In this day and age, you can’t have a business or a start-up without doing a PR strategy. You are what your audience says you are. And for better or worse, you will be defining yourself based on people’s actions. So, PR is crucial.
The word PR gets thrown around a lot. But are even sure we know what it means? To take away all confusion: Public Relations (PR) refers to strategic communication efforts that you design to influence the public’s view positively—and to make sure they respond to your company.
Depending on who you are trying to attract, the public can mean anyone from customers to investors, to government officials.
So, how does a start-up go about doing PR? A big question; a complicated question. Thus, below, we outline some of the steps you can better grasp on how to begin.
The first thing you do when doing PR: Prepare yourself because you are going to be doing it on your own for a long time. Big companies and organisations can afford to hire professional PR firms to handle communications for them. But, unfortunately, start-ups can’t. With a small budget and limited resources, you will need to build a media relations team and do the leg-work by yourself.
Lucky for you, spreading awareness about your start-up is not as hard as it used to be. With various social media platforms, you can make connections easily. You can get some amount of recognition once you get yourself out there. That is the first step.
To develop a successful PR strategy, it is important for you to send settle on your specific goal or goals. Different objectives require different kinds of engagement. PR is hardly the field where you can use a one-size-fits-all approach. So, ask yourself: What do I want positive PR for? What am I trying to achieve?
Are you, perhaps, trying to attract attention to your product launch? Do you want to draw crowds to your new location? Do you want to encourage more investment? Are you trying to become more visible for hiring purposes?
Once you figure what you want, you can choose the right sources to spread your message through—and who you want to send the messages to, as well.
Before you contact the media and invite journalists to take your photo and interview, you need to develop a one-sentence summary pitch for your business.
The pitch is your story and your selling point. It distils the mission, vision, and details of your company all into one sentence so the media and the people can decide if it is worth their time or not.
1.The purpose of your company
2. The specific group you’re targeting
3. The uniqueness of your product or business.
Once you have all this in place, you’re good to go!
The last step of this particular journey is to contact the media. Don’t be afraid–journalists are always looking for new stories. You might be just what they are looking for! Reach about e-mail, make sure to personalize it, and restrict your pitch 5-7 sentences. Be interesting, and don’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd!
These are the basics of creating your PR strategy. Follow these steps to have a successful experience with PR. Good luck with your start-up!