces

This process seems tedious, but the writer will appreciate the time taken out to read the content. Also, once you know what sparks the interest of the press, you can tailor your press pitches around them

Connect with the journalists on Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook. Introduce yourself, and establish a good relationship

A great way to win the attention of journalists is by helping them with your expertise. Brands can build rapport with journalists, strengthen brand reputation, and get earned media coverage by answering journalist queries with relevant expertise

Don’ts of public relations

Don’t be a creep

Don’t stalk media professionals. Don’t bombard them with messages. If you’ve already sent them an email, wait a few days until you follow up

Time your emails – journalists have deadlines

Media professionals are notoriously busy as they are overburdened with assignments to write on short deadlines. If they find your pitch interesting enough, they will reach out to you. So, be patient

Before following up with the media professional, check which mode of communication they prefer – email or calls. Always contact the journalists through their professional channels

Don’t Lie

Don’t lie about your brand. Remember relationships are built on trust, including PR relationships

When you impersonate or position yourself as someone you are not, you will lose credibility and gain a bad reputation

A lie will position your start-up in the bad books of the press. It can cost you irreparable damage

Don’t send blanket emails

Generic, automated, and impersonal emails will end up in the spam folders. The last thing that any reporter wants in their inbox is a mass-generated email

Email blasts may be quick and easy to generate but fail to impress. A journalist receives hundreds of pitches every day to stand out and be well received. Your email should have a personal touch

Personalised emails increase CTR (click through rate) by 14 percent on average, conversions by 10%, and transaction rates by six times

To summarize, sustained PR, if done right, can shape perceptions, raise a profile, and prevent potentially damaging issues from impacting businesses.

And finally enjoy reaching out - connect with people, don’t forget your PR has many audiences – customers, employees, suppliers and stakeholders as well as the media and…….

Follow the ‘Golden Rule of PR’ - Make Friends Before You Need Them!