PR strategy for start-ups

The success of a start-up is never guaranteed. A new company might not take off for a variety of reasons – one of them being the lack of a sound PR strategy.

Good PR can’t completely compensate for an ill-thought-out product or service. But some of the most well-known emerging firms in the past decade have gone on to become commercial giants because of their commitment to perfecting and advancing their PR strategy over time.

Here are seven tips for PR agencies looking to create a strategy that will help their start-up clients skyrocket to success.

It’s not about the product. It’s about the story

Every entrepreneur dreams of having their start-up featured in the Wall Street Journal or TechCrunch. Savvy media relations can secure you this prized coverage, but it will need to be based upon a compelling story.

For instance, AirBnB got off to a great start, PR-wise, due to its endearing origins. It began when co-founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia put up an inflatable mattress in their apartment and offered bed and breakfast to delegates of an industry conference who couldn’t find lodging elsewhere. Sourcing lodgings for rent online was not a new concept, so this story set AirBnB apart and helped it root itself firmly in the minds of consumers worldwide.

Similarly, the tale of why Luis von Ahn co-founded Duolingo helped garner the language website good coverage. It came from his own experience of learning English in his native Guatemala. Recognising that access to education – especially English-language education – was extremely limited, he created the site with the intention of helping anyone anywhere in the world, no matter their socioeconomic status, to learn English for free.

Your client’s backstory might not be quite as strong as these. But most people have some interesting motivation – from a mid-life epiphany to recovering from ill-health – for starting a new business that will make them more memorable to customers.

Internal before external communication

Once you have crafted your client’s story, you may think it is time to start conducting media relations work. However, you need to ensure that your messaging and narratives are aligned internally before you communicate them to the outside world.

Your start-up’s employees are their spokespeople. Thus, its employees – like its customers – need to buy into its mission and values, receive timely and accurate information, and be able to trust the leadership. This may be easy to accomplish in the early stages, but as the start-up expands, you’ll need to focus on upscaling your client’s internal communication strategy.

URX was a small mobile advertising platform founded in 2015. Its CEO, John Milinovich, spearheaded a number of internal communication practices, such as “Contrarian Office Hours” (where all employees could share grievances and offer differing opinions), lunch-and-learn events and a company “Wiki” page that provided FAQs and documentation of all changes to the company’s products.

Owned over earned media

Even with a unique product, a compelling story and happy employees, media relations is an uphill task. Any journalist’s first port of call would be to check out your website and social media presence. So it is critical for PR firms to craft a good content and owned media strategy for their start-up clients.

Agencies can help their start-up clients use their owned media channels (newsletters, website and social media) to the fullest by incorporating the start-up’s story, brand values and messaging around the organisational culture into thought leadership pieces, vlogs, blogs and podcasts. Where possible, these should be centred around trending themes and debates in the industry.

Done well, owned-media content can position the start-up as a pioneer in its industry and its employees as subject-matter experts. This in turn can help the start-up establish itself as a credible source, making it more rewarding for journalists to approach your client for comment in the future.

Go beyond CEO-profiling

Typical PR strategies for start-ups include leadership communication and personal branding for the founder or CEO. But what if your client has multiple founders or already has more than one C-suite executive? Each of those people play a fundamental role in creating and running the start-up and each of them bring a wealth of expertise.

By focusing on branding only one leader, you may lose out on building a relationship with stakeholders and investors who may connect better with another senior figure. Some people  may be more receptive to a certain communication style and may be more appreciative of knowledge in a specific sector that your CEO may not possess.

Having more than one leader trained in communicating your brand’s messages can overcome this challenge and make your start-up’s overall PR strategy more successful. It can also alleviate CEO-burnout and have your start-up perceived as a good mixture of different experiences and perspectives.

Make ESG a part of your client’s business

The August update to Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2021 notes that employees want to work with organisations who are taking a stand on pressing social issues. A McKinsey report noted that Gen-Z and Millennials view consumption as an expression of their identity and thus require their preferred brands to adopt ethical practices. Thus, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles need to be at the core of any start-up’s business today.

PR firms can help start-ups incorporate ESG into their work by using the PESTLE analysis to understand key Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors that may impact the business. With the insights from this research in mind, PR firms need to align the start-up’s brand values and business objectives with stakeholder expectations and sentiments. They should also be ready to proactively address any discrepancies (perceived or real) between the business objectives and stakeholder interests.

It’s okay to draw out the launch

Your client’s product is ready and you cannot wait to show it to the world. Time to go big, right? Hold that thought.

While a big marketing campaign may grab more people’s immediate attention, a smaller one could work better in the long term.

Clubhouse, the audio-based social media application launched in 2020, made ripples because of its “velvet rope” strategy. Up till July 2021, access to Clubhouse was by invitation only, creating a sense of exclusivity and the fear of missing out among users. Clubhouse could have first launched in July 2021 itself, but without this velvet rope strategy, it likely would not have made as much of a splash in a social-media/online- communication-platform-saturated environment.

Even if you are not interested in building hype through exclusivity, it may still be a good idea to roll out your product in small steps. This will give you time to identify and remedy flaws and focus on customer service, both of which are key to your start-up’s growth.

Emphasise the ongoing strategic value of PR to their business

Many leaders and organisations think of PR as simply a service that can generate media interest. But your firm will stand to benefit if you can convince your start-up that PR can also guide business decisions.

Your client firm may have been founded to deliver a specific product catering to a specific audience. However, over time, the start-up’s product may come to be used for different purposes by different audiences than originally intended. In such a case, your firm can use PR to research consumer sentiments so that your client can evaluate their current offering and business strategy.

Even if the product is being delivered and used as intended, PR agencies can use media monitoring tools to analyse consumer satisfaction and discussions on social media. The client can benefit by using these insights to refine their current product or even innovate new ones.

---

Curzon PR is a London-based PR firm working with clients globally. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Business Development Team bd@curzonpr.com