Startup PR Agency

Understanding what goes through the mind of a business or a startup owner isn’t that much difficult. The first concern, usually, is the overwhelming desire to bring the vision to life. It’s a specific mix of excitement about making a meaningful impact and anxiety about not repeating age-old mistakes.

Many business owners employ public relations strategies and media relations to deliver their band, product, and message to the right audiences. According to Statista, the PR market is expected to reach $133.82 billion by the end of 2027. It’s still one of the leading markets in the large ad markets category, and technological advancements are making it easier and more accessible to create media coverage for companies.

Some believe that all publicity is good publicity, but we can’t agree. Observing Bud Light, Target, and others’ 2023 branding messages and their poor responses to a failed PR campaign proves that even established companies can make mistakes and need professional PR agencies and PR services for a successful idea and message launch.

In this article, we’ll explore public relations, tell you how you can build your own PR strategy, and help you decide if you need a PR agency for startup.

What is Public Relations?

Public relations is a communications strategy that is used to build media relations, form a positive view of a company, and influence how the audience perceives it. It might be a bit difficult to differentiate PR from marketing since social media marketing can also generate media coverage, but PR is concentrated on creating a positive reputation, while marketing can generate buzz with something called negative marketing.

Essentially, PR builds relationships with the “public” and nurtures them. Startups and large companies use PR or PR agencies to generate excitement about their company or product in the long term.

PR can also become the only method of saving a company’s reputation after a scandal or a pitfall. An excellent example of this is the 2011 Taco Bell lawsuit, which involved allegations that their “seasoned beef” only contained 35% of beef. PR agencies often use this example as a case study to highlight the importance of PR services. Taco Bell’s management had a quick reaction to these accusations. With their PR agency and a great communications strategy, they took their case to social media and online platforms and defended themselves with well-planned reputation management.

PR can be essential for startups since they are relatively unknown and need more media coverage to establish themselves. Working with a PR agency is recommended in this case since most startup owners and representatives don’t have the budget, time, or networking range to work on public relations and reach journalists and mainstream media. A PR firm can help your startup establish itself on the market.

How Can PR and Media Relations Help Startups?

Getting media placements when you have a new company and brand is challenging. You have to start from a blank page, build up the strategy, draft corporate communications, and focus on both short- and long-term reputation management.

Often, tech startups address PR agencies for the reasons we mentioned above – limited resources and networking scope. A PR firm is able to draft a strategy, address the challenges of being a new company, and build up the brand from scratch.

Why public relations, though?

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 65% of consumers trust earned media more than other forms of advertising (any form of marketing). This isn’t to say that marketing is less beneficial; we’re simply underlying the essential nature of building relationships with audiences through PR.

Here are some of the most significant benefits of public relations for startups:

• Brand awareness: Public relations can help your startup increase visibility, promote the company, and build relationships with the audience
• Attracting investors: PR can highlight your startup’s potential, and besides the consumer attention, it can also attract venture capitalists ready to invest in your idea
• Differentiation from competitors: Public relations is all about highlighting your startup’s unique aspects and innovations. Such an approach can differentiate your business from competitors
• Attracting talent: Positive media coverage reaches not only your target audience but also your potential employees and skilled talent pool. Employees are more likely to join a company that is established on the market and has a positive public presence
• Driving partnerships and collaborations: PR and media relationships can attract the attention of your potential business partners, leading to strategic partnerships and business growth
• Supporting product launches: A good PR agency takes product launches into account and ensures that new products receive maximum visibility and coverage with a successful market entry and continued PR efforts
• Cultural relevance: Public relations can help your company stay culturally relevant during specific events, trends, and societal issues

Each of these benefits highlights the strategic role of PR in startups and creates a possibility to build long-term relationships with the public, stakeholders, business partners, and investors.

Successful PR efforts by famous companies: A case study

Some startups and ideas fade away without seeing the light of the day. It’s unfortunate, but it happens because not a lot of attention and effort goes into corporate communications and established relationships with the audience.

Let’s explore some of the success stories of famous technology companies that managed to turn their success around, take advantage of happenings, and grow their business.

Zoom

Zoom is already a well-established company that dominates the world of digital communications, but ten years ago, it was a startup. The platform was already popular with remote working companies and freelancers. However, an unexpected pandemic in 2019 surged the demand for Zoom, and their team and public relations agency took advantage of this situation.

They started by addressing the security concerns openly, providing the audience with educational content on how to use their platform, and maintaining trust and customer loyalty. They saw an unprecedented 383% increase in value in January 2020, and as Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, reported, the growth is continuing, and remote work is here to stay.

Dropbox

Dropbox launched an exclusive invite-only beta product, which created a sense of urgency and exclusivity among consumers. This is a famous marketing technique that creates strong FOMO (fear of missing out) and drives sales.

Alongside these strategies, Dropxob used a “word-of-mouth” promotion method. Yes, people were already talking about Dropbox, but after starting a referral program that offered customers stimuli to recommend the application to others, they increased their new users by 60%.

To understand how to use these public relations lessons for your company, we need to dive deeper into the subject. We recommend working with a professional PR firm that has experience and expertise.

How to Create Your Comprehensive PR Strategy

A professional PR firm with experience in increasing company visibility can help your startup find relevant media outlets, suitable journalists, and publications to pitch your idea and vision.

We don’t recommend taking on PR responsibilities alone as a company founder. PR has many nuances that need a professional approach, so hiring a PR person or an experienced PR agency will be more beneficial.

However, there are some things you can do to help your startup increase visibility. Here are some fundamentals of creating a PR strategy for your company:

• Get to know your audience on a deep level
• Identify the challenges your company solves
• Create engaging content
• Use social outlets and do your part in PR
• Find suitable publications and journalists and form relationships
• Pitch your idea to journalists and publications

Get to know your audience on a deep level

Every marketing strategy, every product development, and every PR technique deployment starts with audience research. Before you hire a PR person or a PR firm, you need to conduct thorough research on your potential customers.

The more you know about people who are going to buy your product, the better you can market it and build long-lasting relationships. You must find out what language they speak (the phrases they use), where they mostly “hang out,” and what knowledge they seek.

Here’s how to approach audience research:

• Conduct market research: Use tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to ask questions and gather information directly from your potential consumers
• Analyze customer data: CRM can help you track and analyze customer feedback
• Monitor social media platforms: You can analyze your audience behavior on social media with tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social to learn about their sentiments
• Create buyer personas: This includes developing a detailed description of your potential, generic buyer
• Conduct competitor analysis: Study your competitors to see what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong

Identify the challenges your company solves

If you want to have a golden rule that you will use to promote your brand and product, remember this phrase – “features tell and benefits sell.”

It’s true. You can describe your product features, experiment with words, and try different sentences, but without promoting its benefits, you won’t be able to achieve the maximum potential of your idea. That’s why it’s essential to understand the challenges your product or service solves for your audience.

Having this information can help you create content and publications that are relevant to your audience. You might know what your product is and how it’s made, but you’re not always the target consumer of your product, so you need to get into your audience’s head.

Here’s a list of questions that’ll help you identify challenges that your product solves:

• What challenges and pain points your customers have (after audience research)
• Are there recurring issues that your customers experience and can’t solve?
• What are the primary needs of your customers, and how does your product align with them?
• Are there any solutions that address your audience’s challenges?
• How and why do they fall short in addressing the issues thoroughly?
• What makes your product different from these solutions?
• What unique benefit does your product provide?
• Are there any gaps in the market today that your product can fill?
• How accessible is your product?
• How does your product improve user experience?

Create engaging content

A successful PR strategy contains comprehensive content marketing efforts, engaging copy, and storytelling elements. Here are some examples of content you can create for a successful PR strategy:

• Press releases: This content includes announcements about new products, services, company awards, etc. Apple is an excellent example of a successful press release strategy
• Blog posts: Part of PR is becoming a thought leader in your industry. Blog posts can help you share your insights by writing about trends and developments in your industry
• Case studies: If you’re just starting out, you might not have a lot of case studies, but showcasing how your product helped a customer highlights your problem-solving capabilities
• eBooks and infographics: Create eBooks and content with visual elements to showcase your expert advice on relevant topics
• Videos and podcasts: Visual elements are 60,000 times easier to digest (by our brains). Demonstrate how your product works and helps customers, share your expertise, and analyze industry happenings

Find suitable publications and journalists and form relationships

Getting noticed isn’t easy. It takes time, effort, and means to reach out to journalists and publications. This doesn’t mean you have to send out letters to every journalist out there; it just means you have to find the best, most suitable professionals to help you get media relationships.

Start by researching industry-relevant journalists, YouTubers, podcasts, and publications. Identifying what your audience watches and reads will help you create personas.

Once you have your list of suitable journalists, it’s time to build relationships and start networking. Yes, you can send cold emails and work on your sales pitch to interest them, but building a large network in your industry will help you get noticed.

Follow the journalists and publications on social media, engage with their content, share your insights, ask for feedback, etc. Start doing this before you launch your product so when it’s ready, you’ll already have a pool of people who can help you achieve your PR goals.

Craft personalized messages for each persona, get the timing right, and experiment with your communication strategies.

Use social outlets and do your part in PR

Last but not least, besides building your company’s brand, you should work on your brand to do your part in PR. Yes, you can find a professional PR firm and a PR person who’ll write, edit, and publish engaging content to improve your business’s visibility, but you can do some work, too.

Use the advice we provided above and start creating your personal brand. Use social outlets and provide your audience with industry insights, advice, expertise, and other engaging content.

This will boost your visibility, which is automatically connected with your visibility and your business.

5 Must-Follow PR Trends in 2024

Do you want to stay ahead of the curve? Then you should experiment with these PR trends:

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing isn’t new, but it’s been trending for years. At first, it seemed like a luxurious service or something out of the ordinary, but today, most brands use influencer marketing to boost their visibility.

Recently, companies started collaborating with micro-influencers with fewer subscribers/followers but highly engaged and niche audiences. Such an approach can help your company acquire long-term partnerships rather than one-off campaigns.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social activism

CSR and social activism are now emerging as the cornerstone of PR plans. Customers are now choosing brands that are more responsible and have a positive social influence. Incorporating CSR into PR strategies contributes to establishing a good relationship between organizations and consumers as well as boosting their image. Sharing information about a company’s CSR initiatives can help build trust and loyalty among socially aware consumers.

Short-form content

Experts say that humans have average attention span of 8.25 seconds. This means that your audience members will get distracted when interacting with your content after 8.25 seconds if they’re not engaged enough. In short, to keep your audience engaged, you need to generate short-form content, particularly videos.

Should You Work With PR Agencies?

We created this guide to help you pave the way to increased company visibility and better PR practices. However, we still recommend working with a professional PR firm. It doesn’t mean you have to throw this guide away; it’s a simple outline of your PR journey.

PR is time-consuming and requires specific knowledge of tools, trends, and strategies. A PR person can help you guide through the product launch and crises. When asked, 72% of PR professionals stated that politics makes their jobs harder. It might not be a conventional way to persuade you to hire a PR professional, but consider that the right PR agency might understand the political, societal, and environmental landscape better. Outsourcing these services can be beneficial for your startup or a large company.

How Can Glorium Marketing Help You With Strategic Communications

We see wonderful ideas form, evolve, and, unfortunately, fade away due to unsuccessful PR efforts. This is easily avoidable with a professional PR agency like Glorium Marketing. Our motivation is fueled by your success and your company visibility.

You can safely concentrate on core business processes while our team or professional growth marketers, PR professionals, analytics, and project managers work on your brand visibility.

Want to learn more about our approaches? Contact us today and book your 30-minute free consultation with our PR experts. We’ll ask you questions to learn more about your product and give you an approximate scope of the project.