PCG Blog

You’ve got the company started. You’ve got that initial audience. Your app is getting great reviews. You’ve done some social media ads but now you are wondering how else do you market yourself? Do you do more ads or should you consider PR? Is PR even worth it? When should a startup look at PR?

Public Relations (PR) is the best way to get that media visibility to your startup. PR is all about earned media. It goes beyond an influencer post, or an ad. It is the highest level of third-party validation you can get, which is why most people trust editorial articles over advertisements.

Your story is building from the moment you reach out to your first potential customer. But each of your clients sees and hears only a small picture of you. How do you tell the whole story? How do you get them to listen?

As a startup founder, you are doing a lot of things. Building the product, coordinating teams, acquiring customers, convincing investors. Figuring out where to go. But are you listening to what your audience thinks you are about?

PR allows you to take control of your story.

PR is essentially third-party validation and it is entirely earned. If you see an advertisement anywhere, while it might spike your curiosity, you take time to trust the brand. But a news article is more credible. It creates more curiosity. It is thought leadership.

Starting early helps you establish your brand quicker and gain a stronger foothold in the market.

A startup means you have no history. This could mean getting your story out there could be initially challenging (though an agency can really help here). But this also means you have a clean slate and it is an incredibly exciting and unique opportunity to establish your brand’s reputation from ground zero. If done right, PR can really make a difference and help establish the brand visibility in the media and among its customers.

Think of some of the startups you know. You realise you’ve been hearing them for a while and not just because they secured funding. Many of these successful startups have begun talking early.

But startups can only achieve this if they are clear about what they want the audience to know about the new brand, how it will differentiate itself from existing companies and how it will otherwise add more value than its competitors.

Of course, there are some questions that need to be answered before you can go live (see more here). Once you have these set, begin taking control of your story!