3 Steps to a Successful Startup PR - For Marketers & Founders

Source | Pexels

 You may have hired some SEO professionals, assembled a sales team, and built a product, but getting momentum behind your startup is no walk in the park. One of the best ways to put your startup out there is by creating a PR strategy. 

Before looking at how to put together a well-researched startup PR, let’s understand the term. 

What is Startup PR?

Startup PR sums up all the activities online or offline that startups deploy to publicize themselves through relevant industry publications, media outlets, podcasts, social media, and blogs. This publicity aims to enable the company to build brand awareness for its products and services and deliver its target market the right message. 

Why startup PR is instrumental for success is obvious because most startups, particularly VC-backed ones, have a low chance of surviving past a few years. Hence, the correct type of media relations can considerably increase your chances of surviving to the point where your startup becomes a thriving business. 

1. Put Your Startup in Order

An effective PR campaign always starts with house cleaning to ensure your startup shows the right version of itself. Thus, it would help if you focused on the following:

• Prioritize Content Marketing

Once you get that big media coverage you’re praying for, traffic to your startup website will skyrocket, and you want to make a good first impression. You should update all your owned media channels online and offline and produce content that resonates with your audiences.  

• Use SEO to Optimize Your Content

The content strategy of your startup must begin with an SEO assessment. You should quickly identify and eliminate common SEO mistakes like duplicate or thin content and broken links with the help of expert SEO professionals^[a].

Strategic Outreach

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After putting your house in order, you’re ready to begin. People what you have to offer with these two steps:

• Choose The Relevant Media Outlets For Your Target Audience

Instead of going with the most prominent publications available, startups evaluate different options and choose the most relevant target audiences. It’s recommended to begin approaching industry-specific media channels. This will bring the attention of the right audience to your startup. 

• Cultivate Lasting Relationships With Editors

Knowing the right journalists, influencers and editors also play a crucial factor in the type of publications you can get. Not only will the positive relationships benefit startups in the short term, but such bonds can turn out to be invaluable down the line. 

3. Portray Yourselves as Experts

At this point, you’re ready to start engaging in meaningful conversations with your publications and market. 

• Choose The Right Spokesperson For Your Company

It’s essential to keep in mind that other people in your team could make excellent speakers, apart from the CEO. Ultimately, you want someone with the right charisma, expertise, and star power to help get the word out there, be from the production, management, marketing or sales department. 

• Provide The Media With Interesting Content

The best approach to wooing the largest publications out there is to give than you take. Hence, you should be ready to provide data, insights, behind-the-scenes interviews, and white paper. The goal is to highlight what differentiates your startup. 

Final Words

It’s possible to get media coverage for your startup by putting a strategy in place that helps amplify your marketing efforts for all products, now and in the future. All startups, new and old, need credibility, brand awareness, engagement, and online presence. 

Strategic PR campaigns can achieve all these and more. 

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