The DMZ’s top 4 insider tricks for startup public relations success
Public relations (also known as PR) is a vital component for growth in any startup. PR helps you define your company’s narrative for the world by putting a spotlight on what your business provides as well as your success stories.
For startups, good PR can drive brand awareness, put your name out in front of potential investors and partners, and help you become an industry leader.
Crafting a successful public relations strategy does not happen overnight. Laying the groundwork for a successful PR campaign takes time and love, which is why the DMZ is here to provide you with 4 of our go-to tips for PR success!
Ensure your brand and online assets are up to par
Before engaging with the media, ensure your startup is ready to show the best version of itself. That starts with an optimized website that effectively communicates who you are and what it is that you do. It is also important that your company’s social media features engaging content that is appropriate for your target audiences.
Ask yourself, “Do I have a professional and clean website?” “Do my readers walk away with content that is worth the time they spent reading it?” Crafting a narrative for your brand at an early stage will elevate your media outreach efforts in the future.
Maintain a pulse on your industry
Media monitoring is an important part of managing how you, your competitors and/or your industry is being portrayed in the media. Google Alerts is a great free resource to scan the media for recent news and updates in your specific industry. This is one way to easily stay on top of conversations or advancements taking place in your field
Pro Tip: Add your company’s name, key updates you want to follow, and a few relevant competitors, to your Google Alerts.
If you’re setting up alerts for a health tech company, you can include relevant keywords. For example, try using ‘virtual health + Canada’, ‘e-health + Canada’, ‘digital health + launch + Canada’ , ‘competitor 1’, ‘competitor 2’ to keep an eye on industry updates and competitor milestones.
Twitter is also a great channel to monitor since most journalists are very active on Twitter. Not only do journalists amplify their own content, but they are connected to the topics and community that they cover. Take your media list one step further by following your target journalists on Twitter to monitor their content.
Make your media announcements meaningful
Have a story you want to share with the media? This is where media pitching comes in. A media pitch is an attempt to get a journalist or media outlet interested in your announcement so that they decide to cover it. Media outreach is traditionally done via email, but nowadays you can reach out to journalists via social media as well.
Ensure your announcement is newsworthy. Ask yourself these questions before you even begin to think about pitching to the media:
- What makes my news actually newsworthy? How does it stand out from what competitors are putting out there?
- Is my news presented in an exciting way that people will get people interested?
- What’s a timely or enticing narrative you can tie into your announcement to elevate its attractiveness?
Be purposeful about crafting your media pitch
When it comes to media pitching, try to pitch journalists with a background in your sector. In the industry, this is called pitching to journalists with relevant ‘beats’.
Avoid spraying your announcement to all journalists from major outlets. It’s important for you to take the time to research journalists who are writing about your beat and provide them with new perspectives or advancements in the space.
Further, avoid attaching additional documents — unless absolutely necessary —within your pitch email. The less the journalist has to click through, the better.
Never underestimate the power of your networks; remember to leverage them when amplifying an announcement. Provide your partners with the tools and assets they need to amplify the announcement, like social media sample posts, key messages, graphics, etc.
Final considerations
When looking at public relations as a strategy for your startup, ask yourself, “What is my goal in gaining PR?” Is PR a vital component of your growth because it can lead to more customers in your funnel, or are you viewing media exposure as a vanity metric?
Oftentimes, founders look at media coverage as a silver bullet for non-related issues they may face:
- An article in a major publication will help us acquire investment
- Having more “As seen on” logos on our website will help us close deals
- My competitors are featured in the news, so I should be too
This is not PR as a core strategy, but the need for PR driven by fear: fear of not getting investment, losing deals, or dragging behind your competition. This is often why most startups’ PR efforts fail because it is not viewed as a means to an end, but the end goal itself.
Understand that if you are looking at PR as a strategic objective, you are committing to focusing on it just as you would if you were to begin fundraising, hiring, or growth. Part-time focus will give your startup part-time results.