As a startup owner, you obviously have a lot of things on your mind. Concentrating on legal procedures, accounting, recruiting, payroll processing, budget restraints, the smooth functioning of daily operations, and other important bits may cause you to forget all about the image your company is projecting to your customers, clients, partners, media outfits, and other people.
While you’re probably doing all you can to spread the word about your company and products, it may not be enough to give your startup the leverage it needs to succeed. Hiring a public relations (PR) team might not be on your startup’s to-do list right now, but good PR is invaluable to any organization and can be a game changer for your startup.
If you’re still not convinced about hiring a good PR team, read on to know how PR can help your startup.
Introduce and Build Your Brand
Word-of-mouth publicity and social media marketing are significant elements of a PR campaign. A good PR team can also increase brand recognition by giving your company media coverage in key news outlets.
Further, PR can help build your brand by creating brand understanding and promoting customer loyalty towards your brand. A good PR team can effectively shape people’s opinion or change their perspective of your company too.
Tell Your Story
Your product or service will primarily tell your story, but that alone won’t make it stick around. And if you don’t reiterate who you are and what your startup stands for, the media will craft a story of its own.
Whether your story is magical or mundane, made-up or real, your PR firm will ensure that it drives your message to the media, so that the media can in turn, represent your startup in the right light.
Make You Searchable
Today, consumers have become smart and are sure to search you and your startup online before they buy your products or use your services. If a potential client or customer tries to look you up online and doesn’t find you there, he is likely to turn away.
That being said, just having a functional website won’t be enough to draw in clients and customers; building on your search ranking through SEO (search engine optimization) is equally necessary. Online news articles with embedded links to your website plus additional media coverage will also boost your website’s SEO rankings.
Lend Credibility
As mentioned, consumers are bound to research your company online before they commit to a purchase. Effective PR can give your products and services the much-needed credibility with news coverage on reputable sites and in widely-read publications. This can be a lifesaver when your company is relatively unknown.
Serve as a Reality Check
Startups, their founders, and their employees can be contagiously enthusiastic, which can lead to them believing that everything they do is big and needs to be all over the media. If this sounds like your startup, you need to understand that too much of excitement can blind you on what is actually worthy enough to catch the attention of the media and your target audience.
A PR firm can serve as a reality check and guide you on what should or shouldn’t be communicated to the media and your target audience. What’s more, a PR firm can also fine-tune messages, assess the right time to share a story, and highlight features that will resonate with the media and your audience.
Enable Two-Way Communication
PR can manage your brand’s reputation by acting as a bridge between you and your consumers. By placing emphasis on two-way communication, your PR team can reach out to the media and your target audience with your message, completing the communication cycle by making sure that your consumers’ feedback reaches you.
By enabling communication with the media and your consumers, your PR team will help your startup enforce a strong, constructive relationship with them, your suppliers, and the public. This will also help you and your startup hold on to brand promises and remain consistent.
Provide Boundless Creativity
The usual marketing gimmicks may or may not work for your business. Moreover, as a startup, you might not have the time to focus on improving your brand image. Instead of struggling all the way to the top, hire a good PR team to help your brand shine across multiple platforms with their ingenuity.
Manage Crisis
As an organization, you will inevitably face problems as you grow and evolve. A good PR team might not only help you prevent blunders, but will ensure that you own up to your errors. During a time of crisis, your PR team will also manage the situation well by moving quickly and saying the right things.
Public relations can benefit your startup by positively impacting investor opportunities and company revenue in addition to brand perception. While a PR team can be most beneficial to your startup prior to the initial launch, it can benefit your company in various ways even in the later stages.
PR isn’t a waste of money as you might assume it to be and with the information provided here, you now know how useful the process can be to your startup. So don’t wait for a crisis to hit you; take your time (while you still can) to find a PR firm that is as excited about your brand as you are, and you’re sure to succeed!